February 14, 2012

Earl Sweatshirt - 'Home'

His fire hasn’t been extinguished

“Sweatshirt Will Not Be On The Tape. Not Trolling Either,” tweeted enfant terrible Tyler, The Creator last week (February 8) of Odd Future’s forthcoming album, ‘OF Tape Vol 2’, suggesting that his erstwhile best mate was still MIA. And then, a few hours later, Earl himself pops up on Twitter with the missive “home” – seemingly, he’s been freed from his reputed stint at an all-boys school in Samoa. So, back for good? And now he’s returned to LA, will he be popping up on ‘OF Tape Vol 2’?

We don’t know. But judging by ‘Home’, Earl’s standalone track that he posted online after amassing 50,000 Twitter followers in about an hour, he’s not doing too shabbily without his old alma mater. If you were worried he might have picked up a few airs and graces from his posh boarding school, then fear not, because his fire hasn’t been extinguished – instead, he tells us, he’s “switching up the moniker of artist and arsonist”, riding roughshod over an off-kilter beat with rhymes like: “Self-loathing narcissist/Spittin’ crowbars at the back windows of cars and shit”.

And, like a man who just knows that we’ve all been waiting to hear from him for an absolute aeon – and, more crucially, whose next moves we can’t wait to track – he’s got the most nonchalantly perfect sign-off. “Aannd I’m back”, he quips after just 90 seconds of sullen aggression. Welcome home.

Ben Hewitt

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