Music videos have the ability to combine the world of both music and cinematography together. When I’m really bored, I like to browse my favorite artist’s music videos on YouTube and see how they compare to the song itself. Music videos can bring either an entire different meaning to the song and generate an entirely different feel, or they can match the sound and lyrics perfectly. These videos help artists induce emotions on the listeners that the song alone is unable to do. Personally, I enjoy visually stimulating music videos, or music videos with a deeper meaning. Without a doubt, some of my favorite music videos come from artists like A$ap Rocky, Tyler The Creator, and Lyrical Lemonade’s videographer Cole Bennett. One of my favorite music videos in particular, “Nowhere, Nobody,” by Earl Sweatshirt, is especially intriguing to me. Although the meaning behind the eight and a half minute long video isn’t exactly known and continues to be disputed, I believe I’ve arrived at a fairly sound understanding of the video.
Earl Sweatshirt is a rapper whose roots come from the early 2010’s Los Angeles rap collective Odd Future. Earl matured musically alongside the likes of Frank Ocean, Tyler The Creator, Domo Genesis, Syd, Vince Staples and others. Since releasing his first mixtape at 16, Earl, Earl has been known for his dark and dense lyrics, his muffled/drugged out delivery, lyrical ability, and pure elusiveness. Always staying true to his artistic self, Earl has never looked to sell out or make music that would be popular. Instead, he turns emotion and his own artistic vision into a purely raw form of art. One of Earl’s talents is conveying such deep meaning in such a short amount of words, utilizing word play and all sorts of rhetorical devices to portray his message.
The production is the star of the show on Some Rap Songs, 15 brief songs made up of jagged samples and scattered, bumpy beats flying by in a lo-fi blur. Earl himself sounds like a friendly ghost haunting these tracks, sometimes dissolving into the beats more than rapping over them. Earl's sound before Some Rap Songs could be described as low-fi and even as fringe-rap, but this collection of 15 tracks is his most idiosyncratic work to date. The tracks are short, usually. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2018 CD release of Some Rap Songs on Discogs. Label: Tan Cressida - 2,Columbia - 2. Format: CD Album. Country: Australia & New Zealand. Genre: Hip Hop. Style: Conscious.
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The music video “Nowhere, Nobody” pairs with Earl’s third studio album titled Some Rap Songs. This video includes several snippets of songs from the album, with very few spoken words. SRS is unique… almost too unique. Offering a sound that I’ve personally never heard beforehand, this is most definitely a thought provoking listen. Being a diehard Earl fan, I first heard this album the night it dropped in November, 2018. After hearing the singles “Nowhere2go” and “The Mint” and seeing the album’s cover art, I immediately knew this album would continue to touch upon recurring themes of Earl’s discography including his mental instability and drug use. What I did not expect, though, was how many layers this album would have. From the production to the lyrics to how Earl utilizes his voice, every piece of this 24 minute album serves a purpose. But, based on first listen, this would probably not be the listeners initial thought. In every song that Earl raps on this album, his voice is either drowned out, weaving in and out of the beat, or delivered in a slurred manner. It is safe to say that Earl’s voice isn’t exactly clear for interpreting his lyrics, but it can be argued that this along with the short length of the songs are intended to be this way in order to make the listener go back and relisten multiple times to uncover Earl’s message. After sitting on SRS for two years, and oddly listening to it very frequently, I can now say that I think I know what Earl was trying to communicate to his listeners in this project. Although Earl’s mysteriousness and style make him hard to understand, looking deeper into Earl’s music can provide listeners with answers. Oftentimes, these answers are unsettling.
Met with critical acclaim, SRS can be argued as Earl’s best work yet. Many fans aren’t exactly fond of Earl’s increasingly drugged out and drowned out sound because they feel it takes away from his true lyrical talents. But, in a way, Earl’s delivery on SRS only enhances the feeling that Earl was looking to get out of this album. Essentially, Some Rap Songs explores Earl’s regular themes of depression, dark thoughts, and uncontrolled drug use. One interesting turn for Earl’s third album is that it heavily explores themes of family and finding his spot in life. The overall sound is incredibly depressing and dark, but the hypnotic, repetitive, and even soulful production that is layered yet so simple throughout the course of this album helps distract the listener from many of the concerning comments and one liners Earl throws around in his lyrics. In a way, the album almost sounds like a cry for help except that Earl has been doing this for years and isn’t exactly asking for a helping hand. Instead, he is detailing his emotions as he feels and staying true to himself, even if the images are disturbing.
