I like to think that I am, to some degree at least, immune to orchestrated hype. Some people decide to check out an artist if they hear about them a handful of times; I on the other hand usually assume that any artist who's name I see everywhere has some asshole with a vested interest standing behind them and throwing money at everyone in sight to get them noticed, which I find quite tacky, and which just makes me assume that the artist in question hasn't actually earned anyone's attention, least of all mine since they can't seem to gain it simply on the merit of their efforts as ARTISTS. Furthermore, I don't read shitty corporate rock payola magazines like Spin, or shitty indie rock payola magazines like Death and Taxes or Under the Radar. I don't read Pitchfork either (except for the 'history of' type articles, cause come on, those rule!), though I really have nothing against them (at least they don't only review records by labels who buy ad space from them!), I just sort of assume that the music they cover is stuff that that's intended to appeal to the broadest swath of indie rockers possible, and that's just not me. If you've been keeping up, you know that my preferred way to find about new artists is to see them perform live. Beyond that, I download an album here and there, order many records completely unheard from labels that seem interesting, and rely on recommendations from friends and and a handful of music bloggers who don't write for their paychecks (look to your right).
I just re-read all that, and wow, I really sound like a jackass; it is all true though, and I do actually have a point that I'm trying to put out there, and that is this: Occasionally, and maybe even more often than occasionally as like I said I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to 'popular music', there exists an overhyped artist who truly is unique, interesting, and worth taking seriously. In 1992 it was Nirvana. In the last decade it's been artists like Girl Talk and M.I.A. Right now, it's Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (or Odd Future for short...or Wolf Gang...or Golf Wang).And, man are they ever overhyped! I don't mean that in the sense that their music doesn't warrant attention, it definitely does; it's just that everyone from NPR and the Wire to the aforementioned shitty corporate rock payola magazines, not to mention the entire blogosphere, has been covering them seemingly non-stop for months, re-printing the same shit over and over, leading to a bit of an information glut, and perhaps foreshadowing a backlash. I would venture to guess that anyone who follows hip-hop even fleetingly has heard quite the earful about them...shit, anyone who follows new music of any genre has probably heard of them. At this point you may be asking the question 'so then why are you writing about them?' Well, the answer to that is simply that I think they're great. I'll do my best to add something new to the proceedings, but in all honesty there doesn't seem to be a lot of ground left uncovered regarding these guys, so if you've already gorged, you might wanna skip ahead.
Assuming you haven't read anything about them, here's a very brief crash course: Odd Future is a large group (more than ten members) of MCs, DJs, and producers out of Los Angeles. With the exception of female producer / live engineer Syd the Kyd, Odd Future's members are very young men (many are still teenagers) who are into skateboarding, outspoken atheism, evil, and bands like Stereolab and the Liars. Until they began to be offered label deals earlier this year, every album the group had produced (the final total was eleven I believe) from solo records to all-inclusive mixtapes was made available for free on their website. To say that they don't fit very well into the world of popular music as it currently exists is a bit of an understatement, although this fact is something that the group actively strives to change by way of attempting to completely discredit most of popular music which they seem to have no issue frequently dissing for being either old and stale or lazy and soft. They also have some of the most highly scrutinized and abhorrent lyrics hip-hop has ever seen.
The two most prominent members of the crew thus far are OFWGKTA's insanely talented founder and official group leader Tyler, the Creator, and his adorably crude and foul mouthed teenage sidekick Earl Sweatshirt. Between the two of them, they spit enough misogyny (the joy of rape is a frequent lyrical theme), homophobia (Tyler often punctuates the ends of his rhymes with a menacing 'faggot', while Earl refers to the OF crew as 'fag damagers'), outright blasphemy (references to evil and Satan are abundant) and political incorrectness (ever heard of 'black nazis'? well, now you have) to make the offensive hardcore rap lyrics of yesteryear seem tame by comparison. Their lyrical content has earned them no short list of enemies and detractors, and understandably so. As someone who personally knows people who have been fucked with for being queer and women who have been raped, I can personally attest that some of the things Odd Future say give me the big time creeps; BUT I also realize that what they are doing is making ART based on what they know and feel. Think about it like this: if N.W.A. was the product of tough, crime addled streets, police brutality, gang life, and exploitation, the members of Odd Future are the products of the post-modern sense of fractured identity, youtube, rape porn, and ingenuity. They are, if nothing else, the sons of post twentieth century American society, and, yes, what they are saying is repulsive; however, I am of the opinion that what really scares people about OF is that, like N.W.A. before them, they are speaking a truth that the majority of Americans just aren't ready to deal with or take responsibility for: the kids aren't alright, they're really fucking angry. Who's fault is that and how did they get the way they are? It's a complicated question to say the least, and it seems like many would rather get upset about it than ask questions.
Of course, as offensive as they can sometimes be, most of OF's lyrical crudeness must be taken with a grain of salt. They obviously don't actually keep women locked in their basements, burn down houses, or perform oral sex on corpses; meanwhile, their constant homophobia is quickly discredited when you learn that previously mentioned female crew member Syd the Kyd is openly gay. In a sense, their lyrical attempts to challenge and shock the status quo into disbelief are no different than when bands like the Sex Pistols and Throbbing Gristle brandished swastikas in the late seventies for the same purposes, and though OF obviously revel in the fact that their lyrics would scare the shit out of just about any suburban parent in the country, in the group's many non-music related videos on their youtube page, Earl and Tyler seem like the kind of goofy guys who would be really nice to your parents if they came to your house to hang out.
