Earl Sweatshirt teams up with Maxo for “Whole World”
The laid-back cut sees production from The Alchemist.
Last year, Earl Sweatshirt dropped off an EP titled Feet Of Clay, which saw seven mostly self-produced tracks and features from Mavi, Mach-Hommy, and Liv.E. This June, the Odd Future alum will release a Deluxe vinyl edition of the project, which will see two additional cuts. One of those cuts, “Whole World,” has officially made landfall for streaming. The hazy, laid-back number sees production from The Alchemist, providing the perfect landscape for Earl and collaborator Maxo to deliver multi-syllabic, stream-of-consciousness soliloquies to the masses:
Made a home outta house, lotta closet room, bones stackin’ like dominoes/
Catacombs, after the glow, the battle carry on, get all that malice out your soul, the efficacy strong/
I finish what I start, the funeral was hella long, I fell asleep, the effigy was short/
My effervescence lost, but not entirely, I shrug the venom off, kept a tiny piece for times we in the war/
I like to think of life as deep, chilly water, we in it, feelin’ warm, swimmin’ upstream, f*** is n***as on?/
Prior to Feet Of Clay, Earl Sweatshirt delivered 2018’s Some Rap Songs, an album that received almost universal acclaim due to its “against the grain” approach to hip hop. Speaking to NPR, the prolific emcee spoke on his approach to rapping and whether or not he’s trying to “expand” its definition:
“No, I’m going back to what it is. Look at what it is like from the documentaries. I think, when I was getting into rap music, my mom made me read the Jeff Chang book [Can’t Stop Won’t Stop], my mom made me watch all the rap documentaries. It’s like, bro, somebody gotta watch that s***. …I be thinking that things are matter of fact, like for all of us.”
Press play on “Whole World” below. Feet Of Clay Deluxe drops June 26.