The Next Odd Future
On February 10 2011, a rapper named Tyler the Creator dropped a music video for his song Yonkers. A roach was eaten, a star was born, and soon teens around the country were wearing socks with donuts on them. The Odd Future craze was a massive musical phenomenon: these cult figures were controversial, edgy, and beloved by their fans. They released albums, mixtapes, and clothing lines. They threw a carnival and they made a sketch comedy show. With the unbelievable success of Odd Future as a group, it was only a matter of time before the young kids who grew up idolizing Odd Future would start making a splash on the music scene themselves.
The first of these artists to draw comparisons to Tyler and his band of misfits is the controversial rapper xxxtentacion (pronounced “X-X-X-tentación”), who began to gain some buzz in the Soundcloud rap scene with his 2015 song “Look At Me!”, showcasing his raw aggressive energy and passion that quickly earned him a devoted fanbase. The song is a take on the wildly popular Atlanta trap sound that is dominating both the underground rap scene online and the billboard charts, but xxxtentacion takes that sound and cranks the volume up to 11. This song is poorly mixed, incredibly loud, and very in your face. Its a punk rock style or hip hop that features incredibly provocative but catchy lyrics. Much in the way that Tyler’s early lyrics would often depict violence and sexual assault, xxxtentacion doesn't go even two lines without proclaiming that he “can’t keep my dick in my pants”, one of many lines on the song that has been endlessly quoted and meme’d on the internet.
But this song didn’t blow up in 2015 when it was released, the song really found its audience when the Florida rapper found himself serving 6 months in jail for armed home invasion robbery and aggravated battery with a firearm. As is the case when many rappers have been arrested, his rabid fan bases called to #FreeX, and as the story progressed and his crimes received more coverage, so did “Look at Me!”, as the song skyrocketed from a underground soundcloud hit to a song that peaked at #61 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. But it was not his armed robbery that brought controversy to the music world, as the main topic of discussion around xxxtentacion was an even more serious charges filed against him for domestic violence, after he strangled a pregnant woman in 2015. But this charge of violence was not avoided or apologized for by the rapper or his fans, it was actively denied despite numerous photos of the woman’s injuries and accounts of the incident. And not only did these allegations fail to set back the young rapper’s career, they seemed to be the event that kick-started the rapper’s controversial rise to fame. In 2017, it seems any press is good press, no matter how negative.
Xxxtentacion is the worst case scenario for an artist in the post-Odd Future music landscape. Xxxtentacion is all the most offensive and violent lyrics from Odd Future come to life as a truly evil person, who clearly has no remorse for his actions based on his social media presence and his interviews in which he has described other violent altercations with glee and complete lack of empathy. He is a perfect example of everything that was wrong with Odd Future: taking the offensive lyrics intended for shock value and mistaking them for real beliefs, when Tyler and the other OF members were never violent in real life the way he is.
But as much as xxxtentacion is the embodiment of “Odd Future gone wrong”, there are other artists and groups that have formed in the wake of Odd Future that focus more on the positive aspects that made Odd Future so successful. For every Nightman, there must be a Dayman.
Odd Future gained their initial buzz with shock value, but what made them an empire of music, clothes, and internet memes was the personality and youthful spirit of the group. As someone who spent his high school days obsessing over the various members of Odd Future, the appeal wasnt just the edgy music or the outlandish music videos. The real appeal of the group was that these guys were really friends, and you wanted to hang out with them and feel like you were a part of them. You supported them because you loved the people behind the music that you saw through goofy youtube videos where the gang ran through the mall getting followed by mall cops and had impromptu krumping battles in the street. Odd Future’s astronomical rise was in large part due to the controversy and backlash, but artists like xxxtentacion need a lot more than that if they want to hope for something more than one viral hit. And if anyone has any chance of catching that odd future lightning in a bottle again, it’s Kevin Abstract and his gang of friends who call themselves Brockhampton.
Last year, Kevin Abstract exploded onto the scene with his debut album American Boyfriend, an ecclectic mix of RnB, Hip Hop, and indie rock from a young gay kid who clearly grew up listening to a whole lot of Frank Ocean. And while the very young Kevin tends to drown in his musical influences on this album, his unique songwriting voice and personality shines through. He sings romantic stories tinged with high school nostalgia: secret kisses under the bleachers, waiting outside a window on a dirtbike, a mom who doesnt approve of his sexuality. American Boyfriend is much like Tyler or Frank or Earl’s early work: while it is far from perfect, it has a lot of charm and personality that is absolutely impossible to deny, and it speaks to something really promising in his future. Its very difficult to say if Kevin will have a career anywhere as incredible as the best members of Odd Future, but Kevin has a lot of potential, and it is clear that he and his friends are following closely in the footsteps of the group that came before them.
Last year we got the breakout project from Kevin, and this month we are getting an introduction to the rest of the crew in full force. This month Brockhampton have released 3 posse cut songs as a group, each one with a unique video directed by Kevin abstract (Being the frontman of the group and the director behind the visuals is one of many ways Kevin takes after Tyler). These songs are by far the most exciting material the group has put out to date: each song has a unique sound and style and they do a great job of getting all the different members of the group a chance to shine. They all have a distinct look and a distinct voice, and they are all incredibly likable as they run around their neighborhood and the house they all live in getting into all kinds of antics, including the video above where they hang out the back of a moving U-Haul going down their street. The songs are there, the visuals are there. Its all coming together in a way that feels extremely Odd Future circa 2011. And not only are you going to get to know these new faces through these rowdy music videos, the whole gang is getting a TV show on viceland to boot.
On June 8th, Viceland is taking a behind the scenes look at Kevin Abstract and Brockhampton as they embark on their first big tour around the country. Its very rare that a group like this gets a TV show before they have really exploded, but lucky for them (and probably in large part thanks to the manager who also guided Tyler and gang to fame and stardom, Christian Clancy) they have a TV show documenting the magical early moments in this group’s rise to fame. The moments where the shows are small, the fans are dedicated, and the tour bus antics are at their goofiest. If this show is a success, and if these music videos lead to some sort of Brockhampton album or mixtape, I could really imagine this band of misfits becoming a real force in the music world.
Odd Future’s legacy is a complicated one. They ushered in a new age of rap groups that dominated the early 2010’s, along with Pro Era, A$AP Mob, Black Hippy, and countless others. They gave new meaning to what it meant to have a cult following, and you couldn’t go two feet in a high school without seeing a pair of donut socks or a supreme 5-Panel hat. They set a bad example for young teens with a their frequent references to sexual assault and violence against women. They were young teens who were growing up in front of our eyes, and some of the bad decisions they made in their songs have clearly impacted future generations of fans and artists. Xxxtentacion is basically the song “Radicals” condensed into a very short, angry human being. But despite their short comings, and despite many hip hop fans who say xxxtentacion is “the new Tyler” or “the new Earl”, its clear to me that the true musical legacy of Odd Future rests on the shoulders of Brockhampton. A carefree group of young artists who have talent, friendship, and most of all a constant ethos to be yourself and be unique, even when following in the footsteps of your heroes.
