Earl Sweatshirt Was Confused For Another Rapper Named After Clothing On ‘Jeopardy!’

At some point in the last five or so years, someone on the Jeopardy! staff figured out that having answers and clues based on hip-hop is really amusing to the show’s audience. And so, there have been references to Public Enemy (and the Funky Bunch), ASAP Rocky, Lil Jon, Lizzo, Kendrick Lamar, and Megan Thee Stallion in recent contests, and invariably, the results have been entertaining — whether contestants’ answers are accurate or not.

The latest rapper to get the Jeopardy! treatment is Earl Sweatshirt. The Los Angeles-based former member of Odd Future appeared as the $800 clue in the “Rappers” category (they have a whole category!) last night. Now, it’s possible — even likely! — that our flustered contestant knew the correct answer. After all, the rapper whose name she blurted out is also named after a garment — damn near the same garment, in fact.

What that says about the state of rap names, in general, is probably a question for another day, but as far as linguistic replacements go, you could do worse than “A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.” The viewers’ frustration at the faux pas may appear to belie that assertion, though. She also mispronounced the “A” in “A Boogie” but considering everybody has to read everything online and just figure it out, this is something we are all going to have to get used to.

The fact remains that Earl and Artist look almost nothing alike (for what it’s worth, there are so many photos of A Boogie wearing so many other items that are not hoodies, maybe a name change is in order). Nor does their music sound alike, although that didn’t come up on Jeopardy!. In the end, none of the contestants could guess and host Mayim Bialik had to give the answer. On the bright side, maybe it worked out for Earl and A Boogie’s streaming numbers when viewers inevitably googled both to figure out what the big deal was. Check out more fans’ reactions below.

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Earl Sweatshirt are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.