Background and career
Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (born February 24, 1994), known professionally as Earl Sweatshirt, is an American rapper and record producer. Kgositsile was originally known by the moniker Sly Tendencies when he began rapping in 2008. He changed his name when Tyler, the Creator invited him to join his alternative hip-hop collective Odd Future in late 2009. He is the son of South African political poet Keorapetse Kgositsile. At the age of 16, he gained recognition and critical praise for his second mixtape, Earl (2010). Shortly after its release, he was sent to a boarding school in Samoa for at-risk teens by his mother, which he attended for a year and a half. Unable to record during his stay, he returned to Los Angeles in February 2012 before his eighteenth birthday. Kgositsile rejoined Odd Future and adopted a recording contract with the group's parent label, Columbia Records to release his debut studio album, Doris (2013). The album peaked within the top five of the Billboard 200, while his second and third albums, I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside (2015) and Some Rap Songs (2018), both peaked within the top 20 and were critically praised. He signed with Warner Records to release his second EP, Feet of Clay (2019) as well as his fourth and fifth studio albums, Sick! (2022) and Live Laugh Love (2025). He collaborated with record producer The Alchemist on the joint album Voir Dire (2023). He collaborated with Mike and Surf Gang on the album Pompeii // Utility (2026).
Thebe Neruda Kgositsile was born on February 24, 1994, in Chicago, Illinois, to Cheryl Harris, a law professor and critical race theorist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Keorapetse Kgositsile, a South African poet and political activist. Harris and Kgositsile separated when Thebe was six years old. His father is often mentioned in Kgositsile's music and was called a "complicated figure" by Pitchfork. He was presented as a person that was often absent in Kgositsile's life, due to him living in South Africa while Kgositsile lived in Los Angeles, California. Kgositsile stated that "Me and my dad had a relationship that's not uncommon for people to have with their fathers, which is a non-perfect one, talking to him is symbolic and non-symbolic, but it's literally closure for my childhood. Not getting to have that moment left me to figure out a lot with my damn self." Kgositsile attended the UCLA Lab School in Los Angeles and New Roads Middle School & High School in Santa Monica, California.
Kgositsile started rapping in the seventh grade. In 2007, under the name Sly Tendencies, he posted tracks from his mixtape, Kitchen Cutlery, via MySpace. He and two of his friends, Loofy and JW Mijo, formed a rap trio called The Backpackerz. They intended to release a mixtape titled World Playground, but disbanded sometime in 2009.
In 2009, Tyler, the Creator discovered Kgositsile via his MySpace account after he reached out to Tyler to tell him he was a fan of his work. Kgositsile changed his pseudonym to Earl Sweatshirt and joined Tyler's rap group Odd Future. Kgositsile said he always liked elderly names, hence the name Earl. He is a fan of the multi-instrumentalist James Pants, and decided to follow suit with the clothing theme and come up with the last name Sweatshirt. His debut mixtape, Earl, was self-released on March 31, 2010, for free digital download on the Odd Future website. Most of the mixtape was produced by Tyler, the Creator. Earl was named the 24th-best album of 2010 by Complex. Despite positive reactions from critics, various sources indicated that Kgositsile had stopped making music with Odd Future. Posts from Tyler, the Creator's Twitter and Formspring accounts seemed to indicate that Kgositsile's mother would not grant permission to release any of her son's music. Kgositsile expressed in an interview that his mother sent him to Samoa due to 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. At Coral Reef Academy, he worked to earn back privileges and the opportunity to return home. At the beginning of his enrollment, he was unable to use the bathroom unsupervised. While there, he read Manning Marable's biography Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention about Malcolm X and Richard Fariña's counterculture fiction. He wrote rhymes, including most of his verse on "Oldie", his only contribution to Odd Future's studio album The OF Tape Vol. 2. Kgositsile was brought back from Samoa by Leila Steinberg, the first manager of Tupac Shakur, who still manages Earl's career today. His hiatus led to a movement known as "Free Earl", which stemmed from a post on Odd Future's Tumblr. Chants of the phrase would ensue at the group's shows, and would appear throughout several songs by both the collective and its individual members – leading to media coverage of the movement itself.
On February 8, 2012, rumors spread around the internet that Kgositsile had returned to the U.S. when a video of him surfaced on YouTube with a preview of a new song saying if viewers wanted "the full thing", they would have to give him 50,000 followers on Twitter. He appeared on the song "Oldie" from Odd Future's debut album The OF Tape Vol. 2. This was Earl's return to Odd Future releases and his first appearance on an Odd Future Records release. On March 20, a video released on the Odd Future YouTube page. It featured him in a cypher, rapping his verse from "Oldie" with the other members of the crew. That same day, Kgositsile performed with the group at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. On April 9, 2012, rapper Casey Veggies released a mixtape titled Customized Greatly 3, that included a song featuring Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the Creator, Domo Genesis, and Hodgy Beats titled "PNCINTLOFWGKTA”. During that month, Kgositsile signed on to create his own record label imprint, Tan Cressida, to be distributed through Columbia Records. He turned down several other larger offers due to his priority of remaining close to Odd Future. Earl Sweatshirt was featured on the track "Super Rich Kids" from Frank Ocean's debut album Channel Orange, which released digitally July 10, 2012. On July 16, Domo Genesis and The Alchemist released the first single, "Elimination Chamber", from their collaboration album No Idols, which featured Earl, Vince Staples, and Action Bronson. He was featured on the album again on the tracks "Daily News", featuring himself, SpaceGhostPurrp, and Action Bronson and "Gamebreaker". On July 23, 2012, record producer Flying Lotus released a song titled "Between Friends" on the Adult Swim Single series which featured Earl Sweatshirt and Lotus. Earl Sweatshirt was featured on MellowHype's second studio album Numbers, on the track "P2".
On November 2, Kgositsile released his first solo single since his return from Samoa, titled "Chum". On December 4, he announced that his debut studio album would be called Doris. That same day, the music video for "Chum" was posted onto YouTube. Doris was reported early on to feature vocals and/or production from Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean, Ommas Keith, Thundercat, Domo Genesis, Mac Miller, the Neptunes, Christian Rich, Vince Staples, BadBadNotGood, Pharrell Williams, Samiyam, The Alchemist, Casey Veggies, The Internet and RZA. On March 6, 2013, while performing with Flying Lotus and Mac Miller, Earl premiered three new songs off Doris: "Burgundy" produced by Pharrell Williams, "Hive" featuring Vince Staples, and "Guild" featuring Mac Miller. Kgositsile confirmed the next single to be titled "Whoa" featuring Tyler, the Creator. The song was released to iTunes on March 12, 2013, along with the music video, which was directed by Tyler, the Creator.
