Nearly eight years ago, seven Los Angeles musical artists collaborated on a hip-hop project, The Odd Future Tape, that the world would know as the genesis of the collective Odd Future. Blonde, Frank Ocean’s August release which featured none of his former collective members, was just the latest successful venture from an artist within the group.
The face of Odd Future is Tyler, The Creator — or perhaps it was Tyler, The Creator.
Unfortunately, we are far past the days of old where the group uploaded cellphone recordings of them clowning around and sat in for nonsensical freestyle sessions on radio stations. These antics endeared the public to this oddball collection of musicians.
Tyler and Earl Sweatshirt, another member of the hip-hop collective, put out some ambiguous tweets in May 2015 that seemed to reference the collective being over. But many of the members are still seen hanging out together as shown on social media, working on joint projects such as Loiter Squad and their Dash Radio station, as well as putting together their annual Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival music festival.
Though the status of exactly what has happened to the crew is ambiguous, it seems that the group is still together in some capacity. Yet the departure of some of the group’s most famous members, including Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt and Hodgy Beats draws into question just how united the group still is.
Odd Future seems to have an aversion to official statements, so the current status of the group is something very difficult to validate. Their inaction on a group-wide level poses a possibility even more menacing than just the group breaking up — perhaps the public lost interest.
The largest cultural wave triggered by the group was undoubtedly Tyler, The Creator’s Goblin, a dive into his troubled mind shown through a fake therapy session. This dark expression of the hatred in Tyler’s mind resonated with Odd Future’s followers. Tyler’s music at the time played with the cultural norm of what is offensive and attempted to point out how words are given too much power. It was a popular horrorcore type album, which brought it to the attention of the anxiety-ridden, the grievously-misunderstood and the socially-inept. It was an anthem for the outcast.
The collective’s joint album, The OF Tape Vol. 2, was a perfect next step for the group. It was a little more fun and a little lighter with its themes, yet it did not abandon their initial use of disturbing lines and concepts for the sake of humor and expressing their view that words are only offensive if you give them that power. Several individual and joint projects came along as well in the wake of Goblin, like Domo Genesis’ No Idols, Hodgy Beats’ Untitled, and Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange.
As Tyler and his fellow members evolved as artists and progressed from their early style of music, their albums have received less and less attention in popular culture. The same cannot be said for those who left the group, however. Frank Ocean is the most recent example of this, who, after treating his fans like an estranged ex, released his long-awaited solo album in August. Ocean certainly was going to progress as an artist whether or not he was with Odd Future, but it seems like distancing himself from the collective has enabled him to make more personal, creative choices with his music. He certainly showed how much power he has as an artist by breaking the hearts of his fans over and over by backing out of promised release dates.
Earl Sweatshirt’s separation has also been going quite well for him as well, as he put out his own album without any Odd Future involvement. Despite the talent present within Odd Future, it seems their cultural moment has passed. Not that they care; each member has their own fan base, some larger than others, and there is still a lot of love from the die-hard Odd Future fans. And their “WHAT THE FUCK RIGHT NOW,” a humorous and energetic song featuring A$AP Rocky over Kanye West’s “Freestyle 4” beat, is reminiscent of their old sense of humor.
The excitement that made Odd Future a pop culture phenomenon has faded, and the creative minds that didn’t fit their mold have moved on. Though mainstream pop culture has passed it by, the fans who remain interested in whatever Odd Future is today are hooked on the content they produce. They have moved past the style that brought them into the spotlight, but their brief period of stardom exposed their group to enough people that their niche following expanded. Odd Future still seems to stand as a beacon of idiosyncrasy in a platform dominated by the repetitive and the monotonous in the mainstream.
