"Azucar": Earl Sweatshirt
Production: Sage Elsesser
Album: Some Rap Songs
“All cultural explorers… start off from specific roots which colour their vision and define the allegiances of the work of art they produce.”
Keorapetse Kgositsile
Earl Sweatshirt’s music has always reflected his collaborators; Earl was the cornerstone and epitome of Odd Future’s “social experiment”. I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, featuring East coast rappers, had a distinctly NY palate. Following a summer with NYC’s sLUms collective, known for their jittery samples and off-kilter rhymes, Earl released Some Rap Songs, his most accomplished project yet.
“Azacur”, Spanish for sugar, is created from a swelling string sample and flitting vocals. The song deals with depression, drinking and racial suppression. If Earl’s growth from Thrasher fanatic to avant-garde “conscious” artist is surprising, it’s worth remembering that his mother is a professor of civil rights and liberties. Oh, and his dad, world-renowned South African poet said that quotation at the beginning.