It’s the spring of 2010. Up-and-coming rap collective Odd Future posted a new album on their website. Titled Earl, people knew it as the debut project and namesake of the group’s newest talent: Earl Sweatshirt. The album’s vulgar, rambunctious nature attracted people of all ages, regardless of their reaction. Five more studio albums and two EPs later, Earl has humbly proven himself to be one of the most daring, skillful songwriters of recent years. Evan Tedgi ’25 points out that “you start to see his growth as an artist now that he’s built a career on top of his debut, transforming from a troubled teen to more of a mature artist.” But his talent couldn’t have been more evident in his third album, Some Rap Songs.
Earl Sweatshirt isn’t your average rapper; not the “flashing flamboyant jewelry and flooring their Ferrari down the freeway” sort, at least. Born Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, Earl’s claim to fame came when he was sixteen with the aforementioned release of Earl. Unfortunately, his mother caught wind of the album and sent him to Samoa for rehabilitation, preventing him from releasing any more music. Upon his return from Samoa in 2012, Earl started working on his sophomore album, Doris. Released through Odd Future Records in the summer of 2013, Doris received praise from critics and listeners alike, boasting features from Vince Staples, Mac Miller, RZA, and fellow Odd Future members Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean, Domo Genesis, and Casey Veggies. Later in 2015, Earl released his third studio album I Don’t Like Sh**, I Don’t Go Outside and his first EP, Solace, which is only available on YouTube and SoundCloud. Following the death of his grandmother, the two projects were created in a dark period of Earl’s life, where he wearily raps about his depression and substance abuse, serving as momentum for his next album.
In the first week of November 2018, three years since his last release, Earl dropped a slew of perplexing teasers on his social media pages, the last video confirming the release date for a single titled “Nowhere2go”, followed by another single “The Mint” a few weeks later featuring former Odd Future affiliate, Navy Blue. Finally, on November 30, Some Rap Songs was released on all streaming platforms. The album received widespread critical acclaim, earning the 80th spot on Rolling Stone’s “The 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time” list. Meanwhile, the general public hesitated to accept the album. Many fans loved it, while others who liked a more traditional approach to rap music hated it. According to Timmhotep Aku of Pitchfork, “[Some Rap Songs] is distinctly rough around the edges, to great effect; there’s the sound of dust popping off vinyl and cassette hiss throughout.” The album introduces the listener to an Earl Sweatshirt drastically different from his past works. This is best shown in the opening track “Shattered Dreams,” where the somber soul sample wails over his subdued voice, not nearly as confident as his delivery in Doris. His introspective, ambiguous lyricism forces the listener to dig deeper into his world; a place so enigmatic and desolate it’s almost calming. The middle section of the album finds Earl contemplating death and his past drug abuse. Earlier in 2018, his father Keorapetse Kgositsile passed away from a sudden illness. Close friend and frequent collaborator Mac Miller also died from a drug overdose later that year. The environment Earl created for himself in response to their deaths turned him paranoid and cautious, leaving him wondering how much time he had left until he was next. At this point, the production starts becoming disorienting and abstract. Earl himself struggles to keep up with the beat, painting a vivid picture of his mental state: the mind of a man who’s seen everything crumble around him. The end of Some Rap Songs describes Earl becoming insistent to keep moving forward. “Riot!”, the last and most popular song on the record, finishes the album on a bittersweet note. The stark difference between “Riot!” and the dark undertones of the other songs implies that he has accepted his circumstances and is ready to move on undeterred by his intense grief.
Not only did Some Rap Songs build another platform for Earl’s career, it also did for other artists. Almost one year after the release of Some Rap Songs, he released his second EP, Feet of Clay, straying even further from his Odd Future roots. 2022 and 2023 brought Sick! and Voir Dire with prolific producer The Alchemist, further cementing Earl as a leader in underground hip-hop. This popularized artists such as MIKE and his record, Disco!, which projected some of Earl’s influence. The New Yorker and Medium also claim that Some Rap Songs made space for artists like JPEGMAFIA to “shift rap’s ‘murky in-between’ forward” despite not being directly inspired by Earl. As the album aged, the public’s opinion on the album swayed in its favor, solidifying it as a revolutionary art piece. Through the commotion, Hunter Korczykowski ’26 shares that Some Rap Songs is “one of the most touching and genre-defying pieces of art I’ve ever heard. Whether it’s due to the complexity of the heavily sampled instrumentals or the concept of the project itself, it’s definitely one of the most influential hip-hop records that helped shape the sound of popular artists today.” Despite its initial opposition, Some Rap Songs helped Earl become an influential figure and made a lasting impression on the hip-hop scene as more people came to enjoy it.
Although it’s divisive, Some Rap Songs keeps getting better with age as it reaches the five-year anniversary since its release, acting as a beacon of perseverance and hope in the face of extreme adversity. It also made way for other artists to thrive and change the course of hip-hop as a whole. Today, Earl Sweatshirt’s evolution from an angsty troublemaker to a versatile, austere lyricist can’t be more relevant; and Some Rap Songs is the most absolute example of it.
