on newstands tomorrow.
edit: noz wrote this.
Tyler, The Creator (feat. Jasper & Taco) - Tina (Live at The Echo) (OFWGKTA, 2010)
I went over this song before, and it’s still as fantastic as it was the first time I heard it. Probably one of the most hype songs in Odd Future’s discography (and that’s quite a statement considering how much energy the collective has coupled with how much music they’ve released), Tina’s combination of Tyler’s absolutely cluttered (in a great way) beat and his tongue in cheek obnoxiousness and OF’s resident hypemen is a great thing, and works even better in a live enviornment. The stage presence that these kids have is just hard to grasp; it makes you think about, with their short time on the scene, how much time these kids have honestly spent bouncing off the walls in their bathrooms, reciting their lyrics in the mirror.
Complex doesn’t cover anything you didn’t already know (or at least, as long as you keep up with Odd Future’s interviews and features), but it’s nice to see them giving Odd Future the same type of shine that their hipster-brethren, Faderfork, have given them.
However, I would like to mention this - as much as I love Earl’s music, could publications please stop focusing so much attention on him, at least for the moment? The rest of Odd Future get brushed aside so quickly by these rock-publicists, seemingly doing little more than mentioning them in hindsight, so they can focus most of their attention on Earl and his eponymous debut. Earl’s admittedly my second favorite member of Odd Future, behind Tyler, but those two aren’t the only prolific members of the crew; honestly, the true work-horses of OF, at least at this point, are Tyler, Left Brain, Hodgy Beats, and Mike G, and the latter three deserve just as much coverage as Earl’s gotten. Again, it’s understandable that critics gravitate towards Mr. Sweatshirt, but the lack of unique opinions on OF at this point is rather frustrating.
Jeff Weiss disciple, Sach O, wrote about them recently, and at first, it seems like an attempt to break away from the same stuff we’ve already seen a hundred times written about OF. Then, as you delve further, you realize this Sach dude is too lazy to even listen to Blackenedwhite multiple times to appreciate the great stuff on there (and there is some beautiful work, mostly courtesy of Left Brain’s work behind the boards, less to due with Hodgy, who is competent but little more as a rapper), focusing most of his sole attention on the filler that’s present. I think this could’ve been a thoughtful, and interesting article on the collective, but Sach just comes off disgruntled and old as he reminisces on the Wu-Tang and Dungeon Family’s rise to prominence, before music was digital, and rappers spent their entire life savings trying to make it. This dude is probably a Dom Kennedy fan.
I’m upset at myself that I’ve yet to review Bastard despite my 800+ scrobbles of it on iTunes. Would anyone be interested in reading it anymore, despite the fact that you’ve all probably heard it as many times as me? I’m also thinking about reviewing Blackened White or Rolling Papers, but I really, really feel that Bastard, probably my favorite album of the last two or three years, seriously needs covered in detail by me, for, well, me.
Odd Future is children that’s fucked up in their mental/simply we’re probably not.. fuck ‘em
For some reason, this picture makes me feel like Odd Future has arrived (pause).
Odd Future is children that’s fucked up in their mentals.. simple we’re probably not, fuck ‘em.
TTDD - Love In Da Mall (OFWGKTA, 2010)
I don’t write about these kids enough, and that’s my own fault for being too lazy to cover a gorup so extensive and creative. I’ve written about them in the past (Tyler and Earl on a couple occasions, their mention in The Fader, posted Rolling Papers when it dropped), but the bottom line is I’ve just been too lazy to focus on a group as diverse and full of character as OFWGKTA. They’re the second coming of the Wu-Tang Clan; a huge group of tremendously talented young adults who are coming straight out of the underground, producing their own music with their RZA (Tyler) alongside other in-house producers (such as Left Brain), all with varying personalities but an outrageous amount of musical sensibility. Domo’s Rolling Papers has been on constant repeat, as has Tyler’s Bastard, and the Radical and EARL tape also get constant play around my house. I enjoy Mike G’s Ali a good deal due to its chopped and screwed influence, and I’m still working on getting around to Hodgy’s The Dena Tape. There. Now I think we’re caught up for the past few months that I’ve spent listening to my new favorite hip-hop collective without actively writing about them. Deal with it.
This is like nothing they’ve done before. Tyler, Taco, Davon, and Domo have gotten together to record an album that sounds like Jodeci on lean and blow(and it’s apparently dropping at 12 today). Love In Da Mall is the first leak from that album, and to say that is as infectious as it is nauseating. I mean, on first listen, I really didn’t know whether I wanted to randomly start oooohing along or catch motion sickness from the heavily H-Town inspired syrupy production. Tyler doesn’t have as big of a part on this song as I was hoping (I can’t wait to hear the songs with his presence; R&B will have a new synonym, and become Rape & Battery), but Taco (Tyler’s good friend and possibly handicapped hypeman) adds so much obnoxious personality to this song at the end that I can forgive that. Domo and Davon are the main crooners here, I’m guessing; I really can’t tell who’s singing, and to be honest, I don’t even know who Davon is.
When it comes down to it though, as self-parodizing as this tongue-in-cheek record seems, there’s something absolutely brilliant about it, the lack of autotune absolutely admirable and the production (handled by Syd The Kid) being as fantastic as anything the group’s ever rapped on. I’m looking incredibly forward to this release; and I promise to cover Odd Future’s, um, future more from now on instead of letting Pitchfork and other more recognizable outlets do that while I’m listening to AssMilk on loop for 16 hours.
GOLF WANG
