The 10 Best Earl Sweatshirt Lines

Celebrating his birthday with a flip through the highlight reel.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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I first found out about Earl Sweatshirt when an acquaintance put me onto the video for "Earl" in the summer of 2010. You didn't know what to make of it at first: the filth, the swagger, the grit in the beat, the unreasonably accomplished production values, and the miles upon miles of bars. It all just seemed to spring completely formed out of nowhere. Earl was the kind of arresting, singular release many artists spend a career in search of, the kind whose buzz a two year detention overseas couldn't quench. Sweatshirt returned a little older and a little wiser in 2012, and detailed all he'd learned on his Columbia Records debut Doris, ditching the rape-and-pillage mentality of Earl but not its cascading waves of dense wordplay and hairpin turns from snarling wit to world-weary, threadbare profundity.

Earl is one of the brightest lyrical talents of his generation and also one of the youngest; his prodigious mic skills have taken him from near-total obscurity to international renown among Odd Future's fiercely loyal fan network and beyond. As such we're going to take a look at some of the tongue-twisting one-liners that got him there, from devastating snark on early solo releases to the more poignant self-expression of the post-detention material and murder bars on guest verses along the way. We've picked ten, but feel free to jump into the comments here to let us know what you think we missed.

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10. "So I guess there's questions that need addressing, huh?/ Like how we fresh in our adolescence and wrecking em"

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Album: Radical
Producer: Tyler, The Creator
Label: Self-released

Odd Future's 2010 mixtape Radical found the group spewing acid over a handful of the more popular beats of the era. For "Orange Juice," Earl and Tyler united as EarlWolf, and Earl comes in at the top of verse one reminding the competition that they're getting mauled by a high school student.

9. "Itchin' for a foe to poach, spittin' like the engine on a motherfuckin' motorboat"

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Album: No Idols
Producer: The Alchemist
Label: Odd Future Records

Earl's guest spots on Domo Genesis and the Alchemist's collaborative album No Idols were among his first since coming home from detention in Samoa, and he shows he hasn't missed a step here, comparing his volley of internal rhymes to the sputtering engine of a motorboat.

8. "Hulk smash the brackets that the masses try to stash me in"

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Album: Customized Greatly Vol. 3
Producer: Tyler, The Creator
Label: Self-released

Wolf Gang affiliate Casey Veggies called a group summit on his 2012 mixtape Customized Greatly Vol. 3 and nets a Sweatshirt in full on tired-of-being-humble mode stunting about being more talented and unpredictable than the masses think he is.

7. "Promise Heron I'll put my fist up after I get my dick sucked"

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Album: Doris
Producer: randomblackdude & Matt Martians
Label: Columbia/Tan Cressida

Poet, musician and hip-hop godfather Gil Scott-Heron notably disapproved of rappers' harsh language in interviews, and Earl half-snidely, half-reverently promises Gil he'll get his shit together after he's through partying in the opening line of "Hive."

6. "Feeling as hard as Vince Carter's knee cartilage is"

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Album: Doris
Producer: randomblackdude & Christian Rich
Label: Columbia/Tan Cressida

All Star NBA shooting guard Vince Carter has had more injuries than a little bit in his pro career, and if you were as hard as the cartilage in his chronically out-of-whack knees, you'd probably be the hardest out.

5. "I'm transitioning from class clown to cash cow"

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Album: YelloWhite
Producer: Left Brain
Label: Self-released

Earl jumps on Hodgy Beats and Left Brain's debut release as MellowHype alluding to both his lot in the crew as the youngest on the mic and to his future aspirations as an MC. Four years, tour dates with Eminem, a major label deal, and a Billboard top 5 debut later, this seems like prophecy.

4. "Snapple fact: you rather wack"

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Album: Earl
Producer: Tyler, The Creator
Label: Self-released

Open a Snapple, and you'll find a numbered "Real Fact," one of hundreds of randomized, trivial factoids about nature, physiology, etc. printed underneath the cap. Sweatshirt springs this one on a foe, treating his target's wackness like common public knowledge.

3. "Wave hi to the Ritalin regiment"

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Album: Earl
Producer: Tyler, The Creator
Label: Self-released

The vengeful defiance and youth revolt Sweatshirt's Earl hinted at were sharpened to a point on deep cut "Pigions," which envisions the country's pharmaceutical-dependent young as an army plotting a hostile takeover.

2. "Get up off the pavement, brush the dirt up off my psyche"

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Album: Doris
Producer: randomblackdude & Christian Rich
Label: Columbia/Tan Cressida

Doris lead single "Chum" is a travelogue of hurt, self-medicating, and perseverance, and the closing line of the chorus is a resolute Sweatshirt promising to keep getting back up when life's left hooks and right crosses knock him down.

1. "I'm a hot & bothered astronaut, crashing while jacking off to buffering vids of Asher Roth eating apple sauce"

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Album: Earl
Producer: Tyler, The Creator
Label: Self-released

The opening lines of the self-titled opener from Earl Sweatshirt's debut mixtape Earl were a shock to the system, from the Em-influenced debauchery of the subject matter to the unsettlingly youthful voice delivering this filth to the terse mic control and cavalier delivery pushing it along. It all creepily pointed to an old soul trapped in a teenager's body.

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