Earl Sweatshirt and the Alchemist’s NFT album isn’t a disruption
thefader.comVoir Dire, the collaborative rap project between Earl Sweatshirt and veteran producer the Alchemist, was originally conceived as a needle in a digital haystack, a YouTube playlist buried under a fake name and burner account.
The Alchemist first tweeted about the album in 2019; fast forward to 2021, and still no one had found it. The lead-up to the August 2023 release of the album was similarly convoluted and relied heavily on QR codes: they were found on Earl Sweatshirt merch, linking to screenshots of Alchemist tweets on a website called Gala Music; and at Earl’s Los Angeles concert on August 19, where online puzzles hosted on Gala Music revealed oblique references to the album’s name and a set of GPS coordinates in London. (The Alchemist also showed up at that LA show, setting up his equipment just to bring Earl a birthday cake and play no music).
The GPS coordinates directed fans to Jazz Cafe in Camden, where Earl and Alc would unceremoniously “present” their joint album following Earl’s scheduled London show on August 25.
Online reports from Jazz Cafe indicate a disorderly afterparty that saw Earl perform 30 to 40 seconds of “Making the Band (Danity Kane)” before promptly dipping.
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