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Doris didn’t fall out of the sky. Since the release of “Home,” Earl Sweatshirt‘s first official song since being spirited away during the heyday of Odd Future‘s exciting ascent , Doris has been anxiously anticipated, almost annoyingly so. Part of the anxiety was the lack of an apparent lens through which to anticipate exactly how the album would sound. Earl‘s voice was deeper, his flow had become more dense and his content was no longer shockingly appalling . Moreover, despite Earl‘s presence on stages, on notable features and in a very limited number of interviews, Earl didn’t seem to be actively directing how we should receive him. Unsurprisingly, because patience and understanding are no longer acceptable forms of behavior, this anxiety gradually morphed into doubt and ridicule. People began to claim that Earl had no future. Earl eventually responded to this ridicule, sardonically mocking his detractors.

This nigga earl fell off bruh. This nigga boof.

— Earl Sweatshirt (@earlxsweat) July 21, 2012

This response was then followed by an explicit declaration a month later.

I hope i lose you as a fan if you only fuck with me cause i rapped about raping girls when i was 15.

— Earl Sweatshirt (@earlxsweat) August 12, 2012

In this tweet, Earl essentially provides a lens through which to view his new music: “I am not Earl.” Months later, the world received “Chum” another explicit declaration about the direction of his music. Then, as the months rolled by, these declarations increased, reaching us via performances, verses, music videos and “confessions.” There’s no need to intricately detail the ways in which Earl led us down the road to Doris, or to pretend that the journey and the music are equivalent, but one stop along the road is particularly useful for understanding exactly what Doris is (and what it does).

This special moment came less than a week ago, via Williams Street in Atlanta, Georgia, home of Adult Swim. Backed by Thundercat‘s careful bass and sandwiched between Captain Murphy (Flying Lotus) and Viktor Vaughn (MF DOOM), Earl is right at home. And it’s not because these three are the “3 Kings” of dark humor and internal rhymes or because DOOM is one of Earl’s biggest influences. Earl fits in here because, like DOOM and Captain Murphy, the line between his alter-ego (Earl Sweatshirt) and himself (Thebe) is blurred, possibly nonexistent. Thus, his explorations of villainy take an interesting turn. He is literally between villains: his mischievous, relationship, damaging self and his witty rap persona, both of which are guilty of regrettable actions. When he removes his mask (sweatshirt?) at the end of the day, there’s another one underneath, ad infinitum.

Doris takes this perpetual oscillation and gives it life, burying the listener between this ongoing inner battle via blindsides from both directions. The album begins with “Pre,” a song that has a vintage Odd Future sound (dark, scratchy, echoing synths), yet features none of its members (besides Earl). Earl and unexpected feature artist SK La’ Flare make dark boasts involving pickaxes and other sharp objects while producer Michael Uzowuru envelops us in evil. Then, on “Burgundy” this macabre momentum is stifled as Earl juxtaposes damning thoughts about his poor prioritizing with an enlivening  and cheerful Neptunes beat. Notably, Vince Staples snidely mimics Earl‘s fans, who prioritize new music over Earl‘s well-being. This switch-up between Earl the rapper and Thebe the person occurs again between “20 Wave Caps” and “Sunday.” On these tracks, similar to the organ driving the two songs’ instrumentals, Earl himself anchors the tracks despite their different directions.

The oscillation becomes less pronounced as Doris continues, but that seems to be the point. As Earl and Thebe melt into each other, another protagonist emerges: randomblackdude. randomblackdude is ostensibly Earl‘s producer alias, but “RBD” is more than just another moniker. “RBD” has production credits for nearly half the album and manages to maintain the album’s atmosphere even in the absence of vocals (See “523”). Furthermore, as a name, “randomblackdude” perfectly captures Earl’s life: he is an unexpectedly talented guy who attempts to be treated normally by nominally downplaying his talents all while showcasing them. That’s a whopper of a sentence and a whopper of a situation, but throughout Doris Earl treads this ground with sly aplomb, mining words and sounds for unseen treasures while casually delivering these gems with a calculated air of indifference. In other words, Earl is excited by wordplay and sound experimentation, but he doesn’t feel forced to embody this excitement himself; he leaves his creations to their own devices, content with their meticulous design.

For some listeners, this lackadaisical, hands off approach is stultifying; it indicates a lack of passion. They ask how they’re supposed to engage with a work that has, “I’ll fuck the freckles off your face, bitch” (“Molasses”) as its most memorable hook. They wonder how to get excited by the music of an artist who looks ambivalent about being on Jimmy Fallon, playing with living legends, The Roots. They look to the sky and wonder where the hell this album came from.

