It’s pretty exciting to see the names “Earl Sweatshirt” and “The Alchemist” in conjunction for the first single from Alchemist’s upcoming Bread EP, but you should definitely take a second to make sure the coast is clear before hitting play on “E Coli.” The Jason Goldwatch-directed video starts off innocently enough, lifting a few scenes wholesale from an old episode of the Japanese superhero show Ultraman for a nostalgic, slightly comedic lean.
However, it pretty rapidly goes off the rails, mixing in scenes from some sort of porn parody that finds “Ultraman” and “Ultrawoman” getting busy in a busy metropolis, resulting in tons of property damage — from what, I won’t say here — complete with the ever reliable mosaic blur effect keeping things clean enough to survive Youtube’s rigorous nudity filters. The song itself is about what you’d expect: A dope, soul-looped beat from Alc, with dense, multisyllabic, off-the-cuff rhymes from Earl.
Even though Earl and Alchemist both have reputations for in-your-face, volatile humor — Earl more so than Alchemist as a former member of the Odd Future collective — the video is a shocker. While Earl has embraced outrageous imagery and shock humor in the past, it’s jarring to suddenly find yourself watching a porn parody of a Japanese hero show from the ’70s. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t that. Consider my childhood thoroughly ruined.
Alchemist, meanwhile, releases the Bread EP this Friday, November 30. Pre-order here. Earl’s album, Some Rap Songs, lands the same day. Its pre-order link is here.
