Earl Sweatshirt is productively lazy. An oxymoron in verbiage, but think about it; his newest album is called Some Rap Songs, the mix on this single is shotty at best, and we haven’t heard from Thebe in almost 3 years. But why am I still bumping this track? I took a class on Avant-Garde film my senior year of college and I hated most everything that we watched. It took me mad amount of hours to understand what the hell a director like Andy Warhol was trying to prove or allude to in his films. “Eat” (1963) is a film that just shows homeboy eating a mushroom for 45 minutes. My nigga, no one got time for that. Near the end of the quarter, all of the discussions I had with my virtuosic professor were making more and more sense, as it led me to juxtaposing other art mediums with Avant-Garde film—music, in particular. Is there an “Avant-Garde” sub-genre in hip-hop? Sure I can think of 7 artists that fit the bill seamlessly, but like is there an established category for such? If so, Earl Sweatshirt is the current leader. “Nowhere2go” was the track that broke Earl's silence; a whimsical single that dropped on a cold, November afternoon. My first crack at listening was filled with disbelief, mixed with appreciation. I fiddled with my volume and EQ channels, confused if my Spotify settings weren’t functioning properly. Twit-hop fans (hip-hop nerds on Twitter (don’t steal this, I made it)) were quick to bash the Odd-Future alum’s effort—the mixing in particular. As I hit replay 9 times, I started remembering how wordy/sinister/unorthodox Earl’s discography is and how relevant all those elements are in this song. Produced by the rapper’s close com-pats Booliemane and Ade Hakim, the chopped samples and instrumentation matches the screwed perspective of Earl. Dealing with depression and the hermit life he committed to, he starts to understand the impatience behind budding artists and fame, but also how to cope with the culture's standards. His catapult to fame was overwhelming for the 24 year old, but he's dealing with the highs and lows; if anything, this is him spreading awareness to the next batch of kids about to film a viral video to their self-titled song. Trippiness: 7.9/10 Introspection: 8.1/10 Productive Laziness: 9.999/10
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