This project examines the intersections of neoliberalism and popular music aesthetics. By treating music itself as theory, this paper examines popular music as a discursive space for the production of alternative politics and subjectivities. Through a qualitative content analysis of Earl Sweatshirt’s 2019 album, Feet of Clay, it is revealed how melancholy and grief contribute to self-making in the context of the artist’s relationship to death under neoliberal capitalism.