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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.

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The song of the GTA III soundtrack, produced by Ayatollah, samples Donna Summer’s “Sweet Romance”

This song is not on any of Black Rob’s albums, and not on Life Story. That should be removed from the info.

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A reference to the title of Will Smiths' album, Big Willie Style, Smith’s movies I Am Legend and Seven Pounds

The insinuation of the second line is that religion itself is nothing but “legend.” “Seven” is another more Satanic track from this album

In the movie I Am Legend everyone gets a disease except Will Smiths character.Tyler’s comparing himself to Will Smith in these lines he’s comparing himself to the character in the movie, but instead of a disease that everyone catches, the disease is religion. Everyone is “infected” with religion except Tyler.

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When drug addicts continuously shoot heroin, multiple scars in the shape of holes start showing up throughout their arm. Earl uses a double entendre to detail how he is using this “addict’s arm” as a weapon. He is telling this girl to not be afraid, as this is apparently typical behavior from Earl.

Earl also refers to himself as Big Lips, a call-back from the previous track, “Thisniggaugly,” wherein Taco states:

This nigga, look at this fuckin' nigga lips, dog
This nigga’s lips look like a split sundae

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The track from Earl’s (then known as Sly Tendencies) 2009 unreleased EP Kitchen Cutlery

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New Year’s Eve is a popular time to shoot off guns

Some people like to ring in the New Year with gunplay (a “chopper” is a gun)

Personally, I prefer making a resolution that I won’t keep more than a week..

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Mike G is referring to a Dodge Challenger that he has painted Gun Metal. It’d be a pretty ballin car, since Mike G seems to be a baller.

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Jay-Z headlined Coachella in 2010. He also made a surprise guest appearance at the music festival in 2014.

Mash-up DJ Z-Trip also performed at Coachella that year.

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A track from Earl’s (then known as Sly Tendencies) 2009 unreleased EP Kitchen Cutlery

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This verse is omitted from the music video. It was first heard when the song was released on iTunes four days later.

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