Earl Sweatshirt | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Known for a creatively languid style that has swung lyrically from highly personal alt-rap to morbid horrorcore, Earl Sweatshirt helped launch Odd Future into hip-hop prominence around the turn of the 2010s and has since remained among the most unique rapper/producers. Since making his solo debut with the acclaimed mixtape Earl (2010), he has placed his first two albums, Doris (2013) and the seriously (and descriptively) titled I Dont Like Shit, I Dont Go Outside (2015), in the upper reaches of the Billboard 200 chart. By the time he released his third album, Some Rap Songs (2018), Earl had either produced or appeared on tracks by most of the Odd Future affiliates, including Tyler, The Creator and Frank Ocean, as well as similarly left-field artists such as Danny Brown and Denmark Vessey. Born Thebe Kgositsile in Chicago, Illinois, Earl Sweatshirt was known as Sly Tendencies until 2009, the year the Los Angeles-based rapper and producer was invited by Tyler, The Creator to join Odd Future. In March 2010, at the age of 16, he debuted with Earl, a mixtape that garnered critical acclaim, but he was subsequently sent to a Samoan boarding school by his mother. Upon his 2012 return to L.A., determined to build on the success of the tape, he eased himself back into the scene with a number of collaborations, most notably appearances on Odd Futures The OF Tape, Vol. 2 and Frank Oceans Grammy-winning Channel Orange. Earl ultimately signed a solo deal with Columbia, enabling him to issue material on the major label through the vanity imprint Tan Cressida, and in November 2012 initiated the long-term affiliation with the single "Chum." "Whoa" and "Hive," the former of which became Earls first charting solo track -- peaking on Billboards Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop chart at number 46 -- led to the August 2013 release of Doris. Enhanced with input from numerous OF associates and the likes of the Neptunes, Frank Ocean, and the RZA -- though Earl also produced much of the set -- the album entered the Billboard 200 at number five. Publications ranging from Rolling Stone to The Wire included it in their respective year-end lists of best albums. After a handful of collaborations, Earl returned in March 2015 with I Dont Like Shit, I Dont Go Outside, an album only half-an-hour in length but received as a major follow-up for its artfully insular quality. Earl handled the production on all but one track of the album, a number 12 Billboard 200 hit. Between solo releases, Earl popped up on a handful of tracks, including Danny Browns "Really Doe," and expanded his production discography with a number of one-offs, as well as extensive work with Mach-Hommy and Denmark Vessey. Earl released his third LP for Columbia, Some Rap Songs, in November 2018. The album arrived following the death of his father, South African poet and activist Keorapetse Kgositsile (aka Bra Willie). | ||
 | Album: 1 of 5 Title: Earl Released: 2010-03-03 Tracks: 10 Duration: 25:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 ThisNiggaUgly (01:17) 2 Earl (02:26) 3 Couch (03:15) 4 Kill (02:20) 5 WakeUpFaggot (00:41) 6 Luper (01:59) 7 epaR (03:59) 8 Moonlight (02:04) 9 Pigions (03:33) 10 Stapleton (04:16) |
 | Album: 2 of 5 Title: Doris Released: 2013-08-20 Tracks: 15 Duration: 44:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Pre (02:52) 2 Burgundy (02:07) 3 20 Wave Caps (02:12) 4 Sunday (03:26) 5 Hive (04:37) 6 Chum (04:04) 7 Sasquatch (02:48) 8 Centurion (03:04) 9 523 (01:32) 10 Uncle Al (00:53) 11 Guild (03:54) 12 Molasses (02:16) 13 Whoa (03:16) 14 Hoarse (03:52) 15 Knight (03:14) |
| Doris : Allmusic album Review : With the 2010 drop of his debut mixtape, Earl, rapper Earl Sweatshirt became one of the main reasons the underground rap crew Odd Future went from obscurity to everywhere. Then, Earls mom decided he was an "at risk" kid (not because of his ugly, ugly music, but because he was "getting in trouble"), so off to the Coral Reef Academy in Samoa he went, quickly falling into the category of "more of a legend than rapper" as Odd Future broke out the "Free Earl" T-shirts with no other explanation for his absence. As such, his official debut falls into the category of "highly anticipated," but the real story behind the murky and free-flowing -- almost globular -- Doris is that the morbid horror-show rapper heard previously has grown into an observational maverick-style artist, offering downtrodden and even dour rhymes that come off like MF Doom recounting his visit to the Grand Guignol. Swaying slowly with Tibetan monk vocals in the distance, the ghostly "Hive" with Vince Staples and Casey Veggies offers the vivid "Come around we gun em down/Bodies... piled... Auschwitz," while the Tyler, the Creator feature "Whoa" kicks off with the Odd Future leader declaring "This aint no 2010 sh*t," which Earl proves by dropping crooked rhymes about pot ("Steaming tubes of poop and twisted doobies full of euphemisms") and Harry Potter ("Bruising gimmicks with the broom he usually use for Quidditch"). MF Doom fans will be familiar with the style, and while the rumored Doom collaboration does not wind up on the final Doris, another obvious influence, RZA, is here, appearing on the aptly titled "Molasses," a slow, rich mix of Wu-Tang and Wolf Gang flavors. Mac Millers recent embrace of the underground pays dividends during the bent and broken "Guild," while Frank Ocean influences Earl to sing his own blues on the great "Sunday" ("Nightmares got more vivid when I stopped smoking pot/And lovin yous a little different, I dont like you a lot"). Underneath all this mumbled madness are some truly wonderful sounds -- much of it made by Earl under his alias randomblackguy -- as "Chum" runs like an underground indie suite of excellent ideas while "Centurion" twists a Krautrock and Can sample into something thug and stately. All that said, Doris is unsettled, messy, and takes a bit to sort, but there are codes to crack and rich rewards to reap, so enter with an open mind and prepare to leave exhausted. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 5 Title: I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt Released: 2015-03-25 Tracks: 10 Duration: 29:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Huey (01:52) 2 Mantra (03:48) 3 Faucet (03:07) 4 Grief (04:10) 5 Off Top (01:46) 6 Grown Ups (02:57) 7 AM // Radio (04:02) 8 Inside (01:49) 9 DNA (03:52) 10 Wool (02:33) |
 | Album: 4 of 5 Title: Solace Released: 2015-04-28 Tracks: 1 Duration: 10:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Solace (10:00) |
 | Album: 5 of 5 Title: Some Rap Songs Released: 2018-11-30 Tracks: 15 Duration: 24:39 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples AlbumCover | 1 Shattered Dreams (02:21) 2 Red Water (01:44) 3 Cold Summers (01:06) 4 Nowhere2go (01:53) 5 December 24 (01:46) 6 Ontheway! (01:41) 7 The Mint (02:45) 8 The Bends (01:34) 9 Loosie (00:59) 10 Azucar (01:25) 11 Eclipse (01:33) 12 Veins (01:59) 13 Playing Possum (01:34) 14 Peanut (01:13) 15 Riot! (01:06) |