Apples and Oranges: A$AP Ferg vs. Earl Sweatshirt

In a summer loaded with big name projects from big name rappers, today, two of the most interesting newcomers in the game officially release their albums. A$AP Ferg comes through with Trap Lord while Earl Sweatshirt drops Doris. Even though the albums have been streaming for about a week, today is a big day.

The two artists have one similarity that—up until this point—has somewhat defined their careers: They are the second artist to blow up from their respective rap crews. Earl is a member of Odd Future so he follows in the Vans-shaped footsteps of Tyler, The Creator. Whereas, Ferg—who reps A$AP Mob—bursts through the opening A$AP Rocky's ascent to stardom left. (Thankfully, despite some early tension, the two crews have narrowly avoided full blown beef.) This important commonality aside, the two artists couldn't be more different.

Remember learning about Venn diagrams in school? You know, the thing with the two big circles that overlap? Well, hopefully you do because it's a useful tool for talking about these two exciting artists. If we were to make one, the overlap in the middle would be pretty damn small. Musically, they talk about different things and say them in a vastly different way. Outside of the music, they don't wear the same clothes, are from two different coasts, and have completely different personalities.

That's why sharing a release date highlights how they occupy entirely opposite ends of the rap spectrum in 2013. The fact that they both are primed to have successful debuts speaks to how wonderfully diverse the genre is right now. To see how and why these guys make up two sides of the rap game's coin, check out Apples & Oranges: A$AP Ferg vs. Earl Sweatshirt.

Written by Max Goldberg (@goopygold)

Also check out A$AP Ferg on Complex TV's The Neighborhood below.

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For better or worse, lyrics are often the ultimate focal point fans and critics use for judging rappers. Earl is a classic lyricist. His slowed delivery makes every word that falls from his mouth easily audible and ready for digestion. He also boasts internal rhymes that would make the most technical rappers proud.

Ferg, on the other hand, is much less traditional. Classic rhyming is not his cup of tea. His words are more heavy handed, hard hitting squaks that hit you more in the stomach than in the brain.

The difference in the MC's approach is best seen when they both talk about death on their albums. On "Burgandy," Earl is technical and longwinded about his grandmother's health, "Grandma's passing/But I'm too busy trynna get this fucking album cracking to see her/So I apologize in advance if anything should happen."

Ferg, talking about the death of his father, saying, "Thinking about my goddamn father again/Why he couldn't see a nigga in Medusa lenses/Why he couldn't see a nigga cop his first Benz." Both express the same idea and deal with the same emotions, they just do it differently.

You know that expression that old people say, "I could listen to him read the phone book?" No? Well, it means that a person's voice or speaking manner is so enjoyable, it could make the most mundane shit totally captivating. Not only would Ferg and Earl both provide a pretty damn good rendition of the Yellow Pages, but it would sound completely different. Whereas Earl is laid back, plodding, and temperate, Ferg is raucous, uncontrolled, and all the fuck over the place.

Earl raps with a deliberate lack of inflection while Fergestein bends his voice so that it sounds like it's only inflections. The best thing about each MC's flow is that it's almost never the same song-to-song. One minute Ferg will be harmonizing like his idols Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and the next he will be spazzing like he did on "Work." Earl can switch between a ceaseless stream of rhymes to a start-and-stop flow without you even realizing he did it.

In terms of production, neither album features a ton of big names, they're mostly produced by a lineup of longtime collaborators. However,Trap Lord does have a track produced by Jim Jonsin's team while Doris features production from The RZA and The Neptunes.

The beats Earl chooses match his personality and they intentionally take a back seat to let the focus fall on Earl's words. They are subdued, tense, and while they may threaten to take it up a notch, they rarely do. The same can not be said for the beats on Ferg's debut. They're loud, energetic, and rather than let the rap do all the heavy lifting, they work in tandem with the vocals to turn the energy level way up.

There might not be an easier way to see the differences between these two rappers than to compare the lead singles off their debut albums. Both songs have been out for almost year, but that's about where the similarities end. Ferg's "Work," while excellent on its own, became one of the hip-hop songs of the summer with the help of a star-studded remix that featured A$AP Rocky, French Montana, Trinidad James & Schoolboy Q. The song is loud, aggressive, and most certainly a hit. Need proof? Watch this.

