Below is the sheet music for Earl Sweatshirt’s rhythms on his song “Earl”, from his 2010 album called Earl. There is also a video that plays back all of his rhythms for the first 32 bars of his rap.
-Capitalized words are rhymed words
-the long curving lines underneath the note heads represent sentences or grammatical fragments
Queries:
I'd wager to say that Earl has little to no education in theory; do you think that he meant to rap in 9 or is it just how he said it that day?
Have you heard other versions of him doing this and, if so, are they the same?
How much do his 64th note novtuplet (?) ties lend to his style?
Would his rap be terribly different if he just skipped down beats and rapped with less syncopation?
What do you think rappers like Andre 3k, MF Doom and Earl think of when rapping their rhythms; do they just "go" or is there a sense of "Imma need ta make dis spit flow as fuck" in regards to their rhythms?
I apologize for the onslaught of inquiries but, after reading a lot of your analyses, these questions have been nagging at me.
I do really appreciate this site btw. I've shared it with my friends multiple times and am attempting to consume all of your material.