OnSome Rap Songshe finds new ways to be himself.
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Time and counseling sanded Earls rough edges.
An undercurrent of loss and pain trails all of his creative breakthroughs.
Music is a space for Earl to vent about his troubles.
When hes away, its Thebe mustering the spiritual and creative juice to be Earl again.
When hes Earl, he is a conduit for fans at shows, on records, and online.
Earl might not seem constantly present, but that doesnt mean he isnt lurking.
Its a mistake to believe that any one snapshot of a persons interests captures them fully, though.
3, this weeksSome Rap Songs.
SRSbridges generations of whip-smart cold-weather hip-hop.
Lyrically, this is Earl Sweatshirt at his most optimistic.
Work on the new music began not long after the last album.
What had initially been planned as a few weeks in South Africa with family became a few months.
As a poets son, Earl is serious about the stewardship of the oral tradition.
Rappers are descendants of the African griots, Sweatshirt reasons.
I only get better with time, he promises in Azucar.
Whereve you been this year?Ive pretty much been at home.
Most of the winter, then?I came back in like mid-February.
It was a good chunk of it.
When did you start working on it?I started working on it immediately afterI Dont Like Shit.
I mean, really, thats when I started trying to make another collection of shit, I guess.
Id say I first touched ground, like, December 2016.
Thats when I really did the first one that I was like, Yeah.
Who did you end up working with?It was just people that I was around.
The first one that I did was December 24th.
It was a beat that Denmark gave me.
Denmark Vessey?Yeah.
Hes just a prolific dude, a big brain thats been inspiring me since I heard the dude.
Then I got beats from my friends, my brothers … Sage [Elsesser].
Thats who I really spent most of my time and shared space with.
Navy Blues on that album.
Hes on The Mint, and he did the beat for The Bends.
Just, like, too versatile a person, musically.
The rest of it …
I did a bunch of production.
Did you pay attention to any of the response to Nowhere2Go?I didnt.
I paid more attention to what people were saying on my social shit.
I didnt read so much because, honestly …
I feel guilty holding the album.
I need people to listen to the whole thing.
I feel like thats the shit.
If I read anything, will be responses to the whole thing.
Youre really calling itSome Rap Songs?Yes, sir.
How did you arrive at that title?Just the concept of brevity.
People take a lot of liberties, I feel like.
Incomplete shit is really stressful to me, and the concept of unsimplified fractions is really stressful to me.
Its a bit of a detour for you.
I feel like there are going to be people who hear it expecting polish, who wont get it.Yeah.
Im anticipating that a little bit, but I hope what people take away is …
I guess just brevity.
Im always trying to whittle this shit down …
I have to be really thoughtful of what Im doing.
Im aware of the fact that [Some Rap Songs] is kind of a hissing thing.
Theres a lot of technical imperfections.
I really dedicate a lot of myself to not over-rapping.
It makes me think about Dilla.
He didnt program so cleanly.
Its not for the sake of exclusivity.
Yeah, its more human.
Sometimes it takes people more time to get into that human bag.
I go off what would make me soar in my room by myself as a child.
And its often more complex than what youll do sitting there taking yourself seriously as some smart adult.
Just, like, some fucking technical wizard or scientist, you know what I mean?
It looks back to the experience of people just talking over drums.
But its a wavy line, not a linear, staccato thing.
I can get swept up in other peoples shit.
Im really an energy-sensitive person.
So, the new shit is always, like … very liberating for me.
Its closer to real time.
Im just more present and not, like, rapping my way through some time.
Talk to me about feeling disconnected from your older raps.
Is it difficult to perform stuff that you made when you were in an angrier place?Yeah.
Some of the stuff.
I mean, Im 24, bro.
The shit that Im performing spans from when I was 18 to now.
You say you noticed the difference, how I wrote more technically?
Ive had to relearn some of these tongue twisters that I left for myself.
I dont have hits to fall back on.
I got to go into, like, a personal bag.
