On "Some Rap Songs" by Earl Sweatshirt
by Nate Kouri, Jack Howard, and Andrew Jones
eyeless, he brought a flashlight to the river (headphones on) both to pierce the fog and
to trace its snaking smoke (stutter static) bent at the knee someone pinch me out this
DREAM
heartretching on a hill at the edge of the water
(headphones turned up against his temples like horns)
hunched against the wind
leaning back to fight the downpull
balance against an earthly bend
hunched against the wind
there begins a slopesided groove
I aint know that I could leave sick sea history
history spun through the varispeed quilt
fragments weave the functional wholes
listen to the rolling sliding into
channel surfs in sound low tide glazing
growing growling bad piano sounds
hunched against the wind no coat no
fade veer hard cut luck
cut-ups
above the eyebrows
ripple rings knuckle-high waves rolling over and over each other
stretching shadows growing
hagfishslime breathing
where’d you get that burn?
no mouth and too much mood
what is mood?
the signature or the swing
forgetting or panicking
tripping over overlapping groove
this is 23
in blinks of memory
DON’T
discourse through 23 years
growth (dripples) in 24 minutes
dramples (growing) for seconds P(a)NIC
minutes by the rapper’s dozen keep (e)
doubline rhymes FORGET
flashing twangs between the youth pangs
soul bleating for the studio sol(a)ce
he sits on a snow stack melting (headphones off) unstoppable drip think see sick history
stumbling up the hill allll ready and down against the wind forgot another dream no
strangers in my way leaking again dive into the water
cut together across islands across the ocean across a celestial divorce
galaxy’s the distance between us by Christmas
DNA wound tight tied at the toes strung across the neck
overtones in chromosomes twisted body in a knot
depression this is not a phase
riot to write it right wrung oozy woozy dizzy sinking
swimming swirling skimming
WHEN looking out
thanks to the (teacher) losses yielding new look back in
thanks to the (most high) fifteen rangy sonic windows OPEN sky
thanks to the ( ) scrap(e)s of convos unrealized
thanks to the Clap cave momma’s thousand kisses
Clap
brief Clap Clap
Clap Clap
thanks to the grit laureat(e) assuming place
I need a city to hold down
THE
HATCH
Artists’ Statement: We love “Some Rap Songs” by Earl Sweatshirt. Inspired by intense conversations and long late-night texts about it, we decided to review the album. But instead of giving opinions on it in comatose journalistic prose and rating how fashionable it is, we wanted to respond to it in a language closer to its own : rhyming rusted shrapnel.
Andrew Jones writes and performs songs as Zap Tura (zaptura.bandcamp.com). Jack Howard drives the bus and eats tuna footlongs. Nate Kouri plays dumb and rides the bus.
Listen to the songs that inspired this piece either here through the attached album, or on our Spotify Playlist “.COM”