Earl Sweatshirt

Earl Sweatshirt, 來自洛杉磯Alternative Hiphop團體OFWGKTA, 為團中中最小成員（1994年生）。
 
 
Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (born February 24, 1994), better known by his stage name Earl Sweatshirt, is an American rapper and member of the Los Angeles based hip hop collective Odd Future. He is signed to Columbia Records, as well as his own label, Tan Cressida. Earl gained recognition and critical praise for his debut mixtape, Earl. Following its release, he was sent to a boarding school in Samoa by his mother until his eighteenth birthday. On August 20, 2013, he released his debut studio album, Doris.
 
Musical career
 
2009-2011 : Earl
In 2009, Tyler, The Creator discovered Earl Sweatshirt, then known as Sly Tendencies, via his MySpace account, where he recorded tracks for his Kitchen Cutlery mixtape. Although the mixtape was never finished or released, Earl eventually joined Tyler's rap group Odd Future. Earl and Odd Future have been featured in mainstream magazines such as Spin, Billboard and The Fader.
 
His debut studio album, Earl, was self-released March 31, 2010 as a free digital download on the Odd Future website. Most of the album was produced by Tyler, The Creator. Earl was named the 24th best album of 2010 by Complex.
 
Despite overwhelmingly positive reviews, various sources indicated that Sweatshirt had stopped making music with Odd Future. Posts from Tyler, The Creator's Twitter and Formspring accounts seemed to indicate that Sweatshirt's mother would not grant permission to release any of Sweatshirt's music; although Earl later expressed in an interview that his mother sent him to Samoa not because of his music or lyrical content, but because of his getting into trouble. Earl attended Coral Reef Academy, a therapeutic retreat school for at-risk boys, located outside of the Samoan capital of Apia. At Coral Reef Academy, Earl earned back priviledges, and ultimately the opportunity to return home. At the beginning of his enrollment, he had very little freedom and was unable to even use the bathroom unsupervised, but he eventually became a positive role model shown as an example to new students. While there, he read Manning Marable's biography on Malcolm X and Richard Fariña’s counterculture fiction. He also wrote rhymes, including most of his verse on "Oldie," his only contribution to The OF Tape Vol. 2.
 
On December 1, 2011, three formerly unreleased songs by Sweatshirt were released through the OddFutureTalk "Odd Future Unreleased" mixtape. In December 2011, Sweatshirt was announced as a candidate for XXL's 2012 Freshmen List.
 
2012 - present: Return from Samoa and Doris
On February 8, 2012, rumors spread around the internet that Sweatshirt 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 also later confirmed on his new Twitter account that he had returned to his home in Los Angeles. Three hours passed and Sweatshirt reached 50,000 followers and did release a new song on his website, entitled "Home", in which he ends the song with "...and I'm back. Bye." On the same day Earl launched his website Terttlefer.com, which was later changed to Earlxsweat.com (after his Twitter username), and finally Earlsweatshirt.com.
 
Earl appeared on the song "Oldie" from the first OFWGKTA album The OF Tape Vol. 2. This was Earl's return to official Odd Future releases and his first appearance on an Odd Future Records release. On March 20, a video released on the official Odd Future YouTube page featured Earl in a cypher-style music video rapping along to his verse from "Oldie" with the other members of the crew. That same day, Earl performed with the group at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on March 20, 2012. 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 Earl Sweatshirt signed on to create his own record label imprint called Tan Cressida which will 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 released digitally July 10, 2012. On July 16, Domo Genesis & The Alchemist released the first official single, "Elimination Chamber", from their collaboration album No Idols, which featured Earl, Vince Staples, and Action Bronson, and produced by The Alchemist. He was also later featured on the album again on the tracks "Daily News" (also featuring SpaceGhostPurrp & Action Bronson) & "Gamebreaker". On July 23, 2012, Flying Lotus released a song titled "Between Friends" on the Adult Swim Single series which features Earl Sweatshirt and Captain Murphy. Earl Sweatshirt was also featured on MellowHype's third studio album & major label debut, Numbers on the track "P2".
 
On November 2, Earl released his first solo single since his return from Samoa, titled "Chum". On November 12, he announced in a tweet that his second and third studio albums will be titled, respectively, Doris and Gnossos. On December 4, Earl released the official music video for "Chum". 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 Casey Veggies & Vince Staples and "Guild" featuring Mac Miller. Earl also 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 being released, which was directed by Tyler.
 
(wiki)