Rhythm and poetry

Headlines in the land of hip-hop this week proclaimed: “Earl Sweatshirt’s father dies”. The eminent LA rapper, son of Keorapetse Kgositsile and US law professor Cheryl Harris, was born Thebe Neruda Kgositsile in 1994. In a New Yorker feature on Sweatshirt in 2011, South Africa’s poet laureate commented on his son’s music career: “Frantz Fanon said that each generation must find its own mission. If he’s part of those that have found their mission, then I’m very happy.”