#New rap albums 2023 full

As with his previous albums, the ride is consistently rewarding. Earl's not giving you easily digestible, radio-friendly singles he's inviting you on a journey that's unlike just about anything else the current rap world has to offer.

#New rap albums 2023 full

It's an album that's full of many layers, and though it only clocks in at 24 minutes, it demands a lot of your time and attention if you're hoping to unpack all of it. He crams so many personal details into these songs, and without a lyric sheet, you're probably not gonna absorb it all on first listen. Compared to the blurry, mind-bending Some Rap Songs and the following year's Feet of Clay, SICK! is a clearer, more direct rap album, but still more abstract than the music Earl was making on I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside and earlier. That comes through constantly on SICK!, which is yet another display of deep, complex, abstract rapping over a well-chosen backdrop of psychedelic beats, and one that sounds nothing like any of Earl's previous projects. The way Earl channels all of this music through his own is very Bowie-like - Navy Blue and MIKE and Armand Hammer his Lou Reed and Iggy Pop and Marc Bolan - and like Bowie, Earl is more than an ambassador for under-appreciated artists he's also a trail-blazing, visionary artist in his own right too. From that diverse list alone, you get the sense that you can't pin SICK! down as one specific style or subgenre of rap, and Earl really seems to be fusing all the various influences he's developed over time, not jumping from one sound to the next.

And just as you could feel the influence of artists like Navy Blue and MIKE on Some Rap Songs, you can hear how Armand Hammer's deceptively subtle sound has impacted SICK!.Įlsewhere on SICK!, there's beats from frequent Earl and Armand Hammer producer The Alchemist, a verse from ZelooperZ of Danny Brown's Bruiser Brigade crew and four songs produced by frequent Bruiser Brigade beatmaker Black Noi$e (Danny Brown of course being another rapper who blurs the line between underground and mainstream, and an Earl collaborator from back in the day), and beats by Navy Blue (as Ancestors), Samiyam, Alexander Spit, and more. Earl appeared on their last two albums, and they appear on 'Tabula Rasa' off Earl's new LP SICK!. On 2018's excellent Some Rap Songs, Earl helped shine a light on the hazy, psychedelic sounds that NYC artists like Navy Blue, Standing on the Corner, and MIKE had been (and still are) making, while more recently he's developed a collaborative relationship with a darker, murkier NYC duo: Armand Hammer (aka billy woods and ELUCID). His unique position in the rap world has made him an ambassador for the underground, and he continues to find exciting new artists to collaborate with and new sounds to experiment with. His early fame has allowed him to maintain visibility within rap's mainstream (and remain on a major label) the entire time, but Earl hasn't made music that sounds anything like 'mainstream rap' since at least 2013's Doris, and even that album still feels left of the dial. It's been fascinating to watch Earl Sweatshirt continue to evolve in the decade-plus since he released his instant-classic debut mixtape as a 16-year-old.