Odd Future’s Earl Sweatshirt is back. Earl is on his way back home to Los Angeles where he will finish High School. Earl will be placed under the guidance of Leila Steinberg, who is known for guiding Tupac on his path to success. Nine volunteers from AIM (Alternative Intervention Models) flew nearly 5,000 miles to the South Pacific island of Samoa to get Earl and bring him home to LA. This is where Earl’s rap career begins on a major scale, but first he will finish High School.
AIM made it clear that Earl was not missing or jailed. In Samoa Earl has been sharpening his skills and working with AIM’s rappers, singers, poets, actors, athletes and dancers under Leila’s wing.
Contrary to rumor, Earl hasn’t been “missingâ€. Remotely for the past year, Earl has been busy sharpening and collaborating in virtually the same way as other AIM rappers, singers, poets, actors, athletes and dancers who have benefited from Leila’s over 25 year legacy of weekly writing workshops held at California spots like PFYC in Santa Monica, LBCC in Long Beach and House of Armour in South Central LA. It was only natural that Earl invited Leila to bring other heART Education artists to have a series of free live AIM workshops in Samoa too.
After three days of flying, including a lay-over in Fiji, amazing AIM alumni like Hope Shorter, Skim Skima, Brah1m Ghavami, Fana Hughes, Sulu Nofoaiga and one of the youngest AIM students, Nyku, are together sharing their artistic gifts with Earl’s peers and local Samoans. Learning a unique rich culture as they explore a slice of Earl’s extraordinary experience at the Coral Reef Academy, the entire Alternative Intervention Models family is deeply honored to be a positive part of Earl Sweatshirt’s journey of maturation, imagination and hip-hop dreams.
