Misc. Day – Turned Tombstones

I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside is a new and different type of Earl Sweatshirt. Sweatshirt through his career transformed from just a child to a man in a matter of only five years. Gone are the immature lyrics and beats, they are instead ditched for grittier and grimier sounding tones that are more like a serious side of Earl. Listening to I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside is like listening to a horror music soundtrack that relies on rough sounding bass and the use of near-symphonic piano chords to create a sense of how somber life is for Sweatshirt.

Given as this is Earl Sweatshirt’s second studio album, expectations are high for the still young rapper. I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside is a record of vivid dreams that creates a picture of what growing up, progressing through life, dealing with depression, and deaths of friends and family are. This is a journey through the inner channels of Sweatshirt’s mind, even including personal accounts of stealing and hitting “licks” to survive.

Through one song titled “Grown ups,” Earl has a great line about “Asking god for favors, guess he isn’t home…” which is Earl’s way of saying he never found comfort in religion. He would pray to God but never find answers, which then resulted in having to hit the streets to make another tomorrow. Having nothing given to him was the way Earl has always lived and the way he always will live.

On the first track “Huey,” subjects such as drug use, money, death and being unable to focus on real problems are all prevalent. Earl describes his life today almost like “Burgundy” on Doris, speaking on the terms of his grandmother and the fact that Earl hasn’t had an unchallenging life. Earl has always been on a struggle to not only surviving in Los Angeles but also dealing with his “friends” that say they will be there but never are. I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside is a stepping-stone to see what Earl has in store for the audience as we go deeper into his psyche.

A single was released for the album called “Grief” which shows imagery of rats, snakes, and a dark world which is what Earl primarily sees in the world. Sweatshirt does not keep many close friends as he describes in another line, “Can’t trust these hoes, Can’t even trust my friends.”

I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside is a true masterpiece coming from the mastermind behind this interestingly produced record. Sweatshirt not only sets the bar, he raises it high and hits chins while on it.