Credit: YouTube

Earl Sweatshirt is one of the best rappers of his generation, yet, for some reason, he isn’t always recognised as such. A lot of his contemporaries and collaborators seem to get more credit than he does, but he deserves to be celebrated as much as any of them.

Since his rise as a teenage member of the Odd Future group, which also boasts Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean as especially noteworthy alumni, Earl has released several mixtapes and albums to great critical acclaim—but, still, arguably without ever getting the widespread recognition that his talent calls for.

Despite the positive reviews, there is a sense in which Earl is underrated as an artist, and the same can be said of a bunch of his songs. The rapper is one of the best lyricists and storytellers out there, with his tracks plumbing the depths of the human condition, discussing a wide range of topics over some infectious beats.

Here is a look at five tracks which, while brilliant, have somehow been drowned out, missing out on well-deserved mainstream recognition.

Five Earl Sweatshirt songs you should know

5. ‘45’ – Craft Singles (2016)

It’s less than a minute and a half long, which maybe goes some way to explaining why it is often overlooked, but ‘45’ is a great track. Produced by The Alchemist, the song appeared online all the way back in 2014, uploaded to Earl’s unofficial unofficial YouTube account, dar Qness, before seeing an official release as part of The Alchemist’s Craft Singles two years later.

What was striking about it at the time was how different Earl’s voice sounded on it—the flow was pretty much as you’d expect, but the tone was much deeper. It imbued ‘45’ with a sort of fury, even with its limited runtime.

4. ‘Hoarse’ – Doris (2013)

Appearing on a debut album as distinguished as Doris, released in the summer of 2013, it’s probably not a surprise that ‘Hoarse’ is a bit overlooked. ‘Chum,’ ‘Whoa,’ ‘Sunday,’ and ‘Hive’ are the album’s standout tracks in terms of their popularity, but the penultimate song, ‘Hoarse,’ is a seriously good one which deserves to be uttered within the same breath as the others.

While the opening lines are vivid and arresting, “Gorgeous chrome-plated horse whip / Home-making paintings for poor quality porn flicks”, it’s arguably BadBadNotGood’s backing track that charges the song with its deep sense of tension. It’s a gripping listen, in any case.

3. ‘Quest/Power’ (2015)

This song, as the title suggests, is split into two distinct parts: ‘Quest’ and ‘Power’. Made in collaboration with producers Budgie and Samiyam, it appeared on SoundCloud before Earl’s second album, 2015’s I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, was released, and, at the time, it seemed like a safe bet that it was going to feature on the record. But it didn’t, which is maybe why it gets ignored when assessing his back catalogue.

‘Quest/Power’ is a banger, and it holds its own against any of Earl’s other tracks. The production is slick, and lines like “My heart cold like the fucking carrots in the grocery store” are evocative in the weirdest possible way, using everyday images to make disparate yet accurate connections.

2. ‘Solace’ – Solace (2015)

It’s hard to say whether ‘Solace’ is a song or an entire EP, but it deserves to be on this list regardless. Dedicated to his mother, it was uploaded to Dar Qness in 2015. Over ten minutes and five distinct parts, it covers some bleak themes, including addiction, depression, death, and grief, although love shines through the darkness, too.

It can hardly be said that ‘Solace’ is critically underrated, given all the rave reviews it received, but the unorthodox nature of its release, where he quietly uploaded it to YouTube, without ever releasing it officially, has let it flow somewhat under the radar in terms of the wider public’s appreciation. It is a deeply impressive work, though, and hence deserves a mention on this list.

1. ‘Mirror’ – Animals Have Feelings (2016)

Although it appears on producer Samiyam’s solo album, Animals Have Feelings, the track ‘Mirror’ was actually meant to feature on I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. But, as Earl explained to Pitchfork in 2015, “The tracklist got fucked up” because he wanted to include it after the track ‘Faucet’ but couldn’t get the rights to the sample in time. He elaborated, “As far as the mom dynamic thing goes, the juxtaposition of ‘Mirror’ against ‘Faucet’ was so crucial, but the fucking sample didn’t get cleared”.

It’s a real shame that ‘Mirror’ didn’t make it onto the album, especially in light of how important Earl himself thought it was. But, at least he managed to release it eventually with the help of Samiyam.