The rapper-producer spent the last two years rethinking fame and fatherhood.
In the process, he recorded his most selfless album yet.
Thebe Kgositsile can’t sit still.
Earl Sweatshirt performs at Day N Vegas in 2021.Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty
Then his son, a toddler, ambles over, merely wanting to hang out.
The child gets fussy during our hour-long chat, but Kgositsile never loses his patience.
This is a new Kgositsile, a new Earl Sweatshirt.
The rise of Odd Future was a bittersweet one for Kgositsile (left), seen here with Travis Bennett and Tyler, the Creator, in 2013.
Just two years ago, Earl wouldn’t have been as tolerant or selfless.
He was struggling with alcohol addiction then, stuck in an endless loop of self-harm and isolation.
“The hardest thing for me is not being selfish,” he says of the album’s impetus.
“I’m someone whose issues didn’t start with being selfish," says Kgositsile. “They started with me casting myself aside.”.Ryosuke Tanzawa
“I’m used to being real low maintenance, out of the way.
I can’t do that s— no more.
Because there is nothing that will time travel you like alcohol.”
In fact, he was scared to be a father at first.
“The first question I asked was, ‘Why?'”
“Maybe because I didn’t think I should be in charge of a n—a’s life.
These past 10 years, I’ve been conditioned terribly for this.”
Sick!also makes sly nods to the pandemic.
These days, Earl embraces his new perch as a father and musician with a legion of hardcore fans.
More than a decade into his career, he’s just getting comfortable in his skin.
“Each project represents different eras, phases, and techniques.
It’s pretty impressive for an artist so young to have grown so much.”
“What I learned from my father is the utility of the word,” Earl tells me.
“You’re supposed to call a duck a duck.
That’s what poetry has always been.
Say what it is, tell the truth, move on.”
Sick!finds Earl trying to break old habits.
“People have been watching me figure me out for 10 years,” says the 27-year-old rapper.
“I’m someone whose issues didn’t start with being selfish.
They started with me casting myself aside.”
That’s because he never had space to grow into his legend.
Odd Future emerged as a rabble-rousing crew with an iconoclastic motif that rankled older listeners while beguiling younger ones.
They kicked and screamed and wore skater gear, raising middle fingers to conformists who dared criticize their approach.
In that way, they were no different than the Wu-Tang Clan or Eminem before them.
Yet the worst thing you could do to an aging rap head is compare new kids to their faves.
As a result, Odd Future faced undue shade.
“We were loud, super abrasive, and kind of trolled out,” Earl says.
The exposure was bittersweet.
He wasn’t prepared for the onslaught.
“I just came out up, like ‘What the hell is this?’
It was embarrassing.”
It felt like a series of unfinished sketches made on purpose, unfurling atop tightly coiled samples.
That was Earl’s attempt to challenge himself, and his listeners, to reconsider what rap could entail.
Not the most athletic, but with a real sneaky drop step.
You look up at the end of the game, that boy put up 22 points.”
That he still sees himself as an underrated upstart is part of his superpower.
Earl is a music nerd first; he sees them as having inspired his recent sound.
“All these people have been creative siblings with me at one point or another,” he says.
“And I’m grateful for that.
I think the important thing is community.”
“He hasn’t regressed despite his fame,” woods says.
Having toured with him, Bonema has seen first-hand the adoration Earl gets on the road.
“There’s a variety of Earl Sweatshirt fan,” he says.
“There are the older people who appreciate his intelligence and others who appreciate his viewpoint.
But, low key, Bonema declares, “Thebe is a f—ing superstar.”
His cadence is unhurried; answers arrive casually in broad, abstract remarks.
And while it took some doing, he is finally ready to welcome the “superstar” superlative.
All he needed was fatherhood and personal hardship to help him to recognize his stature.
After all these years, he understands what it means to be Earl Sweatshirt.
“I’m ready to embrace all of this,” he says.
“I believe I’m ready to feel it.
I’m less confused.
Like, ‘Yeah, let’s go to the studio.
Let’s go on tour.’
I wasn’t developed enough to fit the mold all those years ago.
I’m ready to be in the league now.”