This album comes from the mind of a villain with no interest in either heroics or villainy. His motive is simply to tell his story and his means is through guttural, word-warping, ear-pinching rap music. The result is variably oblique, opaque, offensive and off-putting, but on the whole, it’s enriching. This is what music can be when we let the villains remain at large.

Further reading.

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Odd Future’s most hyped artist will finally deliver his follow up to 2010’s acclaimed and reviled EARL. Earl Sweatshirt took to Twitter moments ago to reveal that the album would arrive on August 20. You can also view the cover art for the album up top. Furthermore, we now have the tracklist, which you can view below. We hope you are as excited as we are.

The post News: Earl Sweatshirt Reveals “Doris” Album Cover, Release Date and Tracklisting appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Photo by Sagan Lockhart

When Earl Sweatshirt returned form Samoa, the hip-hop community accepted him with open arms. As the young emcee has gotten back into the swing of things by making and releasing new music, some of those arms have started to take up arms, frequently firing shots at Earl for his alleged fall from grace. In true Odd Future fashion, Earl eventually took to the internet and responded with a sardonic tweet:

This nigga earl fell off bruh. This nigga boof.

— Earl Sweatshirt (@earlxsweat) July 21, 2012

It seems silly to debate whether or not Earl has fallen off– whatever that really even means. After all, he’s only released one song (“Home“). Other than that, all he has released is guest verses. Yet for some reason, Earl’s detractors see those verses as evidence of an imminent decline. Because these detractors can’t seem to shut up on their own, it’s time for an intervention.

First, it’s important to remember that Earl rose to prominence when he was not currently making music, kind of like an artist becoming popular after death or incarceration. Because Earl was neither making music nor able to talk about the music he made, the existing music and everything it embodied eclipsed him. In other words, because Earl was the dominant image of Earl and that image had nothing standing beside it, in fans’ minds, Earl is Earl. That image of Earl stands at odds with his experiences in Samoa and with Earl’s plans for the future. As expressed in Jon Caramanica’s article and more recent tweets Earl is done with Earl.

I hope i lose you as a fan if you only fuck with me cause i rapped about raping girls when i was 15.

— Earl Sweatshirt (@earlxsweat) August 12, 2012

That being said, the accusations being leveled against Earl aren’t necessarily about his content. According to the murmurs, post-Samoa Earl just isn’t as technically proficient as Earl. That doesn’t hold up. “Home,” Earl’s aptly named first released song upon his return, makes this apparent: “Mouth deliver poop, it’s spouting mucus from its stupid tongue/Alpha male, got the chickens looser than his cruising trucks/Losers get a Kuma Punch, I’m moving like a puma’s lunch.” The internal rhymes, the brash, impudent lyrics and the stunted delivery  that Earl is known for are all there. The only noticeable difference is a deeper voice and less undulation in Earl’s tone, products of physical maturation. In Syd the Kyd’s own words, Earl’s matured, but he hasn’t changed.

On his guest verses, Earl is just as vibrant as he is on “Home.” Domo Genesis’ “Elimination Chamber” and Frank Ocean’s “Super Rich Kids” feature an Earl that fits right in with the tone and concepts of the songs. Perhaps that’s the issue. While Earl was away, he stood out. Youthful, rebellious and absent in person, yet present in the music– the Earl we get on Earl is an iconoclast, an anomaly and an enigma. Now that he’s back, his tweets, his guest verses and video appearances constantly remind us that he is just like any other rapper. Put simply, now that Earl’s mystique is gone, the man himself stands in its wake.

In the end, the murmurs of a sophomore slump are nonsense. Earl hasn’t even started his next semester yet. So far, all he’s done is summer coursework. For fans who have always been more enthralled by the music than by the mystique, the former has been and will be the determining factor for any evaluations of Earl’s status. For those who are still in love with the mystique, that’s fine, but your relationship is a lie.

The post disRESPECT. To All The Earl Haters: He Hasn’t Fallen Off, Your Relationship Was Just A Lie appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Who knows if this is another stunt by Tyler, The Creator, but we can all dream. The most talented MC of his age was reportedly back last week, but this time there’s evidence to suggest it’s real: a new Twitter page and a Youtube video.

His new Twitter, as of now, only boasts three tweets, the first one being:

A Youtube video promises some new music with 50,000 followers.

