Earl Sweatshirt | Artist

Thebe Neruda Kgositsile aka Earl Sweatshirt is an American rapper, record producer and songwriter born 1994 in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a South African poet and political activist and his mother is a Law professor at UCLA. At age sixteen he released his first recordings as a mixtape entitled Earl on his MySpace page. The work was admired by rapper Tyler The Creator who invited Kgositsile to join the group Odd Future. His first proper album Doris was released in 2013 and got lots of attention via Social Media. His third work I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside came out in 2015 and the critical praise ramped up even further. 2018's release Some Rap Songs became his artistic and commercial breakthrough work, with critics and fans calling him a "hip-hop prodigy" and branding him "the most exciting rapper to emerge in years". To-date he has reeased six studio albums including the most recent collaboration with The Alchemist. Standouts include Doris (2013), I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside (2015), Some Rap Songs (2018), and Voir Dire with The Alchemist (2023). At the age of 16, soon after he released his first mixtape Earl, Kgositsile was sent to a boarding school in Samoa for at-risk teens by his mother, due to him getting into trouble with friends. Kgositsile attended Coral Reef Academy, a therapeutic retreat school for at-risk boys, located outside of the Samoan capital of Apia. While there, he worked to earn back privileges and the opportunity to return home. He read Manning Marable's biography on Malcolm X and Richard Fariña's counterculture fiction, and he wrote rhymes which appeared on future albums. Kgositsile was brought back from Samoa by Leila Steinberg, the first manager of Tupac Shakur, who still manages Earl's career today. Kgositsile was raised as a Nichiren Buddhist and, after a period away from the belief system, he said that he had returned to the religion in 2016.

Artist Website: earlsweatshirt.com

Featured Albums: Earl Sweatshirt

Related Artists: The Alchemist

Collections: Movers Shakers