By: Michael Bayliss
If I'm being honest I haven't always been the biggest fan of Tyler the Creator and the hip/hop collective Odd Future, comprising of his California crew of Skaters/ Rappers. But the one thing that I believe Tyler the Creator has done right is discover the former teenager turned adult messiah of hip/hop, Earl Sweatshirt. He's the only member of Odd Future to me that stands out, besides all of them being incredibly different in their own ways, his solo albums are on another level compared to the group efforts of OF and stray away from the relentless talk about weed and skateboarding the group seemed to provide with a lot of their tracks.
If I'm being honest I haven't always been the biggest fan of Tyler the Creator and the hip/hop collective Odd Future, comprising of his California crew of Skaters/ Rappers. But the one thing that I believe Tyler the Creator has done right is discover the former teenager turned adult messiah of hip/hop, Earl Sweatshirt. He's the only member of Odd Future to me that stands out, besides all of them being incredibly different in their own ways, his solo albums are on another level compared to the group efforts of OF and stray away from the relentless talk about weed and skateboarding the group seemed to provide with a lot of their tracks.
The thing about Earl is that he's real, he's not afraid to stand out just for the sake of standing out but actually be his own person and give his listeners a look inside the mind of what should a more predominantly featured rapper.
The differences between his first studio album "Doris" and his second "I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside" isn't just in the beats and samples Earl uses but also because it's him, just him (except the one produced by Left Brain but lets be real it's Left Brain). He produced it all himself and made an album that truly represents who he is as an artist. Something that lacks when it comes to the major labels of this genre of music. In one of his recent interviews on NPR, yes you read that right N-P- FUCKING-R, he said this felt like his first studio album because it was all his effort.
Tracks like "Grief" and "Mantra" stand out because they sound like classic Earl but feel like new because of the slow kicks and the rapid fire realness this man is spitting out. It's smooth and choppy at the same time as each track flow in and out of each other like a quick release into another part of the deep recesses of Earl's mind.
The album is amazing and needs to be listened to as soon as you can, it's raw, gritty and makes you wanna be inside all day so you don't have to deal with the shit the world comes at you with. Earl is no longer the angsty teen that Tyler the Creator discovered on MySpace in Cali, but a stand alone product who can write, produce and if he continues on the track he's on become one of the modern greats in not just west coast rap but the entire game.
The differences between his first studio album "Doris" and his second "I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside" isn't just in the beats and samples Earl uses but also because it's him, just him (except the one produced by Left Brain but lets be real it's Left Brain). He produced it all himself and made an album that truly represents who he is as an artist. Something that lacks when it comes to the major labels of this genre of music. In one of his recent interviews on NPR, yes you read that right N-P- FUCKING-R, he said this felt like his first studio album because it was all his effort.
Tracks like "Grief" and "Mantra" stand out because they sound like classic Earl but feel like new because of the slow kicks and the rapid fire realness this man is spitting out. It's smooth and choppy at the same time as each track flow in and out of each other like a quick release into another part of the deep recesses of Earl's mind.
The album is amazing and needs to be listened to as soon as you can, it's raw, gritty and makes you wanna be inside all day so you don't have to deal with the shit the world comes at you with. Earl is no longer the angsty teen that Tyler the Creator discovered on MySpace in Cali, but a stand alone product who can write, produce and if he continues on the track he's on become one of the modern greats in not just west coast rap but the entire game.