So, I only rely on meaning what I say.
How do you feel like youre different now?
Are you in a better space?
Is that something youve worked through?Im working on it, man.
Its a day-to-day thing.
That shit really threw me the fuck off.
Its something you dont plan for, and its something that can take months to understand.
I lost mine at the top of the decade, and its not normal.
Its not a thought process that you get used to.
And especially at your age.Yeah, it really fucked me up.
We make movies in our heads, you know?
And thenthishappens as a result of that.
Its kind of like … having faith, I guess.
Its like, Iknowthis is going to happen.
So, then when that shit happened with my pops …
I talked to my brother, who I saw was doing better.
Hes about eight years older than me.
Id finally pledged, like, Im going home.
I can do it.
I can see this.
And then being Earl Sweatshirt on top of it?
Ive just been figuring it out.
But at a certain point, all of the pressures just kind of broke me.
Why would I risk it?
Thats not some dice Im trying to roll.
I need to process and heal some things for myself before I can be presenting myself.
Everything except for Peanut, Id recorded.
is my uncle Hugh [Masekela], who died two weeks after my pops.
Oh, man.Yeah, Peanut and Riot!
were the only two I added.
Did he ever get to hear it?No.
It was a crazy one, bro.
Thats rough, having things to say to people that you dont get to say to them anymore.Yeah.
I wondered what you meant by that.I was just remembering, man.
I think the night he passed, maybe it was the next day, I dont know.
I was listening to all the joints that me and him did.
I dont even remember the timeline.
All I remember what that nigga was always on with me and Vince [Staples].
Just like, Yeah, all right, yall the best.
Like, All right, fuck what youre talking about.
And just every story that you hear about him from anyone is like, He always made time.
He always checked up on people.
I dont know where he found the hours in the day to do that.It was ridiculous.
Yeah, let loose some cargo.Malcolm was one of those niggas like that, bro.
He was moving real fast.
It can make a man complacent.
He absolutely did move faster than most people I know.
I had the luxury ofinterviewing himthis past August.
He was just talking to me about concepts for cover art for new stuff.Yeah …
So, today is the tenth anniversary, incidentally, ofThe Odd Future Tape.Yeah.
I wasnt even on that.
They didnt pick you up until a year after, right?I came in after that.
I was like in eighth, ninth grade.
Whatever grade I was in, that shit set that grade on fire, boy.
It was like, oh shit.
I have a question from way back.
This is 2011, when you first started getting flack for your lyrics.
I was always curious what the thought process behind that was.I dont know.
I was still in Polynesia.
Disconnected and not even really privy to what was going on?Yeah.
I had no way to really judge it.
Like, this is crazy.
Like this is not a game.
My auntie would be over and be like, So, where are you going to college?
Im talking about before I left, on some sarcastic shit.
Like, Hes gonna be arapper.
Id just, like, storm out.
Then, fast-forward, and this shit is crazy.
I had no way of really understanding.
It took me years of being back.
I still am just now kind of coming into some sort of comfortability with the shit.
How did you feel about that Free Earl thing?
It got a little hot when they got mad at the family.
I cant get dressed.
Thats spooky.People emailing her, people calling her.
They were very intense about you guys.
But were moving forward.
I dont say that like the goofy way everybody be saying that in 2018.
Holla at me if you need slaps, nigga.
I got the SoundCloud slaps.
I just mean like, come on, man … Everybody an expert now, bro.
Like, Bro, you should … Youshould … All right.
Lets just get that out of the way.
Rawiya [Kameir, ofFader] showed meTirzahs shit.
That shit is crazy.
Im loving the loops.
Your new record is really just a lot of intense loops.Its infinitum.
Its the snake eating its tail.
I keep locking in the loops.
To write something complete to a loop, I feel like it takes a lot.
Like, collage art.Exactly!
And you have to be potent for that shit to matter.
If you aint got shit to say, niggasreallyare not gonna want to hear you on a loop.
But that loop, thats just a background.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
