SICK!
Thebe Kgositsile emerged in 2010 as the most mysterious member of rap’s weirdest new collective, Odd Future—a gifted teen turned anarchist, spitting shock-rap provocations from his exile in a Samoan reform school. In the 12 years since, he’s repaired his famously fraught relationship with his mother, lost his father, and become a father himself, all the while carving out a solo lane as a serious MC, a student of the game. Earl’s fourth album finds the guy who once titled an album *I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside*, well, going outside, and kinda liking it; on opener “Old Friend,” he’s hacking through thickets, camping out in Catskills rainstorms. There’s a sonic clarity here that stands apart from the obscure, sludgy sounds of his recent records, executed in part by Young Guru, JAY-Z’s longtime engineer. Beats from The Alchemist and Black Noi$e snap, crackle, and bounce, buoying Earl’s slippery, open-ended thoughts on family, writing, religion, the pandemic. Is he happy now, the kid we’ve watched become a man? It’s hard to say, but in any case, as he raps on “Fire in the Hole”: “It’s no rewinding/For the umpteenth time, it’s only forward.”
Earl Sweatshirt used to make you sift through the mud to find the gold. On his latest album, the nuggets are gleaming right on the surface.
Slugging through the thumping noise to carve some bliss out of it all, the artist has created the perfect soundtrack to our 'new normal'
Earl Sweatshirt’s latest project SICK! is an ode to his ever-growing craft and our lockdown lives
'SICK!' maintains the rapper's guarded demeanor, but gives us some of the most clearheaded raps of his career.
A lot happened in the time between Earl Sweatshirt's dizzying and beautiful 2018 album Some Rap Songs and its proper follow-up Sick!
Opening new album SICK!, Earl Sweatshirt exhibits a creative clarity his music has eschewed in recent years. On first track "Old Friend" — w...
Earl Sweatshirt has occupied many roles. As part of Odd Future, he was rap’s tearaway prodigy, someone whose word-play could move from the
The previously withdrawn US rapper engages with the world and his estranged mother on his immersive fourth album
'Sick!' hops between sounds and moods while still sounding like an Earl Sweatshirt album. Read our review.
Sick! by Earl Sweatshirt Album Review by Mimi Kenny. The rapper's full-length is out today via Tan Cressida/Warner Records
Rapper’s nonchalant verses, delivered over an alluring mesh of music, show off his unique charm
Earl Sweatshirt's distinctive style is in full bloom on new album. New music review by Harry Thorfinn-George