I recommend anyone who is looking for something interesting, visually stimulating, or simply thought provoking to view Earl’s video “Nowhere, Nobody” below where Earl incorporates several songs from SRS. Sure, you’ll definitely be confused after watching it, but after watching it over and over again and connecting it to Some Rap Songs, a comprehensive meaning can be unearthed from this video. After I’ve viewed this video numerous times, I will now attempt to break down aspects of it in order to make sense of it all.
The video begins with the album’s first single “Nowhere2go” where Earl is seen coaching a youth basketball team. Here, Earl seems to be enjoying life and appreciating the little things that come outside the life of being a rapper. The video then transitions into some narration that refers to Earl’s recently deceased father, Keorapetse Kgositsile, a famous South African poet. This is important, as Earl has frequently shared his feelings towards his father who left him when he was 6 years old to move back to South Africa. The theme of family is further explored as the video progresses. At around the 2:10 minute mark of the video, the album’s seventh song “The Bends” quickly transitions into the song “Red Water.” These songs are played over images of Earl’s mother painting a baby in a crib emerald green (who can be assumed to be Earl). During this scene, if you pay close enough attention you can notice the screen flashing red. After Earl’s mom finishes painting the baby green, she lifts the baby from the crib and he turns into a real life baby with emerald green eyes. This is one of the points in the video where a random caption is very briefly flashed across the screen. With the baby in her hands, the screen says “A CDC report in December 2013 found that black fathers are the most involved with their children daily, on a number of measures, of any other group of fathers.” Things get even more confusing when the music cuts off and the scene transitions to Earl clearing weeds and roots off of a man who is painted half white with the sculpture that appears throughout the video in the background. Earl then turns into two different younger girls who continue to clear the weeds and roots but instead off of the statue. After Earl reappears and clears all the plants off of the half painted man, he whispers in his ear “bend we don’t break we not the bank, got memories of your face the photo still on the mantle” as the music picks back up again playing “The Bends.” Several things happen quickly after this, from the sculpture being washed in a tub, to a couple red and green images of Earl coaching and another man flashing on the screen, to Earl stacking many chairs into one giant pile in what looks like a living room. The living room scene is interesting in particular, as “Shattered Dreams” plays over images of Earl sitting awkwardly on the stack of chairs and blood leaking through the ceiling, both of which Earl seems oblivious to. The video then muffles out the song to the point where you can hardly hear Earl. Here, Earl is laying in a bed and the video gives the effect of a visual hallucination when the wall begins to bend and a picture frame of him and his father falls and shatters into pieces. When the frame shatters, if you listen closely the last few bars Earl delivers before the frame jumps off the wall is “is you gonna ribbit or will you jump.” Someone then sweeps up the shattered frame, and the video transitions in the song “Azucar.” This song is one of the only ones in the video that is played in almost its entirety. Along with “Azucar,” which means “sugar” in Spanish, Earl seems to be arguing with the younger girl, who essentially looks like a younger female version of Earl from the hair to the attire. Earl is arguing with a mirror image of himself, but a younger female version. The video switches between images of this and Earl communicating to the girl, his mother, and the sculpture with all of their backs facing the camera after Earl raps “there’s not a black woman I can’t thank.” During this scene, red flashes across the screen and the phrase “an a-solemnic portrait of a black women with whom you engage in mutually tempered push-back.” The outro to the video does not help to make anything less confusing. Earl can be seen sitting eyes closed in a bathtub with the water draining, with his last words being “seen the ghost of where I was, lonesome as I was” where the video theme cuts off into an image of a casket full of the clay hands with a South African flag draped over the top. During this final scene the words of Earl’s father in “Playing Possum” is played over SRS’s last song “Riot!” as the camera zooms out and then zooms very closely into the casket before the video concludes.
