Random Throwups.

Agurr?!!!! One of my faves.

Naima

Naima "Nai" Ramos-Chapman is the Associate Editor at Campus Progress, a dancer with Taurus Broadhurst Dance in D.C., and an aspiring visual artist (she doodles). Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @Naimaramchap.
  • distance88

    They (Odd Future) definitely have talent, and I know they’re just kids, but the rape references in a bunch of their songs (mainly from Tyler and Earl) are just too much for me.

    • yeah, this. i’d never heard of them until the Fallon appearance last week. then i started digging up their stuff. they’re actually pretty ill, but it has that weird shocking-for-shocking sake thing going on.

      • I heard about OFWGKTA back in October when I walked home from the grocery store and saw that some frat boys had FREE EARL spray-painted on a sheet in their window. I went home, googled, and it came back to these kids (Earl is a member who is rumored to be in military school or something).

        I don’t think they’re very good. I think it’s very much shock for shock’s sake, and on a lyrical level, they sound very clumsy. Hodgy Beats is the best lyricist in the group, and even his mixtapes annoyed the hell out of me after a while. Their themes are juvenile, and the more interesting subject matter (absent dads, etc) isn’t really explored in an original way.

        Maybe I’m just getting old. Months later, the frat boys do still have the sheet up.

  • Naima

    Yea there stuff is pretty hard to swallow. Actually hesitated throwing this up here…I dig this video more for the camera work dept of field-play going on, silhouettes and sparse imagery. There tendency for the uber shocking I feel is just because they’re “kids” (under 21)–i hesitate to call them kids because I’m not that much older and I am sure they know how offensive at times their subject material is–but their flow and beat making abilities demonstrate undeniable talent. But is undeniable talent a reason even? Always struggle with that one. Eager to see how they’ll mature IF they mature.

    • right. it’s not an easy call. (i dug the video, too. but being better than your average hip-hop video is a very, very low bar to clear.)

  • keke

    Yeah, I actually heard about them a few days before the Fallon performance and I watched some of their youtube clips. They are dope, I cannot deny it. They have flow, great voices and beats. But the rape references are a huge issue for me. they actually kind of remind of very early eminem–slim shady. but its something about their voices and their youth that makes it even more scary in a good and bad way.

    I agree that they are going for the shock value and that does have a lot to do with them being teenagers. It’s kind of like the group of teens who get on public transportation and talk as loud as they can and say the most ignorant things they can think of just to see how everyone else will respond. It will be interesting to see how their subject content will evolve and mature, but one of the issues with hip hop is that as you mature and evolve as an artist, you are pretty much immediately accused of selling out.