Tuneskis: Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All

A while back my homie Chantz showed me this rap crew called Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA). I’ve been listening to Tyler the Creator’s album “Bastard” a lot as I cruise around the backwoods of West Marin. They are a group from Los Angeles, none of the member are older than 20. Their lyrics are incredibly violent, misogynistic, and homophobic,yet there is an intelligence and emotional rawness to them that has made them one of my favorite new groups.

I think back to when NWA first came out, how they created a huge controversy. How their lyrics brought to life many of the daily challenges, frustrations people in Compton faced. Rap used to be a form of protest music, a provocative way of conveying what was happening to the people who had nothing, no future, no escape

Now look at what rap has come to. What was once subversive, a voice for the degraded and excluded has now been co-opted. Lil’ Wayne and Gucci Mane rap about how they do a lot of drugs, how much money they have, how they can just kill a man with no thought, about being the biggest baddest gangsta. There is Kid Cudi whining about how he smokes too much weed. The jerkin movement in Southern California promoting conspicuous consumption. What’s there to identify with that actually has any weight, any deep meaning? There all in pursuit of something tangible, something material.

What I like about OFWGKTA is that their is a humanity,a rawness to them that many mainstream musicians lack. A perfect example is Tyler the Creator’s “Bastard.” The first song on his album, the song is framed as a discussion between Tyler and a therapist. He’s a smart kid, he writes his own music, takes AP and honor classes, but his intelligence and talents hasn’t gotten him anywhere. His peers make fun of him. Rap blogs like 2dopeboyz won’t post his music because they think he’s a just a kid. Despite his smarts, after highschool he’s going to a jc. He is written off as nothing more than a troubled adolescent black bastard, “an ignorant hood-rat.”

Perhaps I'm being an idealistic upper middle class Mexican white boy, but OFWGKTA's horrifically explicit lyrics bring to light the groups deeper emotional trauma. While there’s absolutely nothing good about things like homophobia and rape, I think the lyrics come out of there the inability to put into words the problems they face. For example, Tyler the Creator is a bastard. Abandoned by his father, without a past to model his future on. He has to live with the knowledge that his dad, his creator, never wanted him. How can that anger, that helplessness, be articulated? I think the lyrics evoke that inexpressible pain. Although it may seem like Tyler’s situation and anger is unique, he notes in “Inglorious“ that he knows he’s not the only bastard. He’s just one of many.

Here is the link to their blog:

http:/www.oddfuture.com/

Listen, make your own opinions, do whatever.

and also

FUCK STEVE HARVEY!