“STILL” is a piano-led single by Joey Bada$$ featuring Ab-Soul and Rapsody, produced by Statik Selektah, released 25 Aug 2025 with a Lew Good–directed video, ahead of Lonely At The Top on 29 Aug.
A spare, minor-key piano figure holds the floor while the bass sits low, almost under the skin. Joey starts over keys alone; halfway through the first verse, the kit locks in and the pace tightens.
That entry point is the trick; Statik Selektah builds tension first, then lets the drums snap the cadence into place.
You can hear the snare click clean and Joey’s breath riding up front because the mix leaves space rather than gloss.
Joey’s opener is patience over panic. He shrugs at missed chances, trusts timing, and threads a neat run of lineage cues: a sidelong “throne” nod, a Nas wink (“It Was Written”), Stevie Wonder folded into “Superstition” and “Songs in the Key of Life.”
There’s even a tiny ad-lib after “palms itching” that plays like a tactile itch, one of those blink-and-you-miss-it touches you only catch because the vocal sits so clear.
The theme is self-command. The delivery is unhurried, measured, sermon-adjacent.
Rapsody doesn’t chase a 16; she centres the record with a sung refrain that reads like a promise to hold firm.
Short, steady lines, part spoken, part sung, laid across those tough drums to keep the temperature right.
It’s the line that turns the cut from sparring to resolve and keeps the message front-facing.
Joey’s second verse leans into duty: protect and provide, know when to use power, keep your hands off harm, keep your head.
He frames masculinity as restraint and presence rather than noise, and he drops the quiet MJ mirror cue to underline accountability.
It plays like a father’s verse, purposefully plain, built to last longer than the news cycle.
Ab-Soul closes with the knotty flourish: internal chains on advantage/vantage/canon/adversaries, the “fifth horseman”spike past Revelation, Impala hydraulics you can actually hear as a button press in the track, a Wheel of Fortune pivot, and the neat “Mission: Impossible / probable cause” click.
He signs off by naming his daughters; the bar where the myth turns back into responsibility. It’s dense without tripping the groove.
Lew Good’s video keeps it clean: performance shots, muted tones, confident cutting.
The imagery nods to The Godfather, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” three-face silhouette, and the Death Row Records Vibe cover, then eases into a shared shot of the trio lounging in a convertible for the outro.
No visual stunts, just presence and light, and it matches how the record carries itself.
Listener reaction splits along a simple line: plenty of praise for Ab-Soul’s closer and for how the sung hook grounds the record; a smaller camp calls the beat too plain and wishes Rapsody had a full verse.
That tension tracks with what the song is designed to do, and lets writing and delivery take the lead and keep the production disciplined.
“STILL” is message-first boom-bap: a restrained piano loop, drums that enter mid-stride, and a mix that leaves air for cadence and emphasis.
Joey plays chaplain, not show-off; Rapsody’s sung refrain shifts the record from score-settling to affirmation; Ab-Soul detonates the closer with dense symbolism and internal rhyme chains.
If you want maximalist production, this will feel spartan; if you want clear intent from three technicians, it sticks.
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