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Holy Shit

Lil Herb and Earl Sweatshirt Made a Song Together Called "Knucklehead"

The hook and vibe is total old-school New York, which is obviously what you get when you combine the hottest young talents out of LA and Chicago.

Earl Sweatshirt and Chicago's Lil Herb are two of the most talented young rappers working right now, so it only makes sense for an energy drink company to get them together for its 20 Before 15 tracks series, which brings together a bunch of artists who did stuff with Red Bull this year or whatever. But even if the collaboration was slightly contrived, the result is totally organic, with Herbie and Earl playing off each other perfectly.

Annons

Both are dense lyricists, but they're dense in different ways, with the former's signature cadence making his raps sound crammed into every verse and the latter a master of twisting, internal rhymes. Both have also managed to navigate the space of being a highly touted, closely watched young rapper with high-profile fans without compromising any of their appeal. They're both brutally honest in their own ways, and the results on "Knucklehead" are fantastic, with Herb dropping tight, deceptively detailed lines like "young niggas, dumb niggas, we ain't listen, had to learn / killed my homies, now we grieving, load the heaters, let 'em burn" and Earl casually tossing off cutting observations like "can't step in my mama's crib without counseling." The hook and vibe is total old-school New York, which is obviously what you get when you combine the hottest young talents out of LA and Chicago. Anyway, this song is sweet, rap is sweet, lyrics are sweet, and you should definitely listen to it right now and maybe even grab a download if you can right here. Check it out below:

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