outgrabe

So now that apparently everyone is on OddFuture’s jock I feel it is important to not so much define, insofar as to label anything implies they can only move laterally within one specified genre, but to to consider what is the essence of their music and genesis of why we like it. Ostensibly, as many have argued their primary attribute is shock value. OddFuture are/were mostly teenagers rapping about some absolutely disgusting shit. Rape, murder etc… But the old age “from the mouth of babes” kind of makes sense here. A lot of it has to do with the idea that there really isn’t anything as the idyllic childhood anymore. Kids are constantly being stimulated with some really vulgar shit from an incredibly early age. Fuck I am not so sure this is necessarily a bad thing, but let’s be real, its a little perturbing. Anyway, there is some reason to think this other than the meandering mind of a bored college kid. Tyler has implied as much in interviews. What is striking though is the incredible immaturity within the group dynamic, as they prance around and play pranks on each other, and yet the thoughtful aspects of their intensely personal music. Further more they are some damn talented kids on the mic, particularly Earl Sweatshirt. Tyler has gotten all the press, for an album with fantastic vision, but mediocre execution. Frank Ocean was on the Kanye/Jay Z album, plus has his own buzz going for the track Novacane. But really if you have listened to any of their mixtapes, it is clear as day that Earl is something else. The kid, who was 15,16 when all of it was recorded, is an absolute monster on the mic. Anyway, They need to be respected on talent alone. The idea that they are rapping about perversions in a way 1999 Eminem couldn’t even dare to put on albums then is pretty ridiculous too. Tyler produces fantastic beats and is a total music nerd, as many of them are. Also Domo Genesis is really fun to listen to on his own, though I am not entirely sure whether or not he is any good. Maybe we just like them because they don’t sound like anything else out there. Perhaps they just hit that right moment in the zeitgeist of today, maybe we are all just thinking the same disgusting thoughts as them and don’t have the balls to say it. We’ve probably always had these thoughts (and as a history major let me tell you, those guys in the middle ages were thinking the exact same shit) and are not just finally getting the point in modernity when we can just fucking say it. Regardless we, and by we I mean the “royal” we, came here to begin to classify OddFuture as something, anything, in the spectrum of rap artists. The truth is they probably belong in the same category as Lil’ B and The Pack, or The Cool Kids, or any of those other artists who used the internet to get out an entirely different sound that not even the music industry had found and exploited yet. They are a buzzband in our collective consciousness, and anything they do will seem new and exciting, but as with all things there is a tendency to stagnate, right before our very eyes, until we recognize it, put it on a list and move on to something else. These guys deserve to be judged on their own merit, for which the time being suggests, is very good.