Spinn Magazine

During fall of 2010, a mysterious line of stickers and t-shirts started showing up with a photo of Thebe Kgositsile, more widely known as artist Earl Sweatshirt, with an upside-down cross on his forehead. The photo was captioned: "Missing: Have you seen me?"

, mostly fanned by artist (Tyler the Creator), became a piece of pop culture. It turned out that Earl wasn't technically missing, but his mom had send him away to a boys' camp/reform school. Earl became famous not just in his absence, but because of his absence.

He returned home in early 2012, with some great doubts on his mind. What happens if I get back. We can hear his doubt on major label debut 'Doris', during 'Chum' he mumbles: “Been back a week and I already feel like calling it quits”.

'Doris' would turn out to be an important album for the rest of the decade, presenting carefully curated artists that Earl himself picked. The many co-artists on 'Doris' would later turn out to be among the greatest artists of the 20s, pinpointing 'Doris' as a great precursor of modern rap music.