Earl Sweatshirt on the Evolution of Music Streaming Services and Big Data’s Impact on the Industry: 'These Algorithms Are Weird and Undefeatable' – vice.com

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By Caleb Catlin
The internet is beautiful and disturbing alike. On the one hand, the opportunities to learn something new are endless. You can connect with anyone, make new friends, and build lifelong relationships. There is true community to be built on the internet. On the flip side, some communities are harmful, and unfettered access can lead to some disturbing rabbit holes. In the end, you can be taken out of reality entirely.
Earl Sweatshirt knows this reality too well, initially building an audience of kids who worshipped Odd Future. “There’s an incel community that f*cked with OF super tough, just the idea of just boys being misogynistic with their bros,” he told Pitchfork in 2019.
Nowadays, the internet has become one big algorithm that has affected everything from music to social media. It’s that new rise in streaming that the artist born Thebe Kgositsile hates. “These algorithms are weird and undefeatable,” Earl Sweatshirt sighed before joking that he misses “the old evil.”
The real danger, however, is how it creates a strange power vacuum that doesn’t quite favor anyone. The system becomes extremely inequitable, and there’s no real joy to be found either way.
“Deification is the only other alternative to being a number now: You’re either a number or a god,” the Doris MC explained. “And if you’re a god, they love you like a god, and they hate you like a god. Neither is real.” 
Ultimately, Earl Sweatshirt feared that newer generations treat the internet like “god,” even though it’s not reality. Fighting through the bad thoughts, he hoped that the kids know better. “I don’t want to be sitting up piping all this negativity, bro. Because my heart is telling me, when I start to wander down them sentences, that n***as is figuring it out, and I can’t s**t on they efforts,” he said.
As for Earl Sweatshirt personally, he just relished in finding the middle ground to do something daring and meaningful outside the industry. Some Rap Songs was the last album with his label Columbia at the time. So he was just excited to branch out and do something fresh, despite the mess of streaming and the internet.
“Figuring out how you can be radical from within the system breaks your head,” Earl Sweatshirt admitted. “That’s where I’m really at: that frustrating-a** place. And this is the best attempt I got. Only so much can happen above ground. I’m excited to be free because then I can do riskier s**t.”
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