If a dude from space showed up and asked you the most improbable question imaginable: “What is the Wu Tang?”, how would you explain to him all of the amazingness that is the Wu? It’s hard to encapsulate what they’re about because there’s a ton of distinct personalities in the group. You’d probably be best advised to just show the video for “Da Mystery Of Chessboxin”. Martial arts, chess, gritty complex rhymes, general air of menace and dusty ass beats — all right there in 5 minutes. It’d give this hypothetical rap inquisitive alien a good jumping off point.

The great thing is that with all great rap groups/collectives you can do the same thing. For Cash Money it’s “Bling Bling”, The Diplomats it’s “Oh Boy”, Roc-A-Fella had “Hard Knock Life”. There seems to always be that one song/video combination for a group (usually early on in their productivity) that establishes the common thread they’ll all work from — as well as illustrates their worldview. Watch “Bling Bling” and you understand Cash Money, “They like up tempo synthetic beats, over the top opulence, women, cars and they’ve got a fucking helicopter.” That’s really all the reference you need to  get into ‘em.

Right now, Odd Future is making their declaration in the form of “French,” a 2 minute long black and white video for their fearless leader Tyler, The Creator featuring skateboarding, fighting, drug use, destruction of public property and some of the best rhyming to drop in the last couple of years from a dude who can’t legally drink yet. If Cash Money reflected the excess of the late 90s, and Wu Tang the grittiness of late 80s/early 90s New York, then Odd Future represents right now filtered through a great degree of not giving a fuck-ness. I know saying that a musical act “represents now” is the kind of shit douchey music writers come up with when they want to over inflate the importance of a musical act, but hear me out…

These dudes are black skaters rapping about personal issues, how fresh they are and murder over beats that sound a bit like The Neptunes meets El-P meets Madlib. They shout out Waka Flocka flame and Joy Division in the same sentence. They create their own visual identity through in house artwork and videos (viral and traditional). Lastly, they’re distributing their music for free and cultivating their cult (for now) fanbase via the internet. Besides now, when else could this marriage of material and medium exist?

The core members of the collective are Tyler, The Creator (please, say the Creator), Earl Sweatshirt, Hodgy Beats, Domo Genesis and Mike G with Left Brain and Jet Age handling beats (along with Tyler, The Creator). The crew’s last collective tape Radical, showcases the whole crew ripping up some of their favorite beats, from Gucci’s “Lemonade” to Roscoe Dash’s “All The Way Turnt Up” to an old Fam-lay song. Radical gives you a great introduction to the varied styles these dudes bring to the table. Tyler, The Creator goes absolutely nuts over heavy synth production on Splatter, with some great horrorcore lines like:

…In Nellyville’s, old folks’ home searching tip drills/ Get my fill on, with this grandmother named Jill/ Taking shots of prune juice to the head for a cheap thrill/ Hopefully, my dick don’t shrivel up when it’s time to bust/ In this rusty cunt, that when I cup it’s collecting dust

Earl comes through on “Drop” with the hyper phonetic rhyming style, that seems impossible for someone who’se sixteen to have cultivated. His pure rhyming ability is uncanny and he kind of reminds you of early Eminem or possibly Cam’ron when he drops couplets like:

Me and Burm is swervin’ in the jeep/ I’m a nice guy in person, but a pervert in the sheets/ And, I’m magic with the words, murder Merlin over beats/ Make the competition kiss the fucking curb and then they weep…

Domo Genesis has a blunted out flow that’s very reminiscent of Curren$y or Wiz Khalifa. His songs have that breezy feel that you’d want to take advantage of while there’s still some warmth left outside. On “Double Cheeseburger” he drops a 300 reference that reminds me of why I really like rappers who smoke copious amounts of weed — all that weed smoking turns dudes into super nerds, seriously who else but a stoner or a nerd would shout out King Xerxes?

Hodgy Beats has a similar weed sparked flow, but isn’t quite as hazy. He’s more of an active stoner, who drops knowledge on you while you’re watching reruns of Martin. He actually reminds me of Drake on the rare occasions that you can catch that dude not crying into a computer or rapping about how much he misses some girl.

The Odd Future output beyond Radical features some impressive individual outings. Tyler, The Creator’s Bastard serves as a trip through the mind of an outside high school student. The beats are heavy as hell and the subject manner ranges from introspective to homicidal, but put in the context of a therapy session feels like a dude just trying to work shit out. Easily one of the best albums I’ve heard this year, free or not. Domo Genesis’ Rolling Papers is exactly the type of album you’d imagine you get by reading the title alone. Truth in advertising people. Earl Sweatshirt’s Earl reminds me of an Eminem album save for the slight Juggalo feeling I tend to get when listening to Em.

Really the thing about these dudes that shines through is that they’re making music they want to hear, simply for a love of the music. Much like  skateboarding it’s a self gratifying act, it’s not to make a ton of cash, or to fit into a mold. They’re just making music because they’re really nice at it and maybe kind of want to see how much they can shit on everyone else doing it.

Seriously, do yourself a favor and download all of their albums!

- Behold the Destroyer