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Earl Sweatshirt

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Earl Sweatshirt


Earl Sweatshirt

A provocateur with a dry wit and an outrageously dexterous gift for wordplay, Earl Sweatshirt is one of the most consistently great and ever-promising rappers of the new school; a clear inheritor of Eminem’s macabre humor and Lil Wayne’s dyspeptic logorrhea, he’s a savvy, schooled rapper: gross, entrancing and thrilling. When Odd Future tumbled out of L.A. in 2010, the skilled-beyond-his-years Earl Sweatshirt tipped them into the spotlight, but just as the collective took off he vanished. He was sent to Coral Reef Academy, a therapeutic retreat for at-risk boys. Anyone who has seen the video for “Earl” would understand why Earl’s mother was a bit concerned and sent him there. In a band as magnanimous as Odd Future (Tyler, Syd, Frank, come-on- what a fuckin’ group) it was hard for Earl to shine. So after two albums with Odd and the unofficial break-up of the band Earl went solo. To date, Earl has released five solo albums: his debut mixtape, 2010’s darkly determined Earl. Three years later and back from exile he gave us his major label [Columbia Records] debut with 2013’s Doris. . It was followed in 2015 by I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. Earl Sweatshirt has retained the cult status and mystifying mystique that got him started, casting an acerbic but witty eye on contemporary life. His music reached new levels of abstraction on his 2018 comeback, Some Rap Songs, which blurred the line between avant-garde jazz and hip-hop to examine a rash of recent losses in his life. If George Harrison is the quiet Beatle, then Earl is the quiet Odd Future member. Earl had a mystic aurora around him that continues to this day. He’s as original as they come. Other than his amazing solo albums, he also has appeared on multiple Tyler the Creator’s solo albums. In short: he’s the fuckin’ man. Relatable. Rhymer. Realist. Earl has a distinct flow like no one else. The dude is younger than me but by the analysis of his rhymes, he’s lived multiple more lives than I have. The dude is so popular and recognizable that he’s even got Eminem wrapping about him (“Get Earl, the hooded sweater, whatever his name is” [lyrics from Eminem’s “Fall”]). In early 2019 he released a short film, Nowhere Nobody and in late 2019, Earl released the Feet of Clay E.P., which he produced largely by himself, so yeah- not just an amazing lyricist and rapper but producer as well! Just like George. 
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Earl Sweatshirt

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