Earl Sweatshirt gives props to 2000s nostalgia on his new single “Making the Band (Danity Kane).” The song marks Sweatshirt’s first solo effort since his 2022 album Sick! Sick! and is produced by Surf Gang’s Evilgiane. A Hidji World and YGA-directed video for “Making the Band” shows Sweatshirt, legal name Thebe Kgositsile, sparking up outside with friends while rapping over the atmospheric beat.

Six months ago, Evilgiane posted the “Making the Band” beat to his SoundCloud, and more recently, he produced the Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem collaboration “The Hillbillies.”

Sick!, released last January, marking Kgositsile’s follow-up to 2018’s Some Rap Songs. “Once the lockdowns hit, people couldn’t fly anymore,” a statement for the album reads. “A wise man said art imitates life. People were sick. The people were angry and isolated and relentless. I leaned into the chaos because it was apparent that it wasn’t going anywhere. These songs are what happened when I would come up for air.”

After the release of Sick!, Kgositsile embarked on the ÑBA Leather Tour with Action Bronson, Boldly James and The Alchemist, followed by a special voiceover appearance on Atlanta just months later. On “The Most Atlanta,” the premiere of the fourth and final season, Kgositsile voiced Blue Blood, an MF DOOM-like rapper, whose posthumous music took Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) on a scavenger hunt.

In March, Kgositsile was also the answer to a Jeopardy question in the “Rappers” category. A photo of the 29-year-old was shown, along with the question “He’s seen here actually in a hoodie around the time of ‘Doris’, his major label debut album.” A contestant wrongly (and hilariously) guessed A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, and no one was able to figure out it was Kgositsile.