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There's this 16 yr old rapper named Earl Sweatshirt who raps about all kinds of crazy stuff. His mother is a professor and was recommended his mixtape by one of her students. Once she heard it and figured out it was her son, she sent him away to a boarding school in Samoa. What's the issue here? Well, he's part of a group called "odd future" who has an enormous buzz in the music industry right now. They're traveling the world performing, getting magazine covers, and making millions while earl is stuck at a boarding school.
Article(mods i work for ddotomen, so i'm allowed to use the pic)
Quote:
While the #FreeEARL movement isn’t over, real OFWGKTA can be at ease knowing that the teenage rhymeaholic has been located. Through the super sleuthing of the internet and putting pieces together by statements in songs and elsewhere, Complex tracked down the MIA golf wang emcee. Sources indicate that Earl (real name Thebe Kgositsile) is enrolled at the Coral Reef Academy in Samoa (against his will) by the hand of his overbearing mother that wasn’t pleased with his antics as Earl Sweatshirt.
It hasn’t yet been divulged if Thebe has since returned to the United States or not but I’m sure Tyler will make it known as soon as he does. The only real question left is, will he still rap? let’s hope for the best.
As a parent, what would you do?
Last edited by mrmondaynight; 04-14-2011 at 11:53 AM..
Music is an art and a form of expression. Rap music contains many levels and simply listening and taking the lyrics at face value can make it seem horrible even if there is a deeper meaning. Eminem is one such artist who draws a lot of flack for his lyrics, yet his songs have a much deeper meaning that many people miss. There is afterall a huge difference between singing/rapping about such things and actually doing them.
If my son was rapping about those types of things, I think it would certainly warrant a conversation to understand his motivation and what meaning he finds in the lyrics. Punishing him, wouldn't even enter into the conversation.
I agree that music is a form of expressions and not all things should be taken to its literal meaning but this video is SO disturbing to me as parent. It literally made me cringe, and even more so given the fact that this was made by a bunch of teenagers.
I'm not going to comment on the mother sending him away to boarding school as I don't know her circumstances so that was probably the best option for her family.
I myself wouldn't send a kid like this off to be away from his family. I would find a way to get him away from the friends/neighborhood as I'm guessing those kids in the video are heavily influencing his decisions. I'm not blaming the friends solely, but getting him away from these 'peers' would be a good start to get him on a different track.
I know of a couple of "boarding schools" (including the one he may or may not have been sent to) in Samoa and they are boot-camp-for-troubled-young-men sort of places. I've never heard of this guy before now but my gut tells me there's more to the story than, "Mama doesn't like rap".
Music is an art and a form of expression. Rap music contains many levels and simply listening and taking the lyrics at face value can make it seem horrible even if there is a deeper meaning. Eminem is one such artist who draws a lot of flack for his lyrics, yet his songs have a much deeper meaning that many people miss. There is afterall a huge difference between singing/rapping about such things and actually doing them.
If my son was rapping about those types of things, I think it would certainly warrant a conversation to understand his motivation and what meaning he finds in the lyrics. Punishing him, wouldn't even enter into the conversation.
That doesnt mean that it should be shrugged off as a fact of life either. Otherwise we wouldnt need any police. I grew up loving rap and hip hop tremendously from day one. But I am also aware that some things are tantamount. While they may be harmless in themselves, it doesnt mean that they dont inspire and influence others subliminally, who might not be hip enough to catch the intentionally vague, "deeper meaning", which can be very powerful to younger inpressionable listeners, who lack the kind of mature judgment that would discourage others like yourself, I hope, from actually going out and comitting some ridiculous act, to appear hip and cool because they forgot about the "huge difference between singing/rapping" and reality. So maybe punishement [which I dont see boarding school as], depending on what kind, might be premature in this case. But some redirective counsel about consequences certainly does'nt hurt.
Untalented? he has MILLIONS of fans that think otherwise.
Sorry mrmondaynight but I had to comment. Eminem also has millions of fans and I think he's untalented. There are many famous artists that are just over produced and over hyped. I can understand why today's teenagers would think this kid Earl is great, but I personally, think he's untalented as well. I didn't make the comment as I didn't think that was your intent with the original post. But since you went there....
Britney Spears, Rhianna, countless boy bands.....I could go on for days on talentless folks with millions of followers. Having millions of fans doesn't automatically make you talented, you may have no talent, but a real good marketing/PR team! This kid's 'niche' is his shock value.
I know of a couple of "boarding schools" (including the one he may or may not have been sent to) in Samoa and they are boot-camp-for-troubled-young-men sort of places. I've never heard of this guy before now but my gut tells me there's more to the story than, "Mama doesn't like rap".
He's at the Coral Reef Academy in Samoa, at least according to wikipedia.
Have to say I've never heard of him, though I'm not exactly into underground rap. Apparently he was rather popular and his first album had a huge following on YouTube. His group was also featured in Billboard magazine, the New Yorker and he made an apperance on Jimmy Fallon. Guess mom had her reasons.
To the OP, it would help to frame the discussion if you provided a little more background on this. It obviously is nothing quite so simple as mom didn't like the lyrics. She obviously knew what he was up to when he released an album and went on TV. My guess is mom was concerned over the people influencing him and maybe he was making some of his lyrics a reality.
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