About

"EAST" is a 2019 experimental hip-hop track released by American rapper Earl Sweatshirt. The song has been a subject of parody and remixes due to its unorthodox sound, especially on the Earl Sweatshirt subreddit, r/earlsweatshirt.

Origin

"EAST" was released on November 1st, 2019 as the lead single off of Earl Sweatshirt's EP, FEET OF CLAY. A music video accompanied the song the same day the EP dropped.

The song in question was also posted on r/earlsweatshirt by Reddit user u/burn__rubber, garnering 797 upvotes before being archived.^[1] Reception amongst the community was mixed, mainly over the strange sample used for the instrumental of the song.

Spread

The earliest known instance of parody for "EAST" was posted on the Earl Sweatshirt subreddit by user u/YungDweebster, showcasing a picture relating to How Italians Do Things and with the caption "When EAST starts playing." The post garnered 57 upvotes before archival. Multiple parodies and memes would pop up within the subreddit.

On June 20th, 2020, Twitter user @ErenLenox posted a parody remix of the song, featuring guest samples from a myriad of hip-hop artists and producers, ranging from DJ Khaled, 6ix9ine, Kanye West and more. The tweet has garnered 17.2K likes and 4.3K retweets as of June 22nd, 2020.

Various Examples

External Links