Much of “Nowhere, Nobody” comes across as disorganized nonsense, but when taking into consideration the lyrics of Some Rap Songs a meaning starts to reveal itself. After avidly listening to this album and drawing my own conclusions, I realized several things. Although the meaning I derive from these works isn’t certain, I believe Earl used “Nowhere, Nobody” to display his artistic complexities beyond the realm of music alone. The imagery, the random pauses and silences, the symbols, and the audio of this video only reinforce the themes Earl sought to expose his listeners to in his project SRS. Digging deep into the video, many extremely subtle cues are given off. With each time watching the video I was able to pick up a new piece of info that had previously flown over my head. Earl uses this video to explore ideas such as finding himself and his roots, exploring the importance of family, and as always his mental instability. The sculptures in the video I feel represent Earl’s ancestry. The woman sculpture may represent all the women in Earl’s life that helped raise him, whereas the half painted man may represent Earl’s father. By uncovering the roots off of the sculptures, Earl is finding himself and his familial roots. Much of what Earl knows about his father he did not learn first hand due to his absence, so scenes in this video such as Earl uncovering the roots and the flashes of green and red numerous times could represent Earl trying to uncover his South African roots and learn more about his father. The closing scene is especially important, as all the hands that helped form Earl into the man he is are in the casket. The clay hands could refer to the motherly touch Earl is all too familiar with growing up and/or the hands of people that helped raise Earl. The camera backs away from the casket while playing two of the most familial-tied songs of the album, only to zoom back in. This could potentially represent Earl’s curiosity to discover himself, his father, and his roots, yet his fathers recent passing has put a roadblock to these discoveries. Although Earl shows passive aggressive sentiments towards his father, he also shows the tremendous amount of support he has for all the “black women” that brought him up. Earl knows he hasn’t always demonstrated his appreciation towards his mother, and chooses to use this video and album as a way to relay that appreciation. Although Earl is also seemingly enjoying the simple things in life in the beginning of the video while coaching, his mental struggles become apparent in scenes such as when he sat in the living room with blood leaking through the ceiling. By saying “why aint nobody tell me I was bleeding? Please don’t pinch me out this dream” Earl shows how disorganized he is inside his head and how much he truly struggles and continues to brush it under the rug. Much of the more depressing, concerning bars from Earl’s songs are still used in this video, yet they are more so muffled out than the rest of the lyrics. This could again represent Earl pushing his troubling thoughts to the side or his dependence on drugs to drown out the pain he feels.
Even though many are quick to dismiss Earl’s work as unenjoyable, Earl’s music is without a doubt one of the most intricate forms of art one can consume. The confusing and less than tolerable nature that Earl portrays his thoughts and emotions to listeners tends to disguise the complexity that is Earl Sweatshirt’s music. When breaking it down and putting it back together, the disturbing realities of Earl come to light and one is then able to look past all of the hurdles Earl throws at the listener in order to find true meaning. The music video “Nowhere, Nobody” is one of the finest examples of having to look behind surface level for meaning, and an entertaining watch as well.
During his Odd Future days, Earl Sweatshirt was regarded by many as one of the most creatively and technically gifted rhymers in contemporary rap. His mysterious hiatus in Samoa, acclaimed debut mixtape and multisyllabic rhyme patterns made Earl into this highly regarded yet peculiar persona by the turn of 2010.
Earl Sweatshirt's 2010 mixtape Earl, which heavily featured his tight-knit OFWGKTA crew, would remain his only project until dropping Doris three years later. Fast forward five years and Earl, seemingly distanced from the disbanded Odd Future, is emerging from an elusive span of his career with Some Rap Songs, his third official album released on November 30.
Earl's sound before Some Rap Songs could be described as low-fi and even as fringe-rap, but this collection of 15 tracks is his most idiosyncratic work to date. The tracks are short, usually comprised of only one verse and filled with muffled, off-beat rhymes that are as brilliant as they are bizarre. Throughout the album he details his life over the past three years, the state of his mental health and the new relationships that have seemed to keep him sane.
XXL skimmed through every bar of Some Rap Songs to highlight the 20 best lyrics. Check it out below.
Earl Sweatshirt Some Rap Songs Zippyshare
'Boy, I take the tour chips and go and get some decent decor/Is you gon' ribbit or will you jump?/Get some more ribbons for the born winners from the jump/Niggas don't listen 'til they whole mission was a bust/No sit-up, but it’s crunch time, shootin' in the clutch/The midsummer sunshine found me on my ones, face drippin' —Earl Sweatshirt