Album: Doris (2013)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This subdued, menacing track finds Earl Sweatshirt spitting some dark rhymes alongside fellow West Coast upstart Casey Veggies, while early Odd Future member Vince Staples guests on the hook.
  • Earl supplied the song's beat with Matt Martians. He credits Christian Rich, who helmed several of the Doris tracks, for showing him the production ropes. "When he came back from Samoa he was messing around on Logic, so [we] gave him some sounds and just showed him how to quantize it," Taiwo "Christian" Hassan of the production duo explained to MTV News. "I didn't realize that we were teaching him how to make beats. I didn't even know he was trying to be a producer, and then before we even got in the studio he already did 'Hive.'"
  • The song's creepy music video was directed by Japanese-American USC film school graduate Hiro Murai, who also shot Sweatshirt's clip for "Chum." Said Murai: "We kind of had something that we already built and we were just building off of what we did for 'Chum.' Odd Future has this very specific brand, but Earl was clearly looking to do something a little more low-key and restrained. So there was a lot of back and forth trying to figure out where we were idea-wise."

    Murai told Billboard magazine that he always pushes the artists he's working with to "go a little weirder." He added regarding this visual, "This one was rough for Earl. He had just gotten off tour and was in the studio right before we pulled an all-nighter for this. People ask me what we did to make his face look so strung out, but he showed up that way! He caught pneumonia three days later."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")Song Writing

Director Mark Pellington on Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," and music videos he made for U2, Jon Bon Jovi and Imagine Dragons.

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions Answered

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions AnsweredSong Writing

10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine Band

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine BandSongwriter Interviews

Harry Wayne Casey tells the stories behind KC and The Sunshine Band hits like "Get Down Tonight," "That's The Way (I Like It)," and "Give It Up."

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And HellSongwriter Interviews

Guitarist Tony Iommi on the "Iron Man" riff, the definitive Black Sabbath song, and how Ozzy and Dio compared as songwriters.