I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt
A claustrophobic, self-produced masterpiece of insular rap. Muddy loops, heavy grief, and deadpan delivery recorded in a dark room with the blinds drawn.
A claustrophobic, self-produced masterpiece of insular rap. Muddy loops, heavy grief, and deadpan delivery recorded in a dark room with the blinds drawn.
Insular retreat
Low ceilings, gray static, and the smell of stale indoor air crowd these ten tracks. Heavy, self-produced basslines drag like wet wool through the dark, while blunt-force rhymes are delivered in a flat, exhausted mumble. You are sitting right there on the floor of a locked room with the blinds drawn, listening to someone dismantle their own grief in the dark. It is a suffocating, private space that offers no easy exits and no sunlight.
The writing leans notably further into grief than the rest of the catalogue.
Critics warmly received the album's deeply personal songwriting and claustrophobic atmosphere, noting that its dense lyricism rewards repeat listens. While its brief running time and highly understated, sparse production left some reviewers wanting more sonic variety, most appreciated the record's authentic and intimate focus.
“He seems intent on exorcising his mind, not wallowing in delusion”Read review
“Earl’s aversion to clarity means I Don’t Like Shit can feel like something of a monochromatic slog, albeit an admirably executed one”Read review
“No less of a hip-hop landmark than higher-profile recent communiques from Drake and Kendrick Lamar”Read review
“It’s clearer now than ever that Earl Sweatshirt doesn’t care for your expectations, and that he’s at his brilliant best when refusing to cater to them”
“Raps about his darkest demons on a brilliant, claustrophobic solo set”Read review
“The art comes first, and as a result, Earl’s produced an album that’s concise, consistent and cerebral”Read review
“With nothing to prove and no longer an upstart, Earl sounds, more than ever, simply like himself”Read review
“He’s courageous in sharing, but had he pushed the envelope further by filling the album out, I Don’t Like Shit could have been more helpful to a wider audience”Read review
“The little dude is a poet. Still, at a relatively lean 30 minutes, it’s hard to argue this is a heavyweight album”Read review
“There’s a fair bit of tension in his rhymes and it works for him”Read review
“At just under a half hour, it’s even more understated than its predecessor, with fewer guests, almost no outside producers, less variety—less everything, really”Read review
“While the production is sedated, it allows Earl to highlight (and speak to) themes of anxiety, fame, relationships and loss, raw content far from the fantasy life he’s boasted about in the past”Read review
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