Earl Sweatshirt has released a new track, “The Mint,” featuring up-and-coming SLUMS-NYC-affiliated rapper Navy Blue. The static-filled, blown-out, and brief new track features lopsided flows from Earl and Navy Blue, often going against the emphasis of the words and ignoring the downbeat. The production is dominated by a combination of damaged piano samples. Also, it’s good.
Earl released a new solo single, “Nowhere2Go,” earlier this month, featuring glitchy, digital-hardcore-adjacent production from Booliemane and Adé Haki. His last album was 2015’s I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. His most notable releases since 2015 were three new tracks posted to his Soundcloud in 2016. The former Odd Future rapper hinted that he would be releasing new music in 2018 at the end of last year. Listen to “The Mint” below via Apple Music.
UPDATE: Shortly after sharing “The Mint,” Earl Sweatshirt announced that he would be releasing a new album, Some Rap Songs, next week (November 30) on Tan Cressida/Columbia. The track list has not been released, but you can preorder the album and various album bundles at Earl’s website.
In a press statement, the rapper explained that the subject matter of the album related to the death of his father in January of this year. “Me and my dad had a relationship that’s not uncommon for people to have with their fathers, which is a non-perfect one,” he wrote. Talking to him is symbolic and non-symbolic, but it’s literally closure for my childhood. Not getting to have that moment left me to figure out a lot with my damn self.” See the Some Rap Songs cover art below.
