Album: Doris

Producer: Tyler, The Creator

Label: Tan Cressida,Columbia Records



For those who favor a certain style of rap—call it post-Eminem labyrinthine-internal-rhyme-gymnastics (I mean, just to simplify things)—there is no better lyricist on the planet than Odd Future's wonder-teen Earl Sweatshirt. Who else can write stuff like, "Spot him on a rocket swapping dollars in for pocket lint/Then lob a wad of chicken at a copper on some Flocka shit..." And rhyme it in a deadpan monotone over a big boom-bap beat while a rickety worm-synth wobbles over top? No one. "Whoa." —Dave Bry