Return Of Rhyme: “Earl Sweatshirt” is Back!
By Brodie Patrick
Although born Thebe Neruda Kgositsile on a cold February morning in Chicago in 1994, Mr. Sweatshirt quickly outgrew his given name and chaotic upbringing. Earl walks closely behind his father, Keorapetse Kgositsile, a seasoned poet and influential political activist who heavily urged Earl to write poetry in his youth. Sweatshirt grew up in Southern California and experienced rap in the ’90s, which is now considered the “renaissance” era of the genre.
Earl didn’t yet understand that he was also witnessing a rebirth of West Coast rap. But, he understood that he had the knowledge and could even do it by watching, listening, and learning from titans in the ever-changing scene. Earl has stated that off-beat rappers and poets, like MF DOOM, served as an inspirational trailblazer in his early days of wordplay.
Listen to Earl Sweatshirt’s New Single: “2010”
Earl Sweatshirt grew to be an extraordinarily successful and respected young rapper who remains humble, despite his chaotic life experiences. For instance, in 2012, during the height of his first rap group’s international rise to fame, Earl’s mother, Cheryl Harris (Prof. of Law at UCLA), forced him to attend a boarding school in Samoa after his debut mixtape titled “Earl” (which he released at the young age of 16).
Mr. Sweatshirt took the punishment and stuck to his roots, setting his mind on mastering his craft and, in turn, became an unapologetic and unfiltered wordsmith. In 2008, Earl rhymed his way into the rap scene at age fourteen. A couple of years later, he joined a startup rap collective called Odd Future through a friend on MySpace, which just so happened to be then fifteen-year-old Tyler, The Creator. If Odd Future was the wick, and Earl’s lyricism, the flame, then his undying work ethic and talent catalyzed his life’s work.