Earl's "Chum" is the opposite in pretty much every way. "Chum" is a toned down lament on Earl's early-life troubles, like the pain his father's departure caused or the circumstances that lead him to his infamous Samoan boarding school. (Hey, we also get a sweet shoutout!) Both songs are excellent and show two artists doing what they do best. It just so happens that what they do best are entirely different things.

As mentioned before, the main factor linking Earl and Ferg is that they are each the second MC to blow up out of their respective crews. Their crews also have relatively similar timelines: both formed at the end of the aughts and rose to fame in 2010-2011. While the groups do similar things, most notably make music and a have serious interest/presence in the clothing world, they couldn't do them more differently.

Odd Future's main audience has proven itself to be teenagers who quickly bought into the "Kill People, Burn Shit, Fuck School" mantra. Building off of that base, all of the projects under the OFWGKTA seem to come back to a certain rebelliousness. A$AP Mob, on the other hand, are more of the mainstream rap stars. Like Dipset before them, the Mob's members are funny and charismatic, making the transition to mainstream stardom that much easier.

When it comes to Earl and Ferg's personalities, it's a classic case of introvert versus extrovert. Everything about Ferg screams (like, literally screams) someone who's comfortable with the spotlight. More than anything, Ferg exudes a ton of energy. He's off-the-walls, in the best way possible.

Earl, on the other hand, seems to be someone more comfortable with less attention on him. Maybe it seems that way because he was in fact absent for the first part of his career, or because his vocals are so reserved, but Earl acts like someone who isn't ready to embrace rap superstardom. On Doris's standout "Burgandy," he raps, "And I'm stressing over payment, so don't tell me that I made it/Only relatively famous in the midst of a tornado." Earl understates his fame, and that may be because he feels ambivalent about it.

While hip-hop has become less and less regional thanks to the ever-reaching tentacles of the Internet, where you grow up still has a huge influence on who you become.

People often credit (and criticize) Ferg's partner A$AP Rocky for being heavily influenced by the Houston sound. While Ferg certainly takes a little bit from all aspects of rap history, he is absolutely in the line of Harlem stars that have come before him. He boasts the charming cockiness passed down to him by Cam'ron and Dipset and the gritty flashiness that comes from growing up, and making it, in a city that consistantly claims to be the best in the world.

On the other side of the country, Earl's sound may not be classicly Los Angeles (it's certainly not the Dr. Dre approved G-funk) but his, his crew's, and his fanbase's entire aesthetic and outlook screams L.A. skate culture.

Fashion has always been a big part hip-hop, but it seems to be a lot more important to one of our MCs than the other.

Before he was a rapper, A$AP Ferg was a fashion designer. After focusing on fashion at Manhattan's Art & Design highschool, Ferg wanted to be the next Ralph Lauren. He prides himself on having a very refined fashion sense, and likes claiming the A$AP Mob started the designer clothes trend that currently dominates hip-hop.

Earl does not quite have the same pasion for flashing that Ferg does. Not to say dude is not stylish, he certainly rocks the Odd Future aesthetic well, but it's pretty obvious that he is not as invested in his clothes as the Trap Lord is.

Outside of the hip-hop world, Earl, Ferg and their respective crews have extreme sport hobbies. Earl and Odd Future's brand has always been distinctly tied to Los Angeles skateboarding—whether it is relating to the culture, making skateboards, or actually skating. Skate culture generally disassociates itself from glitz and glam, just like Earl does on his album.

The extreme sport of choice for Ferg and the A$AP Mob is biking. Ferg has not only boasted about his skills, but also said he grew up idolizing the Ruff Ryder gangs that zoomed all over Harlem. The sport, which dominated DMX videos in the late '90s, might be more classically hip-hop than skating, but there's no denying that it seems like more and more skater kids are bopping to hip-hop these days.

At the great risk of over-generalizing, A$AP Ferg and Earl Sweatshirt's die-hard fanbases are made up of different-minded people. Earl's die-hards hail from a special segment of the Odd Future fanbase, a segment that related to the group's overall rebellious message but felt an extra special something come from Earl's introspective, angsty rhymes. Introverted outcasts who were possibly a little too young for MF Doom but came along at the perfect time for Earl.

Ferg's fanbase, on the other hand, are people who love him love him for his high energy vocals, suprising melodies, and overall coolness. Less emphasis is placed on technical rap skills, but rather on the fact that he's fun to listen to. People who love Ferg might think that Earl is an overly intellectual buzzkill and those who love Earl might be quick to dismiss Ferg as buffoon rap.

But hey, they're both great artists in their different own ways. Can't we all just get along?