Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (born February 24, 1994), better known by his stage name Earl Sweatshirt, is an American rapper, record producer, and disc jockey from Los Angeles, California. He originally went by the moniker Sly Tendencies in 2008, but soon changed it when Tyler, The Creator invited him to join his hip hop collective Odd Future in late 2009. He gained recognition and critical praise for his debut mixtape Earl, released in March 2010. Following its release, his mother sent him to a boarding school in Samoa until his eighteenth birthday, and he was not able to produce new music for a year and a half. 　　After returning to Los Angeles in February 2012, Earl rejoined Odd Future and started producing new music. Earl released his debut studio album, Doris in August 2013. His sophomore album, I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt followed in March 2015. Both received widespread critical acclaim. He is currently signed to Columbia Records as well as his independent label Tan Cressida. 　　Thebe Neruda Kgositsile was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Cheryl Harris, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles, and Keorapetse Kgositsile, a South African poet and political activist. Harris and Kgositsile separated when Thebe was eight years old. 　　He attended the UCLA Lab School in Los Angeles and New Roads High School and Middle School in Santa Monica. 　　Earl Sweatshirt first started rapping in the 9th grade in 2008, under the name Sly Tendencies. He posted tracks for his mixtape, Kitchen Cutlery, via MySpace. He and two of his friends (stage names Loofy and Jw Mijo) formed a rap trio called The Backpackerz. They were going to release a mixtape titled World Playground but they eventually disbanded sometime in 2009. 　　In late 2009, Tyler, The Creator discovered Sly Tendencies, via his MySpace account. Sly later changed his rap name to Earl Sweatshirt and eventually joined Tyler's rap group Odd Future. Earl and Odd Future have been featured in mainstream magazines such as Spin, Billboard and The Fader.