Bro Jackson Jukebox Club, Vol. II: Earl Sweatshirt, A$AP Ferg, the week in rap

Ramon Ramirez and Clyde Lovellette are writers for Fansided partner, BroJackson.com.

Kendrick Lamar essentially ran the past week with his Rolodex-listing, call out of his contemporaries. Weirdly, it was on a Big Sean track so the whole event had an ugly D-League sheen (and I don’t mean Detroit). Over the last week it’s been a scramble for the genre’s leading Tiger Beat rappers to respond. The whole ordeal has been a tedious cigarette drag. RiFF RAFF probably went the hardest, because his song doesn’t really make sense and just floats alone as a well-written song.

To Big Sean’s credit, he’s put out some interesting music leading up to his second album, Hall of Fame. B.S. has been side-scrolling through life next to Kanye West since 2007 and the good taste has rubbed off (not to be confused with the less good, G.O.O.D. taste). After the Lamar song he dropped, “Fire,” the fourth-single from this project on Tuesday. It sounds great despite his rapping.

Elsewhere, Sir Earl Sweatshirt of Odd Future finally released his solo debut. I agree with Matt Lardner’s assessment that it’s a thrilling, super lyrical project often bogged down by its deep guest list. I just want Earl’s vision. I’m a Tyler, the Creator apologist but every time he raps alongside Earl it’s apparent that Tyler is about half as talented as a rapper.

Other highlights:

Gucci Mane feat. PeeWee Longway & Young Thug – “Intro”

Out of the over three hours of music Gucci Mane released last Tuesday as part of his World War mixtape series, the first song I heard is the best. The introduction track of World War 3: Lean features Brick Squad’s 3-on-3 starting lineup of the dominant Gucci Mane with PeeWee Longway, who’s quietly having a great year, and closer Young Thug. It’s an amazing follow up to Young Thug’s “Nigeria” and the perfect song they made from Trap House III earlier this year, “Off the Leash.” Rather than having Thugga set the tone like their previous songs together, this flips the formula to everyone’s benefit. PeeWee builds momentum juugin’ while shouting out E-40, and Gucci Mane sounds like a locomotive even before he calls himself Batman. Then the train flies off the tracks when Young Thug comes in with, “Baby I’m the president/I ball like George Jefferson/Her teeth whiter than a peppermint.” All of a sudden his phrases roar so fast that the handclaps come a bar too late, missing the line “Her ass keep clappin’ Magnolia Magnolia.” It gets to the point where Thug sounds like a baby crying and it’s unclear if he’s inconsolable or elated. Brick Squad has got some all-stars and they’ve retooled without tanking. — Clyde Lovellette

Earl Sweatshirt feat. Frank Ocean – “Sunday”

Over a sparse and woozy beat, Earl Sweatshirt raps about his girl in what is, if I’m not mistaken, the first of his raps where a woman was more than stuffed in a black Acura or his mom waking him up. He talks about the distance between him and his girlfriend created from rap fame and loving her almost as much as his music. He’s touring and staying faithful to her, but being in love isn’t solving all of his problems and neither is quitting weed for that matter. Growing up is about as fulfilling as buying alcohol with a real ID. Frank Ocean, the oldest member of Odd Future, appears to deliver a strong candidate for verse of the year: “Give me Bali beach no molly please, palm no marijuana trees/Your hickeys on my aorta and tattoos you could only see/When I’m playing surfboarder put whisky in that salt water/I emptied every canteen just to wear that straight edge varsity you think’s cool” Frank also mentions his brawl with Chris Brown and makes Earl look like the emotive genius in the Japanese bandana. While promoting Doris on Sway in the Morning, Earl told Sway he would break his promise to rap seriously on the radio. Here he got out-rapped on his own song. He’s a real rapper now. — CL

Mixtape of the week

As deep as Spotify is for new albums, the mixtapes get left behind. This week, D.C.’s arch king Fat Trel dropped the long-awaited SDMG tape. Go get that.

Check out previous editions of the Jukebox Club: Volume I