If You’re Wondering Where Hodgy Beats Went… & the Genius of Odd Future
Let me start off by saying that this is NOT an album review. Some of the most annoying content for me is watching people give their biased, unjustified takes on new projects that have been released. I understand if you have a following of people that truly care for your opinion and want a precedent for what is good and what isn’t, but come on, most of these “review” channels act as if there is a concrete grading system with liking or disliking music and it rubs me the wrong way most of the time.
Okay. Now that I got that off my chest, let me paint a picture for you. In early 2010, Odd Future announced two separate tour dates for London and New York that went to sell out in the preceding 48 hours. No headliners, no openers, just one “group” of people performing a show for thousands of kids. People that attend these shows need to have somewhat of an acquired taste for the dramatic. Being compared to punk rock shows, the stage diving and crowd moshing is a norm while the group on the stage is instigating everything. From that point on Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA) or more simply known as Odd Future has evolved to levels here in 2017 that really couldn’t of ever been imagined.
Understand that the majority of Odd Future fans haven’t had to adjust to this aggressive style of music. Whether it be the hip hop music before OF preparing their minds or just a general insensitivity to potentially hurtful language, these lyrics seem to fall right in line with people’s thought processes for better or for worse. To the untrained ear all you might hear is extremely offensive language over their numerous post apocalyptic sounding beats which, rightfully so, makes a lot of people cringe. But if you can push that out of the way you can see the talent beaming through. Both individually and as a group. And that just might perfectly segway me to the topic of the article…
Coming onto the scene in 2010 the group had met with everyone from Jay-Z and Diddy to executives like Scooter Braun (Biebers manager) to discuss their options for the future. The natural progression of an artist or group in this situation, especially in 2010 would be to sign to a label allowing the music you make to be distributed to stores and media markets to maximize the amount that can be sold. Reread that last sentence and you’re probably thinking that sounds great right? Your music is being sold places you couldn’t sell it on your own and your popularity is growing. The glaring negative is the amount of control the “label” usually demands creatively. Often changing the sound and feel of an artist before it’s too late to stop it. This knowledge from artists really birthed the idea of being “independent” and doing everything on your own in an attempt to keep your product pure. Odd Future was by no means the first to take the approach of not signing, but they did it in a unique way that should be remembered for a very long time.
Not only did OF protect the integrity of their music by not allowing anyone “paying the bills” to change anything creatively but they set themselves up to virtually go in any direction desired as individuals. Similar to Wu-Tang, because of the sheer number of group members it would be silly to expect all of them to continue to make the music they were making over the course of time. And just like Wu-Tang, everyone eventually went different ways creatively. Evolution is bound to take place in each artist and that is exactly what happened here. Take Syd, formally known as Syd Tha Dude for example. Introduced as the “DJ” for Odd Future early on, a certain image was created for her being the soft spoken, smaller framed girl throwing on the beats for the animals on the stage to do what they do. As the artist’s evolution kicks in she later forms a Neo-Soul band called “The Internet” and tours nationwide. Travis aka Taco, not really known for his music is now the head of planning and directing for the yearly Odd Future carnival (Camp Flog Gnaw)that is held in Los Angeles and hosts nearly each year. Tyler the Creator, probably the poster boy for the group, goes from yelling lyrics of “I’m a fucking walking paradox, no I’m not, threesomes with a fucking triceratops”, to creating commercials for Mountain Dew and producing his own television show on Adult Swim just a couple years later. These are just a few examples of members of the group growing individually and creating exactly what they want.
Now that we are all on the same page with Odd Future’s progression as a group and as individuals (and if you are still reading I’ll assume you have some knowledge on the rest of the group members), I want to focus on one member in particular. Hodgy Beats. Or just Hodgy now? I’m not sure why he dropped the “Beats” but he is the one member, to me, that has been slept on the most. I think a big part of this is simply people taking sides. An apparent “beef” was sparked between Hodgy and Tyler during 2015’s annual “Camp Flog Gnaw”. Long story short, Tyler was upset with the lack of energy Hodgy brought to his performance on stage and when asked about it later Hodgy said “he turned his back on people” indicating Tyler became jaded by his recent superstar status. Which is a pretty logical argument if you ask me, I mean this happens all the time with groups, large or small. One person rises to the top and the people under them who had been there since day one feel slighted, I get it. But with Tyler’s response virtually putting everything to rest and some of Hodgy’s claims just not sounding like something Tyler would do, I think people “sided” with Tyler on this so called feud.
