In 2017, a rising, then-18-year-old rapper named MIKE revealed to Pitchfork what now feels like a fated connection with Thebe Kgositsile, the prodigy turned doyen who has performed as Earl Sweatshirt since he was a teenager. "He was my favorite rapper for a very long time, and I used to study his form. He influenced me so much," MIKE said. As the younger rapper put what he was learning into practice and began building his own buzz on Bandcamp, Kgositsile bought one of his early mixtapes. MIKE's messaged thank-you note led the two to strike up a friendship that doubled as a rap apprenticeship. By 2018, Kgositsile's association with MIKE and his NYC cohort had bent his own sound toward their frequency, manifesting on the album Some Rap Songs. They toured together in 2019, and in the years since, their orbits have helped to shape an entire indie rap scene in their image.

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