Earl Sweatshirt’s album aptly named Some Rap Songs marks his return from a four-year hiatus. The former Odd Future member bares his thoughts once again, much like he did on his previous project, I Don’t Like S***, I Don’t Go Outside, very brief and to the point. Seriously, the album’s only 25 minutes with 15 tracks, the longest of which is only 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
The beginning starts out with Earl contemplating the emotional weight of the album. You see, this project was meant for his father to hear, as an effort to reconcile their relationship. When Earl was eight, his father, famous poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, and mother Cheryl Harris, a law professor at UCLA, separated. This is a running theme throughout the album.
We’re then thrown into the fourth track “Nowhere2go” where Earl admits to his depression and anxieties about being a rapper. Being only sixteen and rapping with Odd Future must have gotten to him mentally. Tracks six and seven both use juxtaposition as their energetic and discordant melodies are put against his somber rapping.
I think that’s the best way to describe the project’s production- discordant melodies. It’s very off putting the first time you hear it, but eventually there’s the realization that this is just a mix between jazz and hip-hop. And although there aren’t many real transitions in this album, if crossfade is disabled completely, this entire thing plays out like a really long song.
Track ten is what I consider the album’s turning point. It features both Earl and the production finally hand in hand in energy. By the end he declares, “Seen the ghost of where I was, lonesome as I was.” This triumphant attitude keeps going strong into track thirteen. We don’t hear Earl, we instead hear a duet between an acceptance speech given by his mother and his father reciting his poem, “Anguish Longer than Sorrow,” and the track ends in applause.
This would have been a neat conclusion to an excellent album, one where Earl finally comes to terms with a less than perfect relationship with his father, and closure on his childhood. This unfortunately is not the conclusion Earl wanted. Before his father could hear the album, he passed away. This leaves us with an incredibly heavy track, where we hear Earl struggling with, but accepting his father’s passing and the fact that he’ll never have a better relationship with him. At the tail end of the track we hear an odd final line, “My Uncle Hugh.”
The final track, “Riot!” is a tribute to his late uncle, jazz musician Hugh Masekela, and samples the song “Riot.” This track is basically a slowed down version of Hugh’s song, with a couple of ghostly “Hey’s” from a crowd that sounds almost like a whisper. The album in a bittersweet way, ends in a blaze. At the same time, in recognition that it’s really the end which leaves a sinking feeling in your chest as those final guitar notes wane into silence.
I don’t think it’s fair to give this album a score. First, it’s a three month old album. Second, an album this genuinely personal feels like a letter, which will never reach its intended person. I mean, wouldn’t it be a shame if you bared your soul for your father, in a way most people wouldn’t be able to articulate, but others tell you it wasn't any good. In any case, I’m sure this will stand the test of time as one of the greatest hip-hop albums.
The beginning starts out with Earl contemplating the emotional weight of the album. You see, this project was meant for his father to hear, as an effort to reconcile their relationship. When Earl was eight, his father, famous poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, and mother Cheryl Harris, a law professor at UCLA, separated. This is a running theme throughout the album.
We’re then thrown into the fourth track “Nowhere2go” where Earl admits to his depression and anxieties about being a rapper. Being only sixteen and rapping with Odd Future must have gotten to him mentally. Tracks six and seven both use juxtaposition as their energetic and discordant melodies are put against his somber rapping.
I think that’s the best way to describe the project’s production- discordant melodies. It’s very off putting the first time you hear it, but eventually there’s the realization that this is just a mix between jazz and hip-hop. And although there aren’t many real transitions in this album, if crossfade is disabled completely, this entire thing plays out like a really long song.
Track ten is what I consider the album’s turning point. It features both Earl and the production finally hand in hand in energy. By the end he declares, “Seen the ghost of where I was, lonesome as I was.” This triumphant attitude keeps going strong into track thirteen. We don’t hear Earl, we instead hear a duet between an acceptance speech given by his mother and his father reciting his poem, “Anguish Longer than Sorrow,” and the track ends in applause.
This would have been a neat conclusion to an excellent album, one where Earl finally comes to terms with a less than perfect relationship with his father, and closure on his childhood. This unfortunately is not the conclusion Earl wanted. Before his father could hear the album, he passed away. This leaves us with an incredibly heavy track, where we hear Earl struggling with, but accepting his father’s passing and the fact that he’ll never have a better relationship with him. At the tail end of the track we hear an odd final line, “My Uncle Hugh.”
The final track, “Riot!” is a tribute to his late uncle, jazz musician Hugh Masekela, and samples the song “Riot.” This track is basically a slowed down version of Hugh’s song, with a couple of ghostly “Hey’s” from a crowd that sounds almost like a whisper. The album in a bittersweet way, ends in a blaze. At the same time, in recognition that it’s really the end which leaves a sinking feeling in your chest as those final guitar notes wane into silence.
I don’t think it’s fair to give this album a score. First, it’s a three month old album. Second, an album this genuinely personal feels like a letter, which will never reach its intended person. I mean, wouldn’t it be a shame if you bared your soul for your father, in a way most people wouldn’t be able to articulate, but others tell you it wasn't any good. In any case, I’m sure this will stand the test of time as one of the greatest hip-hop albums.