Disturbia Lurking On the Horizon: Tyler the Creator & Odd Future Hang Industry, Critics

Starting with the release of the “Yonkers” video and combined with Odd Future’s killer Fallon performance last week, my mind has been stirring  in a non-stop, whirlwind of obsession with Tyler The Creator and his L.A. rap collective Odd Future or OFWGKTA, which is an acronym for Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All.

Odd Future is disturbing. They are completely unsettling. There’s this feeling I get when I hear certain lyrics or verses in their songs that literally make my head hurt.

But Odd Future is infinitely more intriguing than dangerous — at least for me. How many current rappers would say the following stanza in a rap: “(what you think of Hayley Williams?)/ fuck her, Wolf Haley robbin’ ‘em/ I’ll crash that fuckin’ airplane at that faggot nigga B.o.B is in /and stab Bruno Mars in his goddamn esophagus /and won’t stop until the cops come in.”

No one would rap that. No one wants to start stuff like that. But Tyler did, and he could care less about the ramifications.

And despite the heavy amounts of hate, there’s more to Tyler than spitting some substantial venom. The lyric that comes right before that “Airplanes” smash-fest is “I’m not gay, I just wanna boogie to some Marvin.” And just like that — in 12 seconds of verse, Tyler totally won me over. Plus, he also references watching Adventure Time in “Yonkers”. Swag.    

Tyler is like Nicki Minaj except he actually stands for something: anarchy, disturbia, and youth culture. That line from “Roman’s Revenge” where Minaj says “I-I-I-I hear them mumblin', I hear the cacklin' / I got 'em scared, shook, panickin'” which might apply to Minaj, but it certainly suits Tyler better in that he’s seriously freaking people and parents the fuck out.

Speaking of parents, Odd Future is playing at Coachella this year, but Future’s youngest member — Earl Sweatshirt — isn’t. His parents sent him off to boarding school or boot camp or something like that — it’s a little unclear except that it’s known that Earl is AWOL and Odd Future keeps posting stuff that says “Free Earl”. Can you imagine it though? Missing playing a staple U.S. festival because your parents sent you to boot camp? Sad times for Earl.  

There are two things that make Odd Future so notable: 1) Everyone in Odd Future — at this time — are teenagers. Tyler is nineteen. Tyler is the same age as me. That kind of blows my mind. 2) They have the guts to disregard every censor and everyone in the industry and press. They are carving their own following by saying “fuck everyone”. It’s a bit ironic, but more memorable than anything. 

Odd Future has the potential to become more than a hot topic, more than a weird outfit, and more than Die Antwoord; they have the power to actually stand for something, and maybe change a few things around in the “industry”. Now all we can do is wait for Tyler’s solo LP due in April.  

Tyler the Creator is on twitter as @fucktyler. He’s pretty hilarious and he capitalizes every word, so he's cool in my book. Here’s some choice tweets from after his performance on Fallon: “Fans Were Crying Tears Of Joy Because I'm One Of Them. Feels Good. I'm Gonna Go jack Off And Go To Sleep.” & “This Nigga Travis On The Phone With Me. Nigga Crying.” followed by “Thats My Best Friend Tho, So Its Cool.”

Joel Samson Berntsen (Unluck – James Blake)