My Theory On Who SK La' Flare, off of Earl Sweatshirt's "Doris" Really Is
My Theory On Who SK La’ Flare, Off Of Earl
Sweatshirt’s “Doris” Really Is.
By: Nick Zablocki
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| "Doris" By: Earl Sweatshirt APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY |
When the hip-hop collective Odd
Future was initially blowing up in late 2011/early 2012, member Earl Sweatshirt
was more of an urban legend, than an actual rapper. Hipster fans of OF knew
about Earl from his 2010 self-titled mixtape “Earl.”[1]
But, not long after the release of “Earl,”
Earl
was M.I.A. Rumors circulated through the early days of Twitter[2],
it turned out Earl was sent to a Samoan boarding school for at risk boys. When
he returned in the spring of 2012, Odd Future was massively more popular than when
he left. The anticipation of what Earl would do now that he was home, reached a
fever pitch. A stand out verse on “Oldie”
off
of The OF Tape 2, which featured most of the members of OF at the time,
let fans know that Earl had not fallen off while in Samoa. Now it was time to
deliver on his potential with an album.
A little over a year later, in
August of 2013, Earl released his debut album “Doris.”
to
much critical success. 15 tracks and not a weak one out of the bunch. Earl
displays a complete mastery of the English language through dense rhyme
schemes. There are a gaggle of stand out features, including, Vince Staples and
Mac Miller. But, the most enigmatic moment of the album happens on the opening
track, “Pre,”
with
a feature from someone named “SK La’
Flare.”
The
audacity for this overall nobody of a rapper to have the opening verse, on the
opening song of the album, is hilarious. The verse is probably about a 6/10,
which is only exacerbated by Earl completely popping off with a dynamo 10/10
verse to follow him up. All in all, it’s a very classic Earl move. But, it
leaves me with many questions, chiefly, who exactly is “SK
La’
Flare?”
A quick rap.genius
search will reveal that Mr. SK La’ Flare
is supposedly Frank Ocean’s cousin. We are also provided with a
picture that we are led to believe is SK La’ Flare.
Other than that, there isn’t much to find out about him. Fine,
whatever. I’ve
been listening to this song for over 4 years now, and I just always accepted
that Earl let this random guy spit an average verse to open up “Doris.”
That
is, until a couple months ago.
A few months ago I was really
fucking high, (shocker), and “Pre” came
up on my shuffle. I kept it running, as I always do.[3]
Something about this listen struck me different though. I was listening to SK
La’
Flare’s
verse, which, despite me ragging on it, has a lot of swag, and is easy to rap
along with. Then, like the apple falling on Isaac Newton’s
noggin, inspiration struck me. It occurred to me, what if SK La’
Flare
is actually Vince Staples playing a character?
Here’s
what we know: Vince Staples was featured on three songs off of “Doris,”[4]
so he was definitely present at some, if not all, of the recording sessions for
the album. Earl and Vince are both clowns in their own unique way, especially
when together. “SK La’
Flare”
feels
like the sort of name they would come up with for a character rapper whose
whole shtick is saying mediocre lines. SK La’ Flare’s
verse both sounds like the sort of things Vince Staples would say if he was writing
a bullshit verse, and, quite literally, sounds like Vince Staples if he was
slightly fucking around with his voice. The cover story of “SK
La’
Flare”
being
Frank Ocean’s
cousin seems like the sort of lie Earl and Vince would come up with on the
spot. If you’re
asking me, I think “SK La’
Flare”
is
actually Vince Staples.
To be honest, I think I believe my
theory because it’s funny and adds another layer to this
perplexing feature choice, more than I actually believe it to be literally “true.”
It
just seems very plausible, so I view “Pre” through
the lens that “SK
La’
Flare”
is
actually Vince Staples playing a character. But, I will grant that SK La’
Flare
very well could be a separate from Vince Staples, living, breathing human
being. I just prefer my theory more.
[1] Earl absolutely brutalizes the
English language on this mixtape. Think MF DOOM’s
dense, multi-syllable flow, crossed with the most grotesque violence of Eminem.
And, Earl was only 16 at the time. Ridiculous.
[2] Remember the early days of Twitter?
Everyone said literally anything, there was no filter. Remember before the P.C.
vultures ball-and-chained everyone’s
fun? My favorite tweet from this era, is a January 2011 tweet from Kevin Durant
that simply states, “Scarlett Johansson
I will drink ur bath water…#random.” Wow, those were the good ol’ days.
[3] This beat rattles whatever speakers
it’s coming through. Headphones? Check.
Bluetooth speaker? Check. Car Speakers? Check.
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