It’s been a while since Odd Future’s Earl Sweatshirt has released an album, with the rapper spending a portion of his time off the radar, away from the paparazzi. He has stayed relatively quiet on social media as well, and this summer the former Odd Future member also cancelled several concerts while citing his motives as an ongoing fight with anxiety and depression.
However, Earl got back on stage at the Mac Miller: A Celebration of Life concert. Soon and after that he was featured on Vince Staples’ new album FM! with (basically) his own track “New earlsweatshirt – Interlude”. Now that he’s returned to the spotlight, here’s 5 Things You (Probably} Didn’t Know About Earl Sweatshirt.
***EDIT (11/13/18): On Thursday, Earl dropped music of his own for the first time since 2016 with a single titled “Nowhere2go” after it was previewed on an Instagram announcement post the night before.***
1. Earl has teased new music.
— thebe kgositsile (@earlxsweat) November 5, 2018
Last week, the musician whose real name is Thebe Kgositsile posted a mysterious video on Twitter. The 27-second clip, which samples Tommy Davidson as “cream corn” from the movie Black Dynamite, is leading fans to conclude it as a teaser for a new release. Rumors of an upcoming drop have been circulating for months now, as Earl tweeted but quickly deleted “The vibes… SRS COMING SOON THE WAIT IS ALMOST OVER !!” back in September.
2. His last album came over three years ago.
In March of 2015, Earl released I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. It fared extremely well with critics, even reaching #12 on the Billboard 200 and selling 30,000 copies in its debut week. Following this, the extended-play Solace was released. However, since then, he has not put out a single album. With that being said, fans are really hoping that Monday’s tweet will lead to a new piece of art!
3. It’s no surprise his lyrical content is so smooth.
Earl Sweatshirt’s father is renowned South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, who passed away in January of 2018. Their relationship seemed a bit rocky throughout the years though (he rapped of missing his dad after not seeing him for years on the hit song “Chum”, and Keorapeste said in 2011 that he hadn’t heard his son’s music while also denouncing new hip-hop), but the death still affected Earl greatly. Anyway, great minds and strong creative abilities clearly run in the family. Rest in peace, Mr. Kgositsile.
4. Thebe has tried his hand at acting, too.
Although the rapper hasn’t performed in quite a few years now, he once was active in front of the camera. He was on VICELAND’s Party Legends with Na’kel Smith, BET’s 106 & Park, and the infamous Loiter Squad for a total of twenty episodes. Produced by Adult Swim, it featured him, Tyler, the Creator, Taco Bennett, and others. Earl’s most recent appearance came on Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch ‘Ancient Aliens’, back in 2016. Whether he’ll return to this field is yet to be determined, but we do know that he knows how to make people laugh.
5. He’s collaborated with some fantastic artists.
Despite being just 24 years old now, Earl Sweatshirt is a veteran within hip-hop and has worked with some of the game’s best rappers. Some of this can be accredited to the fact that he’s been active since 2010, when his career began. The late Mac Miller featured him on “I’m Not Real” as well as two other tracks, and Earl has been on pieces by Ab-Soul, Action Bronson, SpaceGhostPurrp, Thundercat, Vince Staples and obviously those of old OFWGKTA members such as Frank Ocean.
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