Ab-Soul is a lyrical genius, but when it came time to break down the inspiration for “Huey Knew,”, Soulo gave all the praise to his producer.

“I have to give the majority of the credit to Willie B,” Ab tells Genius. “When I heard that record I just blacked out. I just tried to capture what I think he was trying to convey at the same time. It was real reminiscent of ‘Terrorist Threats.’ It reminded me of a riot, 1969 type shit.”

The song is his first solo release since 2014 and its title is a reference to the the late Huey Newton, the political activist who co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966. “I should’ve called it ‘Huey Knew Then’ and it would’ve phonetically sounded more like Huey Newton,” the Black Hippy MC says. “I might call it that for the album, I don’t know.”

The track’s eerie piano and frantic pace inspired Soul to blackout and go all out lyrically with free-associative lines like:

I hope I’m in Obama’s iPod

Yeah, ‘fore I had a desktop

Was looking for a shortcut to be an icon

Still, there was an underlining theme and with the upcoming U.S. presidential election, Black Lives Matter, police brutality and other turmoil in the news, the politics and social unrest were just to hard to ignore. So he also spits:

Still in pursuit of happiness in the midst of the madness

With middle fingers to bitches with badges that go oink

“Blackout was too simple of a title, so the first face that came to my mind was Huey,” he explained. “Not even looking at it from a racial standpoint, but just looking at an awareness from society in general. All this stuff about the gun laws and the police, it’s very reminiscent of that time. I just wanted to use this hip-hop to show that we have our eyes and ears open.”

You can read all the lyrics to “Huey Knew” and more of his verified annotations on Genius.