Governors Ball Music Series + Recommended Listening: Earl Sweatshirt

Just last weekend I attended the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City.  I’m not usually much into the festival scene, except for the one-day joints, however when the lineup was released it seemed like it was decided upon specifically with my taste in mind.  I couldn’t believe the ridiculous lineup they were able to set up for this particular festival.

So, I bought a ticket.  I bought a concert ticket and a transportation ticket to get there, since it’s on a random island off Manhattan (Randall’s? or some shit), and I lived like a poor man even when we got to Manhattan, the most expensive place on Earth, since I had just paid rent in Arlington, Virginia (which the rent is too damn high too).  Fuck me, right?  Sike!  It was dope and well worth it.

Anyways, I wanted to write about some of my experiences there and with this segment I plan to write about every artist I saw and let you all know how they were in concert.  Plus, recommend to you some music from the particular artist.  If the artist was seen live but also reviewed for “365 Days of Music” then I will recommend to you something different from them. 

So here it is, today’s feature of our “Governors Ball Music Series” is 20-year old Los Angeles rapper, reppin’ the Odd Future (OFWGKTA) crew, Earl Sweatshirt.

Photo Courtesy: DJ Semtex

 Artist: Earl Sweatshirt

Date/Time: Sunday, June 8th 3:00 PM

Setlist:
1) Kill
2) Blade
3) 20 Wave Caps
4) Molasses
5) Sunday
6) Unknown (new song)
7) Centurion
8) Whoa
9) Orange Juice
10) Guild
11) Chum
12) Hive
13) Burgundy
14) Pre
15) Earl
16) Drop    

Concert Grade: A-

Recommended Listening: “Earl” (Mixtape)

365 Days of Music, Day 79: Earl Sweatshirt – Doris (2013)

Day 79 of 365.  Haven’t done a good hip-hop review here in a while so I figured, “hey! let’s do that today.”  Also, I happened to catch Loiter Squad recently on Adult Swim and it reminded me of something great like one of their own producing a killer album around the late summer of last year.  This is why today we will be reviewing Odd Future‘s own Earl Sweatshirt and his debut release Doris.

Release Date: August 20, 2013

Rating: B+

Key Track(s): Burgundy, Sunday, Hive, Chum, Sasquatch, Molasses, Whoa, Hoarse

Earl Sweatshirt first gained notoriety in 2010, at the age of 16, with his mixtape Earl released as a member of the Odd Future collective.  The lyrical content was shocking satire most notably criticized for its immaturity and vulgarity.  Standing at the edge of fame Sweatshirt vanished, not producing a single verse in over 2 years.  We all know the story by now, Mom sends the problem child away for a while, another country no less, until he cleaned up his act ultimately returning in 2012.  The now 20-year old Los Angeles-born rapper released his debut LP with much anticipation.  Don’t let his age or previous antics fool you, this is a rapper who was always wise beyond his years and, it now seems, has grown up.