Earl Sweatshirt

Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, better known by his stage name Earl Sweatshirt, is an American rapper and record producer from Los Angeles, California. His father was the South African black nationalist poet Keorapetse Kgositsile. Earl was originally known by the moniker Sly Tendencies when he started rapping, but soon changed his name when Tyler, the Creator invited him to join his hip hop collective Odd Future in late 2009. He gained recognition and critical praise for his debut mixtape, entitled Earl, which released in March 2010 when he was just 16 years old. Shortly after its release, his mother sent him to a boarding school in Samoa for at-risk teens until his eighteenth birthday, and he was not able to record new music for a year and a half while he was there.