Earl Sweatshirt (born Thebe Kgositsile) is a hip-hop artist and rapper who was also a member of the Odd Future collective in Los Angeles. His first release, a self-titled mixtape drew a lot of attention with the dark gothic nature of his music, scaffolded by his with deep and resonating bass tones. Subsequent albums saw Sweatshirt lighten up on the doom to some extent and shift towards a more experimental and fractured sound. His songs are often short and to the point, without dwelling too much in any given groove, as he keeps moving around to explore new things. Where his music particularly stands out is the way in which he mixes different sonic elements, chopped up samples, and controlled dissonance in order to create imaginative and challenging textures. The result is beautifully eerie, subversive, and edgy hip-hop.
Sweatshirt was part of the now defunct Odd Future collective along with Tyler the Creator, Frank Ocean, Syd Tha Kid, Hodgy, Matt Martians, Casey Veggies, and many others. He frequently collaborates with Vince Staples and Tyler the Creator.
Of the Odd Future members who moved on to bigger things, he is the edgy experimental one.
