I know I'm kinda feeding the blog machine monster by reporting on this, but considering that the buzz surrounding his absence was enough of a cultural phenomenon to warrant a borderline-creepy Facebook detective mission from Complex and an 8,000-word story in the New Yorker, I think it deserves some sort of mention here.

It went down like some all-too-familiar modern-day rap buzz story arc: an inconspicuous tweet yesterday afternoon from a new Twitter account @earlxsweat, a quick plead for more followers, the release of this teaser video promising a new track once he hit 50,000, and of course, the actual track itself. Released on a webpage called terttlefer.com that features nothing but the 1:48-long song and a huge-lipped caricature of Odd Future's long-missing youngest member, it's appropriately called "Home" and features splashy production by James Pants, aka Spokane's best producer ever.

Though it's not quite as jaw-dropping as other 1-minute verses the rap savant has released in the past, it's still some high quality stuff from the kid who released an underground classic that shocked the world when he was only 16. For all we know, this verse could've been recorded a while ago, during his stay in military school. But no matter the case, it's likely just a small taste of what the Early Man has in store for his ravenous fanbase.

Especially of note here is the mild reaction from Odd Future frontman/Earl's half-brother Tyler, the Creator, who simply tweeted this, then this. Even more of note is the fact that Earl's birthday is February 24, 1994, meaning he will be turning 18 in two weeks. What will he do with his newfound legality? Say "fuck you" to his mom, who has forbidden her son to hang out or make music with Odd Future, and reunite with his "gang of wolves and creeps and crips as deep as Dawson's Creek and shit?" Or were those quotes in the New Yorker article about him making "positive changes" closer to the truth than the OF camp suggested, and the James Pants beat a hint at a new direction he's taking his career? He's always sounded a bit like a younger, more twisted MF Doom, and a lot of his early freestyles were over Stones Throw-style beats, maybe he wants to get away from abrasive, IDGAF rap about having "switchblades and cocaine in [his] back pocket" and more into his own weird lyrical lane, much like the masked one did in his post-KMD days.

Or maybe this is all just another prank from Odd Future to get people like me to write stuff like this. Either way, I'll be paying attention to this situation until Earl is able to make the decision. You can still download Sweatshirt's EARL album on the usual Internet sources, so go scoop it up and get hip to it if you have somehow been snoozing throughout this entire endeavor. If this is the case, as the big homie says, God bless you.