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Odd Future (full name Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All) seems to make a brand of music that is intentionally garbage – crass, crude, misogynist, lacking in any musicality or substance. It’s the kind of thing you don’t want your mom to catch you listening to, which maybe partially explains its appeal to teenagers and cultural elites alike.


The Los Angeles collective, which includes Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Hodgy Beats, Domo Genesis, Mike G, Frank Ocean and a host of others not worth mentioning, has accumulated a cult following through a series of free albums, videos and a more formal release, 12 Odd Future Songs. They were even the subject of a lengthy profile in the The New Yorker magazine, which focused on the disappearance of Earl, the group’s most revered member.


They’ve been hailed as a genius creation, tapping into the new frontier of music as it disseminates through the Internet, by both the street and high-brow outlets like Pitchfork and The New Yorker.


But then you actually listen to them and you get a “What am I missing?” reaction from the music itself.


The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2 is being billed as their first studio album and it really doesn’t offer polish or anything we haven’t heard before. Instead, it’s a steady beat of tiring, angry tracks mixed with a few commercial-ish tracks (“Analog 2”, “Ya Know”) that not only don’t work, but don’t really fit either.


Crooner Frank Ocean appears on “Analog 2” and “Snow White,” and it’s clear he just doesn’t belong in this group.


On “Snow White” Hodgy raps, “I ain’t the one to be tampered with/I’ll make you shit all in your pants and your pamper, bitch.” This is a typical Odd Future line—nasty, angry and nonsensical.


Odd Future is neither tough enough to be scary nor off-the-wall enough to be funny. That’s what is particularly disappointing. For a group that’s supposed to be something kids are into, there’s not much in the way of fun here at all.


Having three separate songs titled “Bitches,” “Real Bitch” and “We Got Bitches” is crass, yes, but worse, it belies a lack of creativity.


As for the much-mythologized Earl Sweatshirt, he’s not even on the album aside from an appearance seven minutes into the final track. It’s a test to even get that far into “Oldie” to appreciate his unspectacular verse. If Earl is the second coming, this reviewer is still waiting.


It’s not known for sure what happened to Earl when he disappeared from the group for a time, but rumor has it his mother sent him away to some type of boarding school. Who can blame her for getting him away from these guys?


With as much buzz as there is surrounding Odd Future, it would be nice to find some hidden genius in their shoddy work.

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21 Responses to "Odd Future – “The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2″ – @@1/2"
  • georgelll says:

    I think odd futures albums have been decent, frank ocean can sing and i enjoyed his album. I thought goblin was a decent album as well. Tyler is the main star just like eminem was in his clique. The rest of eminems clique wasnt great. Listen to tyler on trouble on my mind and martians vs goblins hes not a bad rapper. I think the people that think they are dicks are just taking the music too seriously. They are just having fun and it entertains people. Odd future has a funny or die clip that is pretty funny and some of their youtube videos are funny you can tell they are just about fun and joking and i think people are missing that everything they say in the music is meant that way. I think tylers next album will be the true test of how much of a future they have. But how come eminem was never called a dick by hip hop fans before when he talked about his own mom and killing his babys mom. People are just taking them serious when its meant in fun

    Odd future does not get radio play and the albums arent selling more than 200k each release usually. So im not sure why people dont understand their success when they basically have a small but loyal following compared to lil wayne for instance.

  • @hotrocks1975

    I feel you homie, I’m also in my 30′s and sometimes I ask myself the same question like am I really stuck so much in the golden era that I cannot seem to give some of these more “pop”ular artist a fair shot. One thing I have realized is that age is really not that big of a factor but quality music will always attract you no matter what.

  • isaac says:

    I never really got why these guys blew up? every single song I’ve ever heard of theirs wasn’t just bad, it was hard to listen to, literally unpleasing to the ears. Shit if you want something different or unique go listen to DOOM or some old De La or something, not this nonsense.

  • jeff 413 says:

    Ah…Im not the only one…I give it ZERO @
    This is terrible music. Not Hip Hop. Absolute Garbage.

    I almost shit when Tyler won best new artist on MTV music awards ( not that it has any credibility anyway )
    I mean, is no one listening? is it just the gimmick that fans love?
    There is so much good music out there that deserves way more recognition than this crap.

  • Dayz says:

    Thank you Stefan Schumacher and the rest of my HHS brethren for saying everything I have been screaming from the mountain top since the first day these clowns surfaced! I am in my 30′s and a few times second guessed my gut feelings about this group but I know I am right! They lack talent, their music is not pleasing to the ear and they are just a bunch of assh@les. There are so many talented artists out there that deserve your precious and limited time that you have to listen to music (I know I have a ton of responsibilities other than music/Hip Hop). Please don’t waste yours on this noise.

  • Comments (21)

    Huey

    April 18th, 2012 at 12:50 pm