Voir Dire (found hidden YouTube album by Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist; 2023)

Tweet from The Alchemist mentioning the existence of the now found album.

Status: Found

Date found: 25 Aug 2023

Found by: The Alchemist

Earl Sweatshirt, real name Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, is an American rapper who is well-known for his role in hip-hop group Odd Future. The Alchemist is a producer known for his work with rappers such as Nas, Mac Miller, etc. Both individuals are credited as one of the best in their craft and some fans have wanted these two to work together. When The Alchemist was asked by a fan in 2019 (in a now deleted tweet) if he and Earl would ever do a project together, he mentioned how he had already created a hidden album with Earl Sweatshirt that was available on YouTube, although it was under a fake name. Although many fans saw this as a joke, many people started to search for it after The Alchemist tweeted about it once again in 2021.^[1] This time, he mentioned that everything about it was under a fake name, meaning the album cover, song titles, and everything else was not related to him or Earl Sweatshirt. There are many theories and rumors around this album, along with a lot of speculation about the album's existence in general.

Information/Theories

Clayman Clutcher

Clayman Clutcher is a YouTube channel that is thought to be a burner account by Earl Sweatshirt. The first upload from this channel is from May 31, 2013 and features some people making beats in a garage. While not neccisarily proof, it's worth noting that this video was made only a few months before Earl's debut album, Doris. Four years later, this channel posted many more beats with an MF Doom style. Earl Sweatshirt is well known for being an MF Doom fan, leading to more fans believing this account is Earl's. In the video "CLUTCH RETURNS...," someone commented in 2017 "earl finally ya back" in which Clayman responded, "New album coming soon" which could be mentioning Earl's album "Some Rap Songs" which came out in 2018. It is also worth noting that Clayman Clutcher is also an anagram for "earl alch my cut nc" which can roughly be translated to "Earl Alchemy Cut." While it is unknown if this actually is an account related to Earl Sweatshirt, many fans believe that this account is a burner or alternative account to Earl Sweatshirt.

Duality-Mezleaks

For a little bit of time, an album by the name of Duality, created by a fake artist Mezleaks, was the unknown album.^[2] This caused the search for the album to come to a stop due to people believing that the album had finally been found. However, looking into the album made many people find out that this album was just a compilation of old leaks and unreleased music from Earl Sweatshirt.

Availibility

Despite many search efforts being made for this unknown album, nothing coming from the album has ever been discovered. No one knows any of the songs, the name, etc. The Alchemist himself has said in an interview with Anthony Fantano that The Alchemist himself doesn't even know if the album itself is still on YouTube and he let it go a long time back. Earl Sweatshirt also refused to talk about the album. With all this in mind, many fans believed that this album doesn't even exist due to the little information that we have on it.

Around early August, 2023, a puzzle was discovered from a link on Earl Sweatshirts website. The first part of it had the question, "When did Al[chemist] start snitching?" with the option to enter the date. Entering the date of his "hidden album" tweet (5/22/21) would lead to another tweet of his that read "Speak the Truth," the English translation for the phrase "Voir Dire." On August 25th, 2023, The Alchemist would tease and then drop an the mentioned album featuring Earl Sweatshirt to the public via music website Gala Music as an NFT project, thus confirming it's existence and making it available for the public to hear.