Earl Sweatshirt, who just put out a new album, I Don’t Like S—t, I Don’t Go Outside, is reportedly quite unhappy with the way his label, Columbia Records, rolled out the just-released record. You might’ve caught on to this when Sweatshirt tweeted some all-caps criticisms directed at his label. Now, in a new interview with NPR Music, the “Grief” rapper confirms his frustration.
Speaking to NPR, Sweatshirt claimed that he originally wanted the video for “Grief” to appear on his website on Monday, sans any additional info about the album’s release. What ended up happening instead was, everything but the video got released on Monday night, including the cover, the tracklist, the features, and the release date. He said he didn’t get the link to the “Grief” video until Monday morning, after he’d stayed up all night.
I WOULD LIKE TO PERSONALLY THANK @SonyMusicGlobal 4 FUCKING UP THE ROLL OUT PROCESS OF MY SHIT. SOMEONE GOTS 2 PAY 4 THEIR MISTAKES ! #SWEAT
— EARL (@earlxsweat) March 17, 2015
“Brah, I was devastated,” he said. “I was so mad cause it was like — especially because I feel like this is my first album. This is the first thing that I’ve said that I fully stand behind, like the good and the bad of it. I’ve never been behind myself this much. So for them to not treat as importantly as I was treating it was just like — I couldn’t help but to feel a little disrespected, you know?”
Sweatshirt later said that it wasn’t just the mishandled release process that bothered him — it was Columbia’s response, or lack thereof. “They let it get spun like I was on a pedestal, complaining about some nuances, you know what I mean?” he said. “When it was really like zero percent of what was supposed to go right went right. Like, y’all got an F. It’s not chill. Like, ‘You’re in the red zone.’ And no one acted like they were in the red zone. That’s what had me the most hot.” Check out the whole interview here.
TOO MANY FUCKING COOKS
— EARL (@earlxsweat) March 17, 2015
