
Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, or more commonly known by his stage name Earl Sweatshirt, is a modern hip hop artist and infamously recognized as a former member of the rap group OddFuture.  He was born from a rare parental combination with his mother working as a law professor from UCLA, and his father a South African native poet and political activist.  Born in Chicago, but raised in the streets of LA, Earl Sweatshirt is notorious for rapping about racial adversity and the harsh reality of being raised in gang-dominated neighborhoods.   Aside from his raw talent and effortless clever wordplay, Earl has ties his songs together with his cruel morals and the dog-eat-dog world he is so familiar with.  The astonishing circumstance to Earl’s success is that he just turned 22 earlier this year.  Yes, this man is only 2 years older than I.  His skill is way beyond his years and his studio albums have blown up in resounding praise.  The recluse artist has been known to show little emotion, give reporters vague interview answers, and is hardly seen out in public.  Because of this, Earl’s public persona has been up for interpretation and constant manipulation since his music has gone viral.  It is interesting to see how the media intends to represent his personality and his purpose for being an artist.

Earl began rapping under the name “Sly Tendencies” his freshman year in high school.  Tyler, The Creator, co-founder of rap group OddFuture, asked Sly Tendencies to join his rap group when Earl was only 15 years old.  He accepted and officially changed his stage name to Earl Sweatshirt.  At 16, Earl debuted his first mixtape that was completely self-produced and self-released.  Earl dropped off the face of the Earth, although his recent tape had very high praise and had impressive features with OddFuture.  The young star was sent to a boarding school in Samoa by his mother to learn lessons of discipline and privilege.  After returning to the states as a young adult and graduate of the secluded boarding school, Earl continued making music on his own and with OddFuture.  In the same year, he dropped the album Doris, my favorite album.  On this particular album, he emphasizes his illegal shenanigans as a deliquent living in LA, the unforgiving reality of the neighborhoods he grew up in, and his relationships with OddFuture, particularly Tyler, The Creator.  His album was especially unique because of his age, 17.  Earl attracted so much attention he was able to make some new music with artists like Mac Miller, Frank Ocean, and Action Bronson.  His talent was beginning to be globally recognized and along with fame, comes lots of scrutiny.  Earl was subject to lots of criticism specifically on his crude lyrics and malevolent morals.  Earl has always prioritized loyalty, and although his songs expose such principles with gun-talk and murderous music, it’s clear that he has had trust issues in the past and interacts with a very small circle of friends.

Earl’s reputation with media fluctuates as his music career expands.  His introverted mentality gives the media very little information on the shady artist and his works in progress.  He has been free of scandals, which is typically uncommon for young and successful hip hop artists.  However, Earl is not like most artists.  With lots of anticipation for another album following Doris, in 2015, Earl Sweatshirt released his latest album and called it I DON’T LIKE SHIT, I DON’T GO OUTSIDE. An Album by Earl Sweatshirt…not the most appealing name for the long awaited album.  However, just like all of Earl’s previous career endeavors, it was a hit.  His loyal fans loved the new album, and previous haters decided to hop on board his fame train.  Earl didn’t take any of the publicity seriously…real shocker.  This album cover is solely black with the title in faded white print, perhaps a visual hint about his dark side.  Digging deep into the career of a fresh amateur rapper is a great way to understand how the public portrays him with the information they know.

This poster depicting Earl Sweatshirt is unique to most music posters.  This poster was made for a concert series he hosted called WEARLD.  This poster features a self-portrait of a crudely drawn face in the center.  In light brown letters above the headshot reads “Earl Sweatshirt”.  The background of the poster includes several flags, many representing countries, others have custom OddFuture logos, and even a stamp that reads “WEARLD”.  Several flags in the back include places he visited on his tour, however, the top left portion of the background includes the South African flag, the home-country of his father the poet.  Another flag centers the logo of the rap group OddFuture, which appears to be a possessed cat.  The crudely drawn head of Earl represents his youth as an artist.  He began producing his own music since he was a freshman in high school, and has been writing lyrics much longer.  He was thrown into the spotlight at a very young age and his only companions were a bunch of like-wise LA rebellious teens.  The drawing represents his pride in his youth, and all the success he has had at such a young age.  The flags mostly correspond to the stops on his tour, but some are in there to signify his heritage not only as a South African, but as an African-American living in the modern United States.  The flag of the OddFuture logo and stamp with the acronym OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All) expresses his loyalty to OddFuture and Tyler, The Creator.  Tyler discovered Earl and became a part of the OddFuture rap group, and it’s rare to see Earl collaborating his music with anyone that is not in the group.  Most media tries to censor the young artist because of his hate-inspired lyrics and unpredictable career moves, but Earl Sweatshirt has always been intentionally oblivious to his public image, and sticks to his order of priorities which he has developed over a short career thus far.  

Background knowledge of the underground artist certainly helps explain how the media markets his music and the content Earl and his team send out annually.  This tour poster Earl uses is able to explain key factors in his youth and career that built his legacy as an artist, and why it is unwise to expect anything normal from Mr. Thebe Neruda Kgositsile.