Working with a legendary beatsmith like The Alchemist, the key moments on SICK! are something to get excited about. Linked up with his deep introspective poetry, his is a voice laden with potential. His slow baritone style belies a versatile talent for fitting his voice over any track he cares to come across.
The sunny trumpets on “Lye,” the trap-infused bouncy bass of “Lobby “ and the stratospheric, luxuriant piano on “Vision” are all textures Earl Sweatshirt has rarely felt-but unsurprisingly excels at rapping over. This collaborative approach bears a lot of fruit: SICK! is the most musically diverse Earl Sweatshirt record to date. SICK! – Earl SweatshirtĮarl is usually a solo artist, but on SICK! there are eight credited producers, with Earl himself featuring on just three tracks. His solo career is as long as his association with the group, and he has become one of the leading voices in alternative hip-hop. He quickly rose to prominence and started releasing material on his own terms. Earl Sweatshirt is one of its most famous alumni, starting in the group after being discovered by Tyler, The Creator on Myspace. With dozens of members, the group has launched the careers of Frank Ocean, Tyler, The Creator, and Domo Genesis. I t’s one of the more bizarre quirks of music history that the Horrorcore collective Odd Future has ended up commanding a lot of influence over the landscape of hip-hop in recent years. Watch the video for the new single below.While ‘SICK!’ cannot claim to be as musically cohesive as his previous work, it represents a huge step forward for Earl Sweatshirt. SICK arrives January 14, with Earl hinting at guest spots from ZelooperZ, Black Noi$e, and, yes, The Alchemist in addition to AH’s feature.
These songs are what happened when I would come up for air.” I leaned into the chaos ’cause it was apparent that it wasn’t going anywhere. The People were angry and isolated and restless. Once the lockdowns hit, people couldn’t fly anymore. “Before the virus I had been working on an album I named after a book I used to read with my mother ( The People Could Fly ).
“ SICK is my humble offering of 10 songs recorded in the wake of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns,” Sweatshirt shared of the album in a press statement. Contrasting with the last single, this one leaves plenty of room for his collaborators’ lengthy verses all while a gentle piano-based sample fills the soundtrack. SICK will arrive in about a month, with the new single “Tabula Rasa” featuring Armand Hammer giving us another idea of what the project has in store. But last month we got the first taste of new solo Earl material since the Halloween 2019 release of FEET OF CLAY with the loose single “2010,” which, as it turns out, paved the way for news of a new album. We’ve heard from Earl Sweatshirt a few times over the course of the year, with the rapper popping up on a couple tracks produced by The Alchemist-one on the producer’s collaboration with Armand Hammer, one on his collab with Boldy James, and the other on his guest-heavy solo EP.