Music / Previews
Wu-Tang & Earl Sweatshirt both play Bristol
Bristol hosts a hip-hop battle of the generations next week with two essential shows in as many nights. First up, Earl Sweatshirt plays Trinity on Tuesday, June 2 as part of his tour for second album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. Real name Thebe Kgositsile, the Los Angeles rapper and producer rose to prominence as a member of the Odd Future collective, but his solo work is as personal as it is prodigious.
Drawling about fame, depression and heartbreak over red-eyed, opium fog beats, Earl is one of the most startling young voices in music today and it will be interesting to see how his famously bleak vision comes across live. Support comes from Ratking, the New York City trio whose mess of hip-hop and noise is making them hard to ignore. Another first time booking for Bristol, they should provide a bracing contrast to Earl’s introspective take on the genre.
is needed now More than ever
Like thousands of others, Ratking cite Wu-Tang Clan as an influence, and excitingly the golden era icons play O2 Academy the following night. Arguably the greatest hip-hop album of all time, Enter The Wu Tang: 36 Chambers is a dark labyrinth of re-tooled R&B hooks, Kung Fu samples and lyrics so dense with allusion you’d need an Enigma machine to decode them entirely.
They blew the scene apart in the mid-90s, and that initial flurry of group and solo releases – Liquid Swords, Cuban Links, Fishscale and the rest – remains one of the genre’s most impressive achievements. If their later output has failed to live up to that legacy, the back catalogue is more than strong enough to make for a special night. With nine or ten proper members and countless hangers-on it would be impossible to predict which Wu we’ll get on July 3, but no matter. It’s time to welcome them back from the slums of Shaolin.
Earl Sweatshirt plays Trinity on Tuesday, June 2 www.3ca.org.uk
Wu-Tang Clan play O2 Academy on Wednesday, June 3 www.o2academybristol.co.uk
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