An Odd Future?

Odd Future's photo editing app #CatWang.

In the article “Young, Gifted and Outrageous: Can Odd Future Survive Popularity?” by Jon Carmanica, the author questions the unlikely hip-hop success story of the group Odd Future. Carmanica first states the group’s leader Tyler, the Creator’s brand of shock rap contains extreme subject matter; he also states that the group’s albums are grotesque, vile, and darkly comical (Carmanica 2010). The author questions if the group’s success will continue with their juvenile and provocative content.

            In past years, I have seen the rise of Odd Future and their mixtapes and videos all over Tumblr. I paid little attention to the posts; however, I remember listening to some songs and watching some videos, and I thought, “is this a joke?” Although I caught myself nodding to the beat, I listened to the lyrics and was appalled by the violent, misogynistic messages. It had to be a joke, but now, I see that it was quite serious. The group managed to gain many fans, radio-play, video views, and even record sales.

Seeing this happen, I wonder how their music has affected their listeners. Even though this article is not directly related to my essay topic of degraded women in Hip-Hop, it is still relevant to the fact that Odd Future’s provocative lyrics is full of misogyny. It sparks controversy and can cause hatred and degradation of women. I think society will take action to limit the horrible messages unless the group changes. In the article, a radio show host said that he couldn’t see them having a radio or video hit without them changing their style (Carmanica 2010). Nonetheless, Odd Future has not changed their style and still has had radio/video hits till this day. Odd Future’s success shows no signs of stopping with their cartoon show, mobile app, guest appearances, and concerts.

Young, Gifted and Outrageous: Can Odd Future Survive Popularity? By Jon Carmanica: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/arts/music/13odd.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

(Funny Fact: While writing this post, I was listening to an instrumental by Odd Future).