PHOTOS BY: ItchyEyePhotos
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: Dope Entertainment
Wednesday was the much-awaited return of Earl. To the dismay of countless fifteen to twenty-something year olds, mostly donning bucket hats and some with Naruto headbands, all looking, hoping to catch a glimpse of Earl iconic lip and forehead combo, the show was bumped to September from its original date. One would have to think that, that affected the turn out but hey, sucks for them they missed it.
To be expected from a rap show, you have to sift through scores of rappers trying to hype up the crowd; not always the most skilled of performers but at times you stumble upon a gem amongst un-gemy performers. The gauntlet of rappers hit the stage and the smoke weary people around me turned to zombies, turning up when a sick beat started and moshing when prompted to.
After two to four hours of waiting (time warps when you are in a haze) it was time. The Earl of Sweatshirts himself. Walking on stage, his steps imposed cheer. Playing much loved tracks off of Doris erupted in the most raw of emotions. Turning to his more playful side we all took in “Molasses”, that old hit about face-fucking and freckles falling off the woman’s face after doing so. A classic to say the least.
You can see the scars of the young brash Earl on the musical skin of the dark, spacey Earl, moving from his more “childish” songs to reflective, grimmer tunes.
Some time into the set the twenty-one year old spoke to the crowd, much like a fresh-faced camp counselor Earl taught the audience the lyrics to “Grown Ups”. Grand Central being loosely packed with fans as it was, the learning curve was cut.The interaction between the crowd and Earl was great, and at times comical. Earl shouted out some dude smoking an E-Cig and got the whole crowd to revel in joy of some anonymous guy, but opposite to that some girl just happened to jump on stage inciting Earl to push her off.
After Grand Central as a collective ran through “I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside” Earl thanked the crowd and asked for some praise for getting through it, but reminded everyone to still dislike the girl for her transgression. Much like all his tours Earl dropped some “new slappers” at the end of the night. In a world over saturated with trap inspired beat basically every new song sounds the same; thankfully the last four songs Sweatshirt played were remarkable.
After Earl’s set was finish, Grand Central got a pleasant surprise, a South Florida favorite.
Denzel Curry comes on stage.
The Miami native grips a mic and screams at the crowd the lyrics to one of his newest track, “Ultimate”. After the song finished Curry thanked Earl and Tyler for inspiring him and hugged out. There’s hardly anything else I can say that will come close to describing the hype, but it was fucking rad.
