Review Summary: So what you're telling me is, Odd Future ISN'T a vintage science fiction magazine?
Comment about how much hype Odd Future have received > Talk about Tyler the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt > Compare to Eminem > Talk about Earl’s skill > Talk about album > Comment about how messed up this music is > Comment about how messed up this music’s cover art is > SWAG!SWAG!SWAG!SWAG!SWAG!
(Crowd goes wild)
So. Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. Since you’re here, you know about them. You probably also have a working knowledge of Earl Sweatshirt – this guy who dropped a mixtape and then disappeared.
I’ll skip discussing how Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt are the most famed members of OF (bar Frank Ocean perhaps), and I’ll get right to the tape itself. This stuff is not amazing, it is not avant-garde, the stuff it does has been done before, and personally shock rap gets old quickly to me.
So why is there a red 3.5 slapped across the top of this review? It’s because Earl’s star and namesake is probably a prodigy. This short offering, less than a half hour of material including two interludes, presents a young rapper to be excited about. While other, lesser, OF members mumble and stumble their way through their lines, Earl cruises through his with superb flow and delivery.
The lyrics that roll off his big, ugly lips (not my words) are your basic rape-murder-and-controversy,oh-my! reminiscent of Eminem’s benchmark
Slim Shady LP. Earl mentions the guy himself, and clearly Eminem has had a huge effect on the formation of not just Earl but all of Odd Future. Earl namedrops his idol on the track ‘epaR’, which you should probably read backwards if you haven’t already.
Production, mostly Tyler’s work, is very good in general. It stands out particularly on ‘Luper’, where a bouncy piano loop is the foundation for Earl’s heartbreaking breakup story (that phrase was not sarcastic at all). The guests add to the album overall, and Earl holds his own with all of them.
Let’s not forget, folks, that Earl was sixteen when
Earl dropped. I’m around that age myself and so will not judge. He’s got a long way to go lyrically, but he’ll get there.
That cover art is one of my favourites of the year 2010, by the way.
I was advised by an Odd Future aficionado to ease up on the dreaded ‘S’ word. But allow me to write this lovely, self-indulgent sentence before I finish: Swag, swag, swaggity swaggity swag.
Colour: Neon Yellow
Choice Lyric: She said "You rushing, you rabid son of a Labrador”/But I'm attracted to you like teenyboppers to Apple stores
