OFWGKTA

Art appeals to all aspects of our senses. While glancing at a painting, sculpture, or photograph you might infer what was happening before or after the still moment was captured. You might have seen the painting “Starry Night” by Vincent van Goh and imagined parking your pinto by the vantage point, fogging up the windows and throwing pebbles at the tin roofs below. Or you might have read a poem, sinking into the intended groove of the rhyme scheme as your cerebellum projects fuzzy interpretations of the sensory images that the mere letters on paper lack. It’s the act of imagining your own faces and scenes that make art worthwhile. I’m almost certain that anyone who is currently reading a novel and/or short story has a cast of characters associated in their mind for the occasion. We all know how disappointing it can be when one of our favorite books is sold to some over-glorified film company only to have a Disney troll take the place of the character you held most dear, forever burning into your brain what the “filmmaker” could conjure together from the piece, even sacrificing most little details that made the novel so hard to put down in the first place. On the other hand, there are also those filmmakers who can capture the mood and digress on every line of the script, creating a visual experience that goes deeper than just that. It stirs some emotion, and it accomplishes the aspect of art that sets us apart from cold, rusty, lifeless pieces of machinery. It makes you feel something.

With that being said, meet 20-year-old film student Tyler Okonma, better known as Tyler, the Creator. He’s the leader of a rap cult–soon to consume your iTunes library–dubbed Odd Future, which is crashing the scene of every well known and respected form of media outlet that we hold dear. They’re wrecking the scenes of “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” “Text Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self at Steve Berra and Eric Koston’s ‘The Berrics,’” “Thrasher Magazine,” SXSW, Coachella, mtvU Woodie Awards, and even Fox News for their recent escapade at a Boston comic book store that included a riot, an arrest, and a hospitalized police officer.

Ranging from 16 to 20 years of age, Odd Future consists of Tyler, the Creator; Stuart Gray; Hodgy Beats; Taco; Earl Sweatshirt (currently in boot camp at his mothers discretion); Domo Genesis; Mike G; Frank Ocean; Left Brain; Syd the Kyd; Matt Martians; and a slew of other skate-rat hooligans. In 2007, Tyler, Earl, Mike G, Left Brain and Hodgy Beats (Mellow Hype) started crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s with collaborators Jasper the Dolphin, Syd, Domo Genesis, Taco, and Matt Martians. Keep in mind that the members are currently 16-20 years old, and if my math is correct, the subjects of this article were buying their first sticks of deodorant and still trading Pokemon cards when they kicked off the Odd Future franchise.

Not soon after this collaboration, the crew started getting second looks for their rude, yet whimsical sense of humor and mountains of undeniably grandiose lyrics. By the year 2010 their genius was realized and enunciated as “artists to watch for” all year. Tyler, Earl, Mike G, and Mellow Hype have all been releasing mix-tapes free to the public, until things started heating up. Then Tyler broke ground on the iTunes marketplace with Goblin. Each one of them bring something to the table whether they are a producer, artist, or just a homie. Filming home-made videos, signing record deals, skateboarding, composing music, harassing Fox News reporters, and making history are the only items on their agenda.

Odd future is re-writing all the rules of modern day rap culture. Wielding Super Soakers, snap-backs, and cut-offs, these L.A. natives don’t try to emulate generic rap icons. There’s no mindless banter about how much weed they smoke or what kind of car they drive; it’s all about being teenage poets from California, making the most out of the time they have in the spotlight, trashing hotel rooms and clowning on any reporter that tries to take the fun out of what there doing. But when it comes to the actual music, this rapscallion group of teenagers are far beyond their years in poetic matter and substance, instantly switching from hooligans to the lyrical phenomena that make up Odd Future.

With lyrics you would likely see etched on the slimy, dark wall of a serial killer’s bedroom and murky jazz chords, surrounded by homemade crunchy 8-bit Nintendo scores, Tyler is not rapping. He’s narrating.

“My Sound Is Like: A Mosh Pit At A Jazz Concert. Or Like, Hitler Fucking Dr. Suess.”-Tyler, The Creator

Tyler’s music is constantly tossed under the “horror-core” genre, a type of hip-hop shared by the likes of Tech N9ne and Gravediggaz, but he strongly disagrees. The use of the verbs rape and murder and all of the other profane nouns and adjectives in his verses are not simply slander but meant to emphasize emotional value. Tyler and the rest of Odd Future are not striving to see who can get the most felonies and tear drop tattoos. They are putting on a divine act, using stereo speakers, stages, and computer screens as their stage. In a recent interview, Tyler was asked about the level of controversy in his lyrics:

“You see the shit that they do in movies, I just don’t get why, when it’s in a song people make such a big deal. When I make a song its just like a fucking movie to me, I want to go into detail . . . you know? Every song is a story to me.”

Odd Future’s music is the menacing montage at the end of every Mel Gibson film, it is a violent book of poems published by a confused teenager composed to perfection, and a mural for every under-the-table matter we face in these times. Keep the lights on kids, because oddfuture is knocking down doors and flipping wigs everywhere they go.

OFWGKTA

SYFFAL (Shut Your Fucking Face And Listen), ThrasherMagazine.com