Some Rap Songs
(2018)“Twenty-five minutes that reshaped underground rap”
Some Rap Songs compresses grief, family and memory into fifteen short, warped loops, most produced by Earl himself. Vocal samples of his mother and his late father, Keorapetse Kgositsile, and a Hugh Masekela sample on the closing "Riot!" make it his most personal record. It scored 86 on Metacritic and later placed on Pitchfork's 200 best albums of the 2010s and Rolling Stone's 200 greatest hip-hop albums.
Why it ranks here
Some Rap Songs compresses grief, family and memory into fifteen short, warped loops, most produced by Earl himself. Vocal samples of his mother and his late father, Keorapetse Kgositsile, and a Hugh Masekela sample on the closing "Riot!" make it his most personal record. It scored 86 on Metacritic and later placed on Pitchfork's 200 best albums of the 2010s and Rolling Stone's 200 greatest hip-hop albums.
Context
His third studio album, released November 30, 2018 through Tan Cressida and Columbia.
Highlights
- Nowhere2go
- December 24
- The Mint
- Shattered Dreams
- Playing Possum
Weak Spots
- Exclaim! felt it lacked some emotional power
- Its abstraction keeps casual listeners at a distance
Production
Earl Sweatshirt · Black Noise · Sage Elsesser · Adé Hakim · Denmark
Read our full Some Rap Songs review →
Influence
Its hazy, loop-driven sound is a key reference point for the abstract underground that followed.
Replay Value
Very high — short enough to loop indefinitely.