YouTube Playlist: AR-AB (45 Videos)

AR-AB Bio/AR-AB’s Career
Real-life Philadelphia gangster turned rapper AR-AB (nee’ Abdul West) is the man who protected Philadelphia rapper Cassidy from 2005 to 2007. Working as a bodyguard/hired gun for Cassidy he was involved in the shooting death of Cassidy’s former friend Desmond Hawkins. AR-AB has spent most of his adult life behind bars and is one of the most feared men in North Philadelphia.

Early Career
At 17, he quit his mundane job and began selling crack cocaine as well as maintained a drug house. Over the years, AR-Ab had many run-ins with law. In several video interviews, he admitted to participating in drug dealing, extortion, and the frequent use of violence.

Career
But in 2005, AR-Ab quit selling drugs to pursue a rap career when he was hired as a bodyguard by "I'm A Hustla" rapper Cassidy. According AR-AB, Cassidy’s former friend Desmond Hawkins was trying to extort money from him. On April 15, 2005, Hawkins along with Bobby Hoyle and another man, Daniel Irvin had gone to Cassidy's home in the West Oak Lane neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia to settle a score. While sitting in a van that was parked in an alleyway behind Cassidy's home in Philadelphia's Hackensack neighborhood three men, including AR-Ab, armed with .45 caliber handguns, .40 caliber handguns and 9MM caliber handguns, and an AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle, fired on Desmond Hawkins, Bobby Hoyle, and Daniel Irvin. Hawkins was shot in the back.

During his short stint as a member of Cassidy's Larsiny Family, AR-AB appeared as a featured artist on many of Cassidy’s mixtapes throughout 2007, especially 07-07-07 (Happy Birthday) and Put Ya L In The Sky.

He continued on his mixtape grind and in 2008 he released his debut mixtape Welcome to Trap Streeton online mixtape distribution platform DatPiff. In 2009, he released his second mixtape entitled I See Dead People on DatPiff and in 2010 he follwed it up with his third mixtape Allegheny AB.

Ab began building a buzz directly after the release of his fourth mixtape Who Harder Than Me in 2011. A sequel, Who Harder Than Me II, was released in 2012.The street album featured guest appearances from fellow Philadelphia rapper Freeway and rapper/producer Swizz Beatz.

The resulting year AR-AB released his sixth mixtape Mud Musik in 2013 and in 2015 he released the follow up, Mud Musik II.

Discography
Welcome to Trapstreet (2008)
I See Dead People (2009)
Allegheny AB (2010)
Who Harder Than Me (2011)
Who Harder than Me II (2012)
Mud Musik (2013)
Mud Musik II (2015)

Follow Ar-Ab on Twitter and Instagram @AssaultRifleAb
Twitter: https://twitter.com/assaultrifleab
Instagram: https://instagram.com/ar_ab_32