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Have the marketing whizzes behind Tyler, the Creator created a mysterious website with a timer ticking down to July 1st?  Speculation is that the website has something to do with missing member Earl Sweatshirt, who is allegedly confined in a “therapeutic center” in Samoa.  Tyler and his management, however, are denying that the website is affiliated.

Last week, Fucktyler.com sent fans at the official Odd Future message board into a frenzy of investigation, and they’ve quickly discovered some fascinating clues: FuckYourChair‘s Twitter account, hidden MP3s spontaneously added to the source code, images from “The College Dropout,” and cryptic proverbs, to name a few.  But the most interesting find has been a shadowy superimposition over a photograph of onion rings.  The wonders of PhotoShop reveal this image:

The face in the image is that of John Montagu.  Never heard of him?  He’s the 4th Earl of Sandwich.

Is the timer ticking down to Earl’s release?

EDIT: Despite the denial from Odd Future’s manager and Tyler himself, a look into the website’s domain profile suggests an association with Odd Future.  Buffalo-bill.net, a “Goblin” promo website that was snuck into 2DopeBoyz and NahRight’s advertising spots, shares the same DreamHost registration as does Fucktyler.com.  What’s more, the “Goblin” animation on Buffalo-bill.net is hosted by yet another website registered with DreamHost, BeggarsPromo.com.  Enter BeggarsPromo.com in your browser and you’ll be redirected to the website of British record company Beggars–which happens to own XL Recordings, which is producing “Goblin.”

The most conservative hypothesis: Beggars’ promotion branch probably registers its websites privately with DreamHost so they are able to pull of viral marketing like this.

EDIT #2: Confirmed troll!

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The hip-hop world is asking, “Where is Earl?”  But the question of who is Earl, A.K.A. Thebe, is a lot more fruitful.  Check his first blog right here, back when he was known as Sly.  He writes intimately–about his creative process, posts pictures of slit wrists, mentions that his mother is gay, etc.:

I’m Sly. I’m fifteen. I like to write music…

Little Basic Info: I’ve been writing for a bit, and i’ve been spitting since like the sixth grade. I sucked ass until about seven months ago, when I hit an epiphany.. I’m not quite sure exactly what it was, but it was for the better. I rap. The majority of my beats come from Loofy, who happens to be my best friend. I made my first ever recorded song with him called wattstax at his house in cramped computer room with our friends mic in about 45 minutes. Gutter.

I’m a part of the Backpackerz.. who are a couple of adoloscents with goals and shit. We are the weird motherfuckers who you hate because their style is awkward and their music is different and they don’t have the same faggy cookie cutter that you use to get dressed in the morning with. We are planning to drop a mixtape by the time school lets out in June, to defecate on the summer with.

I’m not a happy person. I don’t like alot of people. But people say i’m funny, so go figure. My mom is lesbian. I don’t know why I included that. I plan to drop a mixtape sometime in the near future…Kitchen Cutlery V1..

I have alot of big dreams that I hope can take me places. I want to move out of my house as soon as possible and escape these damn walls. I want to make an imprint on the rap scene, which i will, because i have charisma out of my asshole. if you don’t think so, fuck you and take a lap.

Feast.

And later…

I feel like..
every new verse I write progresses.
A while ago, my friends’ older sister listened to the tracks that are on my music page, and was disappointed with me. Not with my skill or lack of talent or whatever.. But because of the content.. And i realized how much that disturbed me. There’s people out here like Brandun Deshay who’s flow and wordplay is dope without a whole bunch of unneccessary shit. So lately, I’ve been making a conscious effort to make the stuff that i write more creative, and sophisticated in a way. I think that when I get writers block.. My content gets more and more simplistic, but when i let go of whatever block i’ve clamped on my imagination, my music gets doper. When music is all blah blah shit fuck dick doint ass pussy blah blah, it makes you seem more retarded.. and I don’t want that. SO! As soon as this nigga Matt hooks some studio time up, expect a slightly altered version of the sly you’re listening to on myspace.

This all gives a bit of credibility to the alleged story behind his initial friendship with Tyler back in 2008.  Supposedly, Earl was a huge fan of Tyler’s who messaged him on MySpace until granted the opportunity to appear on “AssMilk.”  The same source writes that the duo as well as Taco were involved in an incident with the police around March 2010 which prompted Earl’s mom to send him off to boarding school.  Neither this nor the following screenshot is confirmed to be authentic, but the writing sounds similar to that on Earl’s blog:

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