“N*ggas got me fucked up. I put too many n*ggas on. I helped too many of my motherfucking friends out. And n*ggas gonna come foul? And you know who the fuck I’m talking about, n*gga. And yes, it’s getting real. I love you though,” -Tyler the Creator
Who knows… maybe Hodgy was right in all of this and Tyler essentially talked his way out of it but either way, this was probably the wrong focus for Hodgy during this time. I read a comment on an older article about the beef that read “Hodgy just mad cuz he aint poppin no more”… ouch… but that does sound pretty human doesn’t it? While Hodgy was “rapping”, Tyler had all of the antics that the mass seemed to gravitate to. Having only put out one mixtape (“Dena Tape 2”) and featured on a couple of others since 2014, it had probably been awhile since Hodgy had felt the same love as he did back in the “Rella” and “Mellowhype” days. With that being said, assuming everything I’ve said in the last couple of paragraphs is true, Hodgy is officially back. And did it in the traditional Odd Future fashion.
Like I said in the first sentence, this is not an album review. Just an expression of my feelings I guess. Let’s just call it an “album recommendation”, prefaced with everything I’ve written before this. Hodgy always had the bars to hang with anyone else in the group and often stuck out on different tracks. Everyone has their own swag on this but Hodgy kills it:
With his debut album “Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide” he shows off the rhyme skills as he always has but I’m hearing something different. He isn’t just making songs anymore. We’ve seen this subtle yet major adjustment from just about every great rapper I can remember. The one most prevalent to myself is probably J. Cole. From day one I’ve always waited on whatever Cole was putting out and where there is always room for tracks like “Ain’t That Some Shit” or “Chris Tucker”, but you notice those kind of songs slowly filter out of his track lists creating more meaningful projects each time. Maybe Cole isn’t the best example considering hes always had an array of “deep” songs but you’d be hard pressed to find any recent J. Cole lyrics that aren’t stemming from a place of personal reflection. If I could simplify it I would say that Hodgy has gone from making tracks about stories that happened yesterday and is writing about things that have shaped who he is today.
For any artist it can be hard to find your own voice or sound and in Hodgy’s case, if you are surrounded by 6 or 7 potentially great artists during your rise, that might make it even tougher to find what makes you different. In my opinion, this album is the start of him finding his own lane. Not only has his flow evolved from what it was three or four years ago but I also hear an innate desire to be a great artist rather than making something people will say “oh my god” to, a reaction that Odd Future had mastered in the past.
“When you commit to something and do the opposite…/ No food for the children you’re fathering/ The possibility of your family surviving this shit is kinda slim” — ”Resurrection (Fireplace)”
This is just one line that couldn’t be found anywhere on a Hodgy track prior to this album and I may be completely over analyzing this line but I feel like Hodgy has reconciled with himself and his past. I’m not trying to say that he was right or wrong with his disagreement of anything in the past because I simply just don’t know the details. No one other that people in or around the group would know but, to me, this screams that Hodgy has a different perception of things than he did two or three years ago and is focused on writing lyrics that matter to himself. I’ll take it a step further and question whether that title of the song “Resurrection” may be cryptic in itself. Is this the proverbial “second chance” in his eyes?
Hodgy’s debut album is just one example of their plan working. He switched up and did exactly what he wanted to do. He made the music that he wanted to make. Yes, other people in the group have risen faster than others in their respective interests but to see the group divide and still succeed to this day is pretty amazing in itself. It’s pretty apparent that the group is split up for the sake of everyone’s individual ventures but as Tyler was quoted “those 7 letters are forever” suggests the group will never truly die. Whether or not Odd Future knew what they were doing when they set up this genius infrastructure for everyone to grow at their own pace and direction, it is something that generations after will certainly mimic in one way or another.
By the way, shout out to Syd for bringing everyone back together in her most recent video “All About Me”:
