I finally got around to listening to Odd Future, but before I share my opinion on the music, let me step back and explain why I took so long to listen to their work. When I first heard about the group two years ago, the general impression I got from the press, blogs, and friends was this: These young, Los Angeles–based cats are on some serious negativity shit. Odd Future are nothing more than shockmongers. For them, nastiness is the order of the day. They have nothing but mean things to say about gays and women.
Now, there’s so much trouble in the world as it is, why bother listening to a crew that’s spreading the negativity? Why bother with music that doesn’t have a positive message? Women are still oppressed; gays do not have full rights and are often bullied and beaten. What all of this adds up to is one group of people inflicting pain on another. And pain is a bad thing. We all want to be happy and feel pleasure. (Yes, it’s a very utilitarian view of life.) When Odd Future rap about raping a woman, they are rapping about inflicting pain on another human being. This is what it comes down to. There is no getting around it. It’s wrong to rap about inflicting pain on another person.
But back to the music. One listen of The Odd Future Tape and Radical, and the practiced ear knows that Odd Future operate in hiphop genius, the region of RZA, J Dilla, Q-Tip. Their beats and arrangements are amazing. So on one end, you have the closed minds of the rappers; on the other end, you have a production that’s absolutely open and inventive. How can this be? Why does such a brilliant contemporary hiphop crew end up with nothing nice to say? My guess: It is a symptom of underground hiphop’s frustration with obscurity. The opportunities in underground hiphop are extremely limited. No matter how great you are, there’s only a slim chance you will receive recognition outside of your city or community.
It was not always like this. Back in the day, hiphop was all about innovation. You became famous because you brought something brand-new to the game. This standard of success withered in the late 1990s and has since been in exile. With Odd Future, innovative hiphop comes out of exile and appears on NBC, MTV, BB, Fuel TV, and the galaxy of music blogs. But this return to the mainstream comes with a terrible price. Odd Future are known mostly for their shocking raps rather than their brilliant craftsmanship. 
That is a very short article, certainly you have more to say about OFWGKTA…what about the instrumentals and solo releases?
maybe you were way ahead of the curve but what the hell were you hearing about them two years ago? Outside of the Odd Future tape they’d barely released anything and no one was talking about them. I think you’re trying a bit to hard to portray yourself as hip here…
also why the fuck are you talking about the odd future tape rather than any of their other albums? weird choice…
YEAH CHARLES, YOU’RE ALWAYS TRYING TO BE SO HIP! WTF!?
“There is no getting around it. It’s wrong to rap about inflicting pain on another person.”
What the fuck man. That is such a stupid statement. It dismisses 70% of classic, must listen to hip-hop.
Oh wait, is this because you’ve been listening to KRS more?
You should probably delete any of this from your hard drive also; unless you want to turn into a hate monger!
7L and Esoteric
Big L
Apathy
Celph Titled
NWA
Big Pun
Bumpy Knuckles
Kool G Rap
Necro
Black Moon
Smif N Wesson
Geto Boys
Ice Cube
WU Tang
Organized Konfusion
Slaine
UGK
ODD FUTURE IS NOT ORIGINAL……LISTEN TO THE GRAVE DIGGAZ SAME EXACT MATERIAL EXCEPT HIPSTERS THINK “THERE EDGY AND NEW” SO THEY ALL HOP ON THERE DICKS
The only way to get attention from the cattle is to clap loud and make offensive gestures. Creativity, lyrics, words, and poetry aren’t danceable. Happy music seems like a lie because everything is so shitty, but at the same time the negativity isn’t facetious, it’s just angry and violent. This is what’s fashionable. Upside down crosses and black. The designer hip hop. Ignorance is prevalent and the smarts are ignored cause WHO WANTS TO LISTEN I JUST WANNA PARTY!! Everything gets forgotten within the instant it’s posted to the 3 party tumblr account. Tweeted into absence. Memes for the sake of a laugh but concepts of truth dropped into the shallowest puddles.
Qwazaar was just in town. Played to a half empty room. The dude’s deep. This Odd Future show is packed out. The sheep have spoken and they chose what? Deaf blind thoughtless romping through darkness.
peace.
I struggle to be sympathetic to this as well. I guess I understand the shock-value rap, even the persona of jerk or thug or asshole. But what struck me about Steve’s post on Electrical was that these guys were behaving that way in real life. There is no excuse for that. If you can’t be polite to the person driving you to the airport you have no business drawing breath.
My dad once told me “The only thing that matters is how you treat people who don’t matter.” I’ve tried to live my life by that, and it is pretty much the only criteria by which I judge others.
Fuck sake, Odd Future? Really?? These kids are the Insane Clown Posse of underground rap. They bite horrorcore lyrics and beats and then claim NOT to be horrorcore (presumably cuz their target demographic has never heard of Esham, Tech N9ne or Gravediggaz). It can’t be said enough, fucking hipsters ruin EVERYTHING.
But I can’t wait to see who you big up next…Afro Man perhaps? LOLOL.
P.S.
“It’s wrong (to rap about) inflict(ing) pain on another person.”
Edited that for ya. Anyone who would write the original sentence in seriousness really shouldn’t be reviewing rap music or, y’know, making any evaluative statement about any artistic endeavor, ever.
BLAH BLAH BLAH
“It’s wrong to rap about inflicting pain on another person.”
How about writing in the first person about imaginative characters in books or films? Is it ok then? Or should we dismiss Dostoevsky for his protagonists roll in Crime and Punishment. Obviously Tyler is no contemporary Dostoevsky, that is absurd. My point remains though, if he is (as he claims) writing stories in his music–as opposed to endorsing it–you are singling out the medium due to its more intimate nature.