Together, Odd Future are the most hyped hip-hop collective in the world: a leftfield, ragtag band of high-school misfits with willfully nasty lyrics and a lazy brilliance. The wunderkind of the LA-based brotherhood, (full name Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All) is Earl Sweatshirt – and his solo career is ahead the pack.
The precocious 19 year old comes with an intriguing backstory. Tyler the Creator, founder of the O.F.W.G.K.T.A collective, discovered Earl on MySpace in 2009 when he was just 15. The Odd Future alpha was impressed by what was to became Earl's trademark style: macabre lyrics and dexterous wordplay, delivered with a cooler-than-thou lethargy.
The rapid rise of the collective, which also boasts R’n’B superstar of the moment Frank Ocean, took Earl almost to the summit of superstardom. But disaster struck: he was snatched from the spotlight by his mother and sent to a correctional boarding school in Samoa until his18th birthday. This prompted a Free Earl campaign, launched by his Odd Future brothers-in-arms, which went viral.
He became a cult hero in absente, and this September Odd Future’s prodigal son returned triumphant with his debut album Doris, and in doing so, validated the hype.
The album is starkly personal. Launching out of hiphop fantasyland, with its images of money, cars, women - this album is a protracted confession of vulnerability. In Chum, we’re told over a wistful piano loop that Earl is 'frightened' and that ‘It’s probably been twelve years since my father left/ Left me fatherless/ And I just used to say I hate him in dishonest jest,/ When honestly I miss this n*gga like I when I was six’.
But don’t worry, he hasn’t gone too soft: most of the lyrics are still fairly obscene, as well as betraying a questionable attitude towards women. It's not just Daddy issues.
And Doris certainly isn’t overproduced. Earl maintains Odd Future’s scruffy, DIY modus operandi: he co-produced tracks Chum and Hive. There’s an intended clumsiness to the record, which undercuts the piercing lyrical dexterity.
The crowd on March 23 will be mostly teenage devotees sporting flat-caps and back-packs, but don’t let that put you off. Earl Sweatshirt is a supremely talented young rapper, displaying preternatural wisdom - despite the filthy mouth
Ticket price: £21
| What | Earl Sweatshirt, Electric Brixton |
| Where | The Electric Brixton, Town Hall Parade, Brixton Hill, SW2 1RJ | MAP |
| When |
On 23 Mar 14, 7pm |
| Price | |
| Website | Click here to book via seetickets.com |