Before listening to "Doris" my previous knowledge of Earl Sweatshirt was listening to "Some Rap Songs" a couple of times and "I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside" a few times. And I thought they were both pretty good. I also saw him at Parklife Festival in Manchester this year, but I just wish I could have heard this album before that moment.
5 Minute Read
It's always a great feeling to come across an amazing lyricist and someone who has a serious pen-game. I'm just gonna go straight in an explain why parts of this album absolutely blew my mind:
Earl's technique on "Doris" is incredible:
- RHYME SCHEMES - He was never lazy and they were developed and complex throughout the entire album. He could maintain a rhyme scheme for maybe 4 bars and then he'd switch it it to another multi-syllable rhyme scheme effortlessly, at times it was so good it was almost like he was taking the piss. There's only a few mainstream rappers that can do that so comfortably. From the second verse on "Hive" - "So here I sit, eye in the pyramid, God spit it like it's truth serum in that beer and then *blow* disappear again, re-appear bearded, on top of a lear, steerin' it into a kid's ear again, provider of the backdrop music, for the crack rock user and the mascot - Earl"
- FLOW - Because of his monotone voice he sounded so effortless with his flow. His sick rhyme schemes aided with how he flowed from bar to bar. The last word on one bar often kicked off the rhyme scheme for the next bar, this just meant it never felt static or choppy, so his flow just melted on the beats brilliantly. From the second verse on "Whoa" - "Pen? Naw probably written with some used syringes, from out the rubbish bin at your local loony clinic, watching movies in a room full of goons he rented, on the hunt for clues, more food and some floozy women, bruising gimmicks with the broom he usually use for quidditch, gooey writtens, scoot 'em to a ditch, chewed and booty scented, too pretentious, do pretend like he could lose with spitting, steaming tubes of poop and twisted doobies full of euphemisms" FUCK OFF! (Plugging my own music here) I once wrote a flow that I was so proud of that isn't too far away from this one, I said "Still a iller killer spitter fool that's gifted, stupid misfit, usually with the room in shit-fits, too persistent, who is listening to these ruthless writtens that I'm choosing to produce and music is a tool for wizards".
- DELIVERY - His delivery is what I really fell in love with. It's dark and vivid, despite being really monotone he still has so much character in his voice. It never got boring, I think the album length helped, maybe after 20+ songs straight I would feel differently, but on "Doris" it was class.
- RHYME PLACEMENT - When he mixed it up and changed the rhyme scheme quickly or had internal rhymes within a bar, it meant you never really knew where the next rhyme was coming from. You'd think he was gonna rhyme one thing, but then he'd say a different word which rhymes with a word earlier in the bar that you didn't even think was gonna be part of the rhyme scheme - fucking crazy. Like this at the start of "Sunday" I thought he was gonna finish his bar rhyming with "into" but he didn't and it kept it interesting - "I know it don't seem difficult to hit you up, but you're not passionate about half the shit you into, and I ain't havin' it". Like he places the "havin' it" rhyme really quickly after saying "half the shit" so it caught me off guard and I thought it was really impressive.
He made you feel some type of way when he was doing the horror-core "lyrical-miracle" stuff, proper scewface rapping, so when he did the storytelling, emotional stuff like "Chum" it made it even more emotional. Kind of like how Ricky Gervais' saddest shows can easily make you cry because he makes us all laugh so much as well. Earl can do that through his music.
Lyrically he has influences all over the place, from Jay Z to Eminem, Tyler, members of Wu-Tang, and of course stylistically MF Doom.
The beats on "Doris" were really hard, nothing to "in-your-face", quite understated but had enough going on for Earl to bring to life then immediately kill. "523" was a nice instrumental interlude to break up the album, it definitely didn't need anyone to rap over it. I reckon Earl has some bars for it, but it actually seemed quite a tough beat to rap over anyway.
Earl and Tylers chemistry on "Sasquatch" and "Whoa" was really nice and complimented each-other really well. This isn't a surprise, as on "Chum" Earl says he sees Tyler as a brother - "Searching for a big brother, Tyler was that, plus he liked how I rapped".
Anything I didn't like? I feel as though you have to be in the mood for "Guild", but I don't think I ever was. Like I said, I love Earl's voice, and that's also one thing I really like about Mac, so even if the flows were tight, the effect on their voices killed the song for me and I didn't really like it.
Maybe he could vary and develop some of the hooks a bit more too.
I think if I don't go back now and listen again more to his other albums then I will be doing myself a dis-service. I've really liked listening to "Doris" and it's been one of my favourite and exciting albums to review. I think in my reviews I don't talk too much about what the rappers are talking about, because that's something that, if you haven't heard the album, you can find out yourself and I wouldn't want to spoil it. I'd rather look at it from a rapping POV and the technical parts of it and the general mood of the album.
8.5/10
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