This is Earl Sweatshirt on “open.†Over a sparse, hypnotic piano production called “Chum,†the 18-year-old Odd Future MVP starts here: “It’s probably been twelve years since my father left / left me fatherlessness / and I just used to say I hate him in dishonest jest / when honestly I miss this nigga like when I was 6 / and every time when I got the chance to say it, I would swallow it.†Damn. He discusses Tyler, the Creator’s big brother role and being “too black for the white kids and too white for the blacks,†spitting it all through effortless-sounding mazes of internal rhymes apt to make a listener issue an additional damn. Matching the introspective (and happily devoid of domestic violence or anything Odd Future-ishly cringe-worthy at all, really) track is a black-and-white clip of Earl floating through darkened streets filled with phantoms and frogs. (What up, Magnolia; what up, Frank Ocean tweeting “chum video gots da toads.â€) The video comes from Hiro Murai, who directed David Guetta and Sia’s “She Wolf†as well as the Shins’ “It’s Only Life.†Also: Earl’s album is titled Doris and will be released on Columbia Records some nice day.
