![]() ![]() ![]() The Golf Wang-clad, vape-inhaling Earl fans of 2011 who gathered around the Flog stage were undoubtedly reeling when “Emperor” premiered. The sample’s whirling keys and ascendent vocal loop tug at our senses, restoring nurturing warmth in our consciousness. The record flips the 1971 track “Find Me, Love Me” from the soul collective Wee into a technicolor stroll around the surface of the sun. Sweatshirt performed “Black Emperor” at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw festival in 2019, and the ripped audio from the live stream has amassed over 250k plays on YouTube and Soundcloud. “Black Emperor” – Performed Live at Camp Flog Gnaw, 2019 I decided to round up a handful of the best unreleased songs Sweatshirt’s performed over the years. It’s an amusing guessing game for diehards to determine which tracks might get performed at any given show, and witnessing one of them adds a gratifying familiarity to the concert experience. Accepting the songs’ live-only status proves more rewarding than infuriating. It’s not hard to envision internet zealots bickering endlessly over the most granular details if the official recordings ever surfaced, and the tracks would likely live in constant comparison to the concert versions. Sweatshirt’s perspective adds fresh justification to the discussion. This n****’s close to me, about to cry and do the song.” You create the magic.” I don’t like the high frequencies,” or whatever the fuck, and that zaps the magic out of it - versus, “I only hear this song live at shows. “Those songs could have come out and people could be like, “Man, the mixing on this is meh. ![]() In an interview with Rolling Stone late last year, Sweatshirt described his rationale for this mindset, and the unmatched feeling of seeing fans connect with them at shows. An era of steady leaks have watered down the thrill of hearing a record live before its eventual release, but to know the lyrics of a song that is strictly for the live setting forms a unique bond with the artist. It builds social media buzz for upcoming releases and gauges fan reaction to the new material. It would be trite to point out that artists regularly preview new music during live sets. The industrial churn of “Death Whistles” for instance would not feel out of place on the overly claustrophobic I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, while “Shrooms” pulls from the dizzying psychedelia of Some Rap Songs. The sheer volume and quality of material previewed over the last five years could fulfill multiple full-length projects, while the varying styles align with the nearest chronological physical release. The fan ire is not completely without merit, though. Internet theorists would suggest, perhaps not inaccurately, that many of the previewed songs comprise the hidden album the Alchemist alluded to last year. Sample issues likely hinder their timeline, but for all we know, they’re collecting dust on a master hard drive in the Alchemist’s Santa Monica studio. The tracks circulate regularly online, and might have instilled a naive sense of hope among fans that their favorite snippets would appear as finalized versions on SICK! Only the songs almost never see the light of day. The most popular tracks – often the ones containing the best quality, either from live streams or fan videos – rack up hundreds of thousands of plays. ![]() Thoroughly crafted spreadsheets and Reddit threads created by overzealous fans document the history of the previewed songs and when they originally premiered, while YouTube channels and Soundcloud pages house them in hours-long playlists. Sweatshirt’s unconventional live shows are noteworthy for the revolving door of unreleased material that frequently appears on setlists, a practice that’s become synonyms with his live footprint. In the weeks leading up to the release of SICK!, Earl Sweatshirt’s fourth official LP that arrived last January, fans clamored in online spaces over a central point of discussion. Ross Olson will cry tears of joy once the Angels are sold. Support truly independent journalism by subscribing to Passion of the Weiss on Patreon. ![]()
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