Album Review: Some Rap Songs by Earl Sweatshirt
Photo courtesy of Tan Cressida / Columbia
Earl Sweatshirt
Some Rap Songs
Tan Cressida / Columbia
Score: A
For the man born Thebe Kgotsitsile (though better known as Earl Sweatshirt), the crown for top hip-hop lyricist has never not been within grasp.
An alumni of the same Odd Future masthead that’s skyrocketed Tyler, the Creator and pop culture crooner Frank Ocean to the limelight, Earl’s hype as the foil to the mumble-rappers — one keen on dense multisyllabic bars and low-key jazz-beats — is solidified on his latest album Some Rap Songs.
In 25 minutes, Sweatshirt breezes through 15 tracks with, seemingly, nothing more than a shrugged shoulder and a slick word.
There’s no need for gimmicks here either. It’s a lean cut of hip-hop that would make the often-compared mastermind MF DOOM pay homage.
Similarly, on Some Rap Songs, Sweatshirt-as-lyrical-prodigy slinks even further back into the skate-park -image, championed by others in the former-Ladera, CA brood.
It’s the antithesis of gaudy; an album produced with thoughts of both greatness and timelessness at the forefront of Sweatshirt’s peerless mind.
– Alec Warkentin
