Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist appear to have recorded a new album together, and it could be just a days away from dropping.
The veteran producer sparked excitement for the project on Tuesday (August 22) when he posted what appeared to be a tracklist on Instagram with the title Voir Dire.
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The cryptic tracklist included 11 songs with titles such as “27 Braids,” “Mac Deuce” and “Free the Ruler,” as well as a guest feature that was blurred out.
Fans at the time immediately speculated that it was a joint project between Earl and Uncle Al. “This gotta be the Earl album right,” read one comment on the post, while another said: “EARLCHEMIST.”
One eagle-eyed user even shared a link to the website music.gala.com/hahaha, which asks people to “find at least 3” songs from “the tracklist” via a word search puzzle.
It also poses the question: “When did Al start snitching?”
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Fans’ hunch appeared to be right as The Alchemist posted a flyer on Wednesday (August 23) promoting a show in London later this week headlined by himself and Earl Sweatshirt.
“Earl Sweatshirt + The Alchemist Present: VOIR DIRE,” reads the poster. “Location: Jazz Cafe, 5 Parkway, London NW1 7PG, UK. Aug 25 22:30 – 03:00.”
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The Jazz Cafe’s website doesn’t mention anything about a new album, but it does promise a “once in a lifetime party” featuring a “finely curated lineup of local heroes and global giants,” while also telling attendees to “expect the unexpected.”
The show follows Earl Sweatshirt’s concert at KOKO on Friday evening celebrating the 10th anniversary of his debut album Doris, just as he did in his hometown of Los Angeles last week.
The Alchemist previously teased a collaborative project with Earl Sweatshirt last year, telling Complex: “We have a pot that’s been bubbling. We have several things in motion. I’ll just say that. But stay tuned.”
Before that, the producer revealed that he and Earl secretly uploaded a joint album on YouTube which, at that point, had yet to be found.
“We did one and dropped it already under a fake name. Youtube. Go find it,” he tweeted in January 2019, before adding in a separate tweet two years later: “We hid a whole album on youtube under a fake name and youtube page. Fake album cover, song titles, the whole 9. Nobody found it yet.”
Despite their 16-year-age gap, Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist have formed a potent partnership over the last decade, linking up for over a dozen songs including “Uncle Al,” “E. Coli” and “Mtomb.”
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Most recently, the pair connected on “RIP Tracy” alongside billy woods, from the producer’s Flying High EP, as well as “Old Friend” and “Lye” from Earl’s 2022 LP Sick!, which Alchemist hailed as “incredible.”
“He cares bro. He cares a lot,” Earl said of the beatmaker in an interview with Zane Lowe last year. “[You listen to his music] and it’s like, ‘Whoa, there’s a lot going on here.’ Him and Madlib, bro. It’s like, ‘Oh, this is not just a loop.'”
