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Earl Sweatshirt Has a Candid Chat With Mike Tyson

The odd duo talk war, spirituality and loving The Notebook.

In jeans company Citizens of Humanity's biannual publication Humanity, Odd Future's very own Earl Sweatshirt interviewed boxing legend Mike Tyson, who gave priceless nuggets of wisdom on business, war and growing up.

The convo began with Earl opening up about feeling pulled in different directions by his record company and management and eventually shifted into Tyson's view on the world's fascination with war, saying it is the only thing that people do more than fornicate.

"We fought more than we f****d," Tyson said. "Ain't that crazy?... I think war is led by faith. I never think of physical fighting. It's always spiritual. Fighting is spiritual."

Sweatshirt agreed, sharing his own story of how he became familiar with the concept as a martial arts student. "[My mom] dropped me off at this martial arts dojo," he said. "We had to meditate for an hour every time, before we did anything. We would meditate. Just to connect to the spiritiual side of it."

That was all the inspiration needed for the ex-boxer to open up about his past issues with drugs, which was a tough obstacle for him to overcome. "You know, young man; it's all about spiritual awakenings," he said. "I could never stop drugs, I could never stop drinking, doing stuff, until I received my spiritual awakening. Now it's not a problem anymore."

As the interview went on, Earl, 20, introduced the topic of ego and confessed, "Ego is my career. Rap music is all ego," to which Tyson, 48, responded, "It has to be crushed, but it gives you everything you want, but it takes back so much more in return."

Perhaps the most beautifully random segment happens when the former undisputed heavyweight world champion admitted to being emotionally affected by classic chick flick The Notebook.

"There's nothing to fear but fear itself," he said. "Fear is an illusion... That is the reality of life. I watch the movie The Notebook... I don't even know if you understand that stage of life yet... It's one of the movies that makes me really vulnerable because you work so hard for something and you don't want to let it go."

The two go on to talk astrology and Earl gives a hilarious explanation of what Odd Future really is. The group recently launched their own 24-hour radio station.

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(Photos from left: Smallz+Raskind/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. via Getty Images, Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)

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