Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (born February 24, 1994), also known as Earl Sweatshirt, is a rapper, producer, DJ, and a former member of the LA collective Odd Future. He produces under the alias RandomBlackDude.

Earl first met fame when he released his debut mixtape in 2010, Earl. Along with Tyler, the Creator’s Bastard and the group’s Radical, his debut was released freely on OF’s website, and made the collective rise to prominence, with critical acclaim by the media and a lot of discussion about the controversial nature of the group’s lyrical content.

Due to personal problems, Earl was sent by his mother to spend 2 years in Samoa, at the Coral Reef Academy. In 2012 he would return to his home in Los Angeles, where he would feature in The OF Tape Vol.2 and Frank Ocean’s album debut, channel ORANGE.

In 2013, to much acclaim, Sweatshirt released his first mature work, Doris, which featured production mostly handled by Earl, but also by The Neptunes, RZA, BADBADNOTGOOD, Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator.

On March 23, 2015, Earl released his sophomore studio effort, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, where he would take a more introspective and depressing direction on his content and sound. All of the tracks were produced by Earl himself, with the exception of ex-OF colleague, Left Brain producing one song.

During a 3 year hiatus from music, Earl suffered from multiple personal losses: the death of his father, the poet Keorapetse Kigotsile, and of his close friend Mac Miller. On November 30th, 2018 Earl released his third official studio album, the 15-track Some Rap Songs. The album received critical praise for its dark, introspective lyrics and avant-garde, lo-fi production.

Less than a year later, Earl surprised fans with a 7-track EP entitled FEET OF CLAY, which dropped in November of 2019. The project featured artists like Mach-Hommy and Mavi.

Since then, Earl has continued releasing projects like 2021’s SICK! and VOIR DIRE, a 2023 collab album featuring Earl and legendary producer The Alchemist.