Last Thursday, by total surprise, Earl Sweatshirt announced he’d be releasing a new EP called “FEET OF CLAY.” The circles of the internet that I follow — you know, populated by insufferable liberal arts rap nerd types — all lost their mind, as Sweatshirt has become a bit of a wunderkind over the past few years.
Seeing initial success only as a 16-year-old in groundbreaking rap group Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, Sweatshirt began down a darker path with his stunningly introspective 2016 record “I Don’t Like S***, I Don’t Go Outside.” He continued down that darker path last year on “Some Rap Songs,” a jitteringly-anxious record that was easily some of the best rap music of the year.
And while “FEET OF CLAY” doesn’t quite compare to the lofty heights set by Sweatshirt’s previous two records, it’s still a project that his most serious of fans are sure to love.
Clocking in at just a bit more than 15 minutes long, despite cramming in seven songs, it becomes clear fairly immediately that this project is perhaps best compared to a sketchbook or collected writings from an already establish auteur. “FEET OF CLAY” is obviously not Sweatshirt’s best work, but rather feels like something that is meant to be viewed through the lens of his previous records, as if Sweatshirt is just checking in on his fans to say “hello” in between more complete projects.
This isn’t to say that it feels as though Sweatshirt is losing his edge. He still clearly shows off his skills as one of the most technically-gifted emcees in rap right now. Throughout the brief run-time of “FEET OF CLAY,” Sweatshirt displays some dizzyingly complex rhyme schemes.
The rapper tends to employ techniques seemingly designed to make the listener feel uncomfortable. He focuses more on internal rhyme than end rhyme, giving his flows this lurching quality that gives the illusion of being offbeat, even though it never actually is. Couple this with the fact that Sweatshirt consistently raps at a slower rhythm than that of the beats he’s rapping over, and Sweatshirt begins to take on the sound of the great MF DOOM coupled with the social anxiety of Gil Scott-Heron, and that’s not a complement I had out lightly.
The issue with “FEET OF CLAY,” though, is that it largely sounds exactly like what I would expect an Earl Sweatshirt project to sound like at this point. It’s not the stunning stylistic about face that “I Don’t Like S***, I Don’t Go Outside” was, nor does it probe those depths further the way “Some Rap Songs” did.
This isn’t to say that Sweatshirt feels like he’s phoning it in — a mediocre Earl Sweatshirt record is still miles more interesting than a lot of other rappers — but it does feel as though he’s resting on his laurels. We’ve heard Sweatshirt use flows like these before. With the exception of the track “EAST,” we’ve heard him use beats like these before. It’s Earl Sweatshirt by the numbers.
“FEET OF CLAY” obviously comes from the same creative headspace as the previous two records, and only time will tell if it will serve as a coda to this period of his career, or if its the first indication of creative stagnation.