Perhaps it seems like I'm trying to defend the content of their lyrics, and maybe to some degree I am; I am after all, obviously quite the fan. But if nothing else, I feel like shunning Odd Future or targeting them as poster boys for what's wrong with society or hip-hop or whatever will only fuel their anger. Instead, I feel that if for no other reason, we should be listening to what they're saying so that we can learn from them. At this moment, whether they (or you) want to admit it or not, they are a microcosm of America's youth; turning our backs on them because we disapprove of them or refuse to try and understand them is a mistake. It's quite possible in fact, that such knee jerk reactions in the past had something to do with shaping their current attitudes.I also feel like it's important to give them a chance to grow up a bit and accumulate a few more life experiences with which to inform their viewpoints (one of their favorite slogans 'kill people, burn shit, fuck school' reveals much about their youthful mindset, as artists over the age of about nineteen rarely, if ever, complain about school). There is no question that these kids are abnormally bright and talented, and the directions that they could go in are endless. During the late eighties, who ever could have imagined that Ice Cube would be starring in family films or that the Beastie Boys would progress from Budweiser worship and a giant hydraulic penis to becoming feminists, Buddhists, and vegans?
Finally, to paraphrase NPR's Frannie Kelley, the offensive content present in their lyrics is one of the least notable things about them, and if they weren't genuinely talented and original no one would care about the things they're saying anyway. So, let's get on to the music then shall we?
First up is Earl Sweatshirt. Unfortunately, Mr. Sweatshirt (who recently turned seventeen) is currently not with the group as he appears to be serving time in teenage purgatory due to parental intervention; despite this temporary setback however, the video for his first single (like his album, aptly titled 'Earl') has received over two-million youtube hits since it was posted in July of last year, and deservedly so. The video is an entrancing fever dream fantasy of illicit drug use and debauchery, blood and death, and the song is not too shabby either, as Earl, from the comfort of a barber's chair in a room full of disembodied doll heads, waxes poetic over an infectious, hard hitting bass groove, about among other things, putting the "ass in assassin" and consuming fried human remains mixed with shit
The content on the rest of the album gets even grimmer, though always has a subtle tongue in cheek feel making it somewhat difficult to get too upset by the lyrical content; in the track "Kill", for example, Earl inserts a verse describing a marathon three-way with Pamela Anderson and Billy Ray Cyrus during which he's served sandwiches by Miley Cyrus, as an amused Santa Claus and horrified Mrs. Claus look on.There is no challenging the fact that Earl is gifted, supremely so in fact. Every single song on his record is a killer, and his ability to concoct witty and macabre rhymes and effortlessly connect the most far flung concepts imaginable rivals even that of Earl's hero, himself, Eminem. The production work, (mostly by Tyler) is all top-notch, and Earl's baritone flow is about as good as it gets in hip-hop today; imagine the smoothness of a rapper like Q-Tip combined with the non-stop belligerent aggression of someone like Method Man and you'll get a sense of what I'm talking about.
While it's obvious that Earl is a big fan of Eminem and models a good amount of his rhyming style after the Shady one, he has a much more agreeable voice (i.e. he doesn't sound like a circus clown on helium) and is, in my opinion, much more charismatic; Eminiem has always come off to me as a bitter, middle aged loser full of self loathing and doubt. Earl on the other hand sounds like an MC confidently standing at the edge of greatness with no lingering doubts and nothing to prove. Considering his age, he certainly has plenty of time and opportunity to make the world his, and as soon as he arrives back on the scene, I have no doubt he will do so quite swiftly. In the meanwhile I highly suggest that anyone with even a slight interest in hip-hop immediately procure his album here.
If Earl is the equivalent of OF's Method Man, Tyler is both the group's RZA and Ghostface Killah. He's like RZA in the sense that he is the one pulling the strings on everything, producing beats and leading the crew with no uncertain confidence and swagger; he is like Ghostface in the sense that his spitfire flow is immediately stunning and propelled by ultra obscure and off the wall references packed into bizarre and densely composed rhyme schemes. Yes, I know the Wu-Tang comparison is very lazy and played out, but it works for me in trying to give an idea of what Odd Future actually sounds like since I'm not very familiar with the process of describing the auditory details of hip-hop the way I am with describing such details for other kinds of music I enjoy.
Bastard's title track, which opens the record, is undoubtedly the most honest and moving hip-hop song I've ever heard; essentially a tirade against an absentee father, the track also covers traditionally un-discussed subjects within hip-hop such as being bullied, peer pressure to be sexually active, and feelings of worthlessness and depression. When he gets to the line "I created OF because I feel we're more talented than forty year old rappers talking about Gucci with kids they haven't seen in years" it always gives me the shivers. The rest of the album finds Tyler frequently spitting angrily at everyone in sight over tracks that range from dirgey to jazzy and is also really, really good.
Odd Future is certainly not for everyone, though many, including myself, feel that they may be poised to de-legitimize 'soft-rap' the same way Nirvana de-legitimized hair metal, practically overnight. This could of course simply be wishful thinking, or even foolish thinking. I certainly don't want the next 'generation spokesperson' to be a faux homophobic rapist, even if it is just a character or just a joke. I know that I know how to separate art from reality, but when it comes to others, I'm not as confident in their abilities to do so. Did I just say I'm better than other people? Maybe. But regardless of all that, as far as pushing hip-hop forward into fresh, new, and fascinating territory, Odd Future's competition at the moment is virtually non-existent; they ARE the most exciting hip-hop group in the world right now, and if that is something that matters to you, you owe it to yourself to give them a listen.If you think you can handle it, here is the place to be.
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