Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist - Voir Dire Review

Voir Dire stands as one of Earl Sweatshirt's lyrical triumphs.

Voir Dire is the legal term used when selecting jurors. It takes into account an individual’s experiences, the kind that may bias their judgements in court. The process is intended to lead to the appointment of a fair and truthful jurory.

Truth, veracity of honesty are some of Earl Sweatshirt’s lyrical cornerstones. Past releases have been transparent about struggles with mental health and drug use – appropriate then that Voir Dire is often (mis)translated, purportedly meaning ‘to see, to say’.

Hollywood blockbusters are what his albums are not. They rarely exceed 25-minutes and especially in the case of his much loved and largely self-produced Some Rap Songs, released in 2018, are anathema to ‘the hit single’. Most of Some Rap Songs features beats that squirm beneath bars that furiously attempt to prevent the song from morphing out of control.   

For this reason, Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist is both a logical and an illogical pairing. A hip-hop deity amongst beat-makers, while The Alchemist cut his teeth producing for underground rappers in the ‘90s, working alongside capricious wordsmiths in Earl Sweatshirt’s image, his more recent penchant for looped beatmaking and collaborations with rappers as high profile as Freddie Gibbs are far from Earl Sweatshirt’s subtle ways.

As it turns out, allowing The Alchemist to handle the instrumental aspects of the album was a felicitous choice. The two have worked alongside previously, albeit on individual tracks, but when presented in a longer form, The Alchemist brings out Earl Sweatshirt’s catchier side. Voir Dire is the closest Earl Sweatshirt will likely ever get to a mainstream hip hop album. The Alchemist’s silky beat on ‘Vin Skully’ is just one example where a more repetitive backing allows Earl Sweatshirt to build each lyric narratively, without the sudden mood changes, like those brought on by the mercurial beats on Some Rap Songs.

The different approach results in Voir Dire being not nearly as dense as Some Rap Songs. While that album encouraged listeners to be lost within impressionist beats and confessional bars, Voir Dire is less daunting. 

‘Heat Check’ sounds like a swamping Thundercat basslines with sampled soul vocals. Earl Sweatshirt sounds particular, piecing together Voir Dire-appropriate vignettes about catching ‘a whiff of sidewinder slitherin’ in the vine’.

‘Macala’ is The Alchemist’s best contribution. Nostalgic piano riffs thump with aplomb, sounding like the accompaniment to the nostalgic finale of a long-running sitcom. Vince Staples provides his first of two appearances, transitioning out of Earl Sweatshirt’s verses near invisibly.

Songs tend to be brief. Standing at 26 minutes and 11 songs, most settle at two verses and a chorus. Some of the album’s most notable moments fail even to reach this modest length. ‘Sirius Blac’, a song that’s existed since 2021, circulating online under other aliases, features a single verse and chorus and only just exceeds two minutes.

Nonetheless, the song succinctly conveys Earl Sweatshirt’s thoughts on activism, especially the somewhat milquetoast forms of protest he sounds indifferent towards. ‘Only big fish in the pond’, he says, ‘jump in, no risk, no reward.’

The notable exception to much of this album’s brevity is ‘The Caliphate’. It’s downtempo and mournful. ‘It gave me no release to hope for peace’ says Earl Sweatshirt, sounding at his most disconsolate. 

Voir Dire is a mature and professional album, on occasion to a fault. The guitar-led ’27 bards’ fails to amount to the sum of its parts, and it one of a few times where both musicians sound like they’re operating on autopilot. ‘Mac Deuce’ is better, underpinned by ornate synth riffs, brightly punctured by an assured and confident Earl Sweatshirt. It shows the quirk of a rapper who may demonstrate fear and insecurity within his words, but is paradoxically unafraid in doing so.

Closer ‘Free the Ruler’ is hopeful. ‘I’m back cuttin’ up a list of reasons I love mother’s laugh’, he says, the best one is that’s just what it is.’ Given the rapper’s propensity for scattered complexity, particularly within his beats, Voir Dire is the gateway album. It remains short, but a great deal of lyrical density, even across a modest runtime, remains one of Earl Sweatshirt’s crowning achievements, as he sees all and says all onVoir Dire.