Weird to think that we’re already in a post-Earl Sweatshirt world. Chester Watson is 15 years old and St. Louis-raised, which means that he was 12 when Earl Sweatshirt was talking about jacking off to buffered videos of Asher Roth eating apple sauce. So I guess it’s not really not that bizarre that the teenager in the New Age crew has a YouTube video called “Moth Wings” over an “Earl Sweatshirt type beat.” MF Doom’s influence continues to loom large too.
But this is “Phantom,” a clip that’s already racked up 6K views with no promotion or blog mentions in just three weeks. That’s pretty impressive. More impressive is the rapping, a kid who can’t “hear Jesus because the weed is as loud as Mack trucks.” The video’s cool and it has a throwback nostalgic vibe without being on some “yo, I want to rap like I was in 96” shit. This is one of the most impressive debuts I’ve heard in a minute.
You can download Watson’s mixtape, Phantom below the jump.
Download:
ZIP: Chester Watson – Phantoms
