Earl Sweatshirt (Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, born in Chicago in 1994, son of South African poet laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile) came up in Odd Future and has grown into one of hip hop's great abstract stylists. Doris (2013) is the entry point; Some Rap Songs (2018) is the fragmented, lo-fi masterwork. Browse Earl Sweatshirt vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Thebe Neruda Kgositsile was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 24, 1994. He is the son of South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile (1938-2018), who became South Africa's national poet laureate. He launched his rap career in 2010 as a member of Tyler, the Creator's Odd Future collective with the self-released EARL (2010) mixtape. After spending time at a therapeutic retreat in Samoa from 2010 to early 2012, he returned to launch his solo career with Doris (2013) on Tan Cressida / Columbia Records. His catalog has progressively moved toward more abstract, experimental hip hop production.
Earl Sweatshirt's sound combines hip hop, abstract hip hop, experimental hip hop, jazz rap, and conscious hip hop with introspective lyrical content, dense lyrical density, and increasingly experimental production approaches across his catalog. Some Rap Songs (2018) and his subsequent work have moved toward fragmented, lo-fi, abstract sample-based production.
Tan Cressida and Columbia pressings of the Earl Sweatshirt catalog have been issued in standard and color variant editions, with several limited-edition pressings tied to direct-to-fan distribution.
Listeners new to Earl Sweatshirt typically start with Doris (2013) or Some Rap Songs (2018).
