Some Rap Songs is the third studio album by Earl Sweatshirt, released on November 30, 2018. It marked Earl's first release in three years following his EP solace. He would drop a small number of singles in the years between, with an official rollout for the album not starting until several weeks before its release.
The album is likely Earl's most experimental, evolving the dark, melancholic atmospheres of his prior releases into a glitchier, more lo-fi sound. It also has a significant role in Earl's discography when compared to the releases that came before it.
solace was Earl's darkest work yet, extensively detailing the heaviest aspects of the recurring feelings of loneliness and depression that had influenced his musical direction throughout the 2010s. This album would find similarly intense emotional context in the fact that Earl's father, poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, passed away at the start of 2018. He sought to theme the album around the relationship between him and his father, with the emotional journey therein framing most of the album's tracks.
Tracklist:
- “Shattered Dreams”
- “Red Water”
- “Cold Summers”
- “Nowhere2go”
- “December 24”
- “Ontheway!”
- “The Mint”
- “The Bends”
- “Loosie”
- “Azucar”
- “Eclipse”
- “Veins”
- “Playing Possum”
- “Peanut”
- “Riot!”
Tropes appearing in this album:
- Arc Words: “Keep faith, my nigga” throughout the album.
- A non-descript “Brodie” figure also appears in two of the songs.
- BSoD Song: "Peanut", about the death of Earl's father, featuring the most distorted instrumentals on the album. Hell, just about all of the album counts as this.
- Darker and Edgier: In a rather shocking way, Some Rap Songs is this to all of Earl’s
already-dark previous works, due to Earl’s Creator Breakdown affecting the album’s production, making it an extremely personal experience for those who listen to it. - Miniscule Rocking: None of the songs go over three minutes, and exactly two are over two. The album as a whole is less than 25 minutes long.
- Stylistic Suck: The mixing and mastering is intentionally muddy and glitchy.
- Textless Album Cover: It features a distorted picture of Earl’s smiling.
