Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, often abbreviatedOFWGKTA orOdd Future, are a music, skateboarding and artist collective out of Los Angeles, California. The main members areTyler, The Creator, Hodgy Beats,Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis, Mike G,Frank Ocean, Left Brain, Matt Martians,Syd tha Kyd, Jasper "Dolphin" Loc and Taco Bennett. The group itself consists not only of hip hop and R&B artists but also skaters and other traditional artists; Tyler has given an estimate of60 members total, all ranging in age from 17 to 25.
There are multiple groups inside the collective: MellowHype (rapper Hodgy Beats and producer Left Brain); EarlWolf (Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, the Creator); The Jet Age of Tomorrow (producers Matt Martians and Hal Williams);The Internet (Syd tha Kyd and Matt Martians); The Super 3 (Matt Martians and others, see below) and I Smell Panties (Jasper Dolphin and Tyler, the Creator). The group's net-based promotion has also produced a staggering amount of individual tracks, including an R&B parody song called "Love in Da Mall" by T.T.D.D. (Tyler, Taco, DeVon and Domo Genesis) and a parody of Lil B by Young Nigga (aka Tyler in a wig) called "Come Threw Looking Clean".
They have garnered a cult following and have been receiving steady press from blogs as well as magazines. Tyler recently won the 2011 MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist (for his viral "Yonkers" video) and Frank Ocean snagged a few hooks onKanye West's andJay Z'sWatch the Throne.Cartoon Network broadcast their own live-action TV showLoiter Squad, produced byJackass producers Dickhouse, from 2012 to 2014.
OFWGKTA as a whole provides examples of:
Alternative Hip Hop: One of the few modern day groups to fit into this genre.
Media Research Failure: Everyone in the group raps about rape, misogyny and murder, no expections. Fact of the matter is, Tyler and Earl are the only ones who do so and even then, a lot of Tyler's songs have nothing to do with evil (see Horrorcore, below.) Odd Future are apparently alldevil worshippers, but several of them areatheist (or don't care about spirituality) and they only actively use anti-Christian imagery and lyrics to piss people off.
Tyler, from "Goblin": "'Oh that's a triple three six, isn't he a devil worshipper 'cause I'm too fuckin' ignorant to do some research?"
Fun with Acronyms - Casey Veggies featured several members of the group on his most recent mixtape (Custom #3), Casey's crew is called Peas n' Carrots International. PNCIN for short. Now what would be a good name for a song featuring both PNCIN and OFWGKTA?PNCINOFWGKTA of course.
Genre Shift: While most of the publicly known group raps, Frank Ocean is an R&B singer. His lyrics are extremely heartfelt. Additionally, The Jet Age of Tomorrow and The Internet are far more psychedelic and less profane (when there's even lyrics) than the rest of the group's output.
Horrorcore: Odd Future have dismissed this label in multiple tweets and songs.
To elaborate, Tyler's said that he treats some of his songs like they're horror films and writes in the style of famous serial killers, like Jeffrey Dahmer, as if he was a storyteller; hence the dismissal of the Horrorcore tag. Only about eight of the 32 songs spread across Tyler's two albums actually hit the trope's definition full tilt (one of them, "Transylvania", goes to the extreme of being written from Dracula's perspective.) In the lyrics to "Goblin", Tyler cites "Parade" and "Inglorious" as songs that have nothing to do with horrorcore (they deal with his DIY outlook on life, specifically.)
All of Earl Sweatshirt's output either falls squarely into the horrorcore box or dances along the edge of it (even theAnti-Christmas Song, where he stabs a woman for no reason) and Hodgy Beats is the poster child forRock Me, Asmodeus within the group. All of the other members of Odd Future go nowhere near horrorcore.
Lyrical Dissonance: Most of their beats are smooth and laid-back, drawing heavy influence from The Neptunes and MF Doom. While not all of their lyrics are as gruesome as those that dominate Tyler and Earl's solo material, even their tamest material usually contains nods to vandalism, drug use, rough sex and heavy use of profanity (the latter often bordering on the politically incorrect side). This isn't always the case, though, as their beats can also be quite eerie to match the themes of songs like Tyler's "Transylvania" and Earl's "epaR", but even those songs' beats are nowhere near the grimdark theatrics of, say,Insane Clown Posse (who the group are sometimes asininely compared to).
Mood Whiplash: Going betweenAnalog 2, a soft, slower love song, and50, a loud, fast, and aggressive song, on OF Tape Vol. 2.
Refuge in Audacity: As much as humanly possible.In a very recent example, Tyler is a centaur, Hodgy's penis is a laser and Domo Genesis can slap women so hard they go from African-American to Asian.
Rock Me, Asmodeus: Though only some of them are atheists, they often use satanic imagery to piss people off.
Sampling: They usually avoid this (preferring original beats), with the exception of theirRadical mixtape, in which each track was based on an already established beat that each member chose so they could outdo the original's lyrics.
Scary Musician, Harmless Music:Inverted. While Tyler, Earl, Jasper and even Hodgy's outputs are offensive and vitriolic, they're pretty down-to-earth people in street clothes and have good senses of humour.
Self-Made Man: Odd Future itself. All sixty members are skateboarding buddies and all have contributed to each other's works, whether it be shooting photos or videos, recording or engineer songs, providing artwork, lyrics, etc. Tyler brings this up a lot, including during his Best New Artist acceptance speech during the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards:
"To all the kids that's watchin', you can do this shit too. Be yourself. Fuck the system. Golf Wang. Thank you."
School Tropes: As several members were still in high school when they started out, a couple tropes show up in their early recordings. One track has Tyler as a teacher announcing that each rapper's verse is equivalent to a written assignment.
Stage Names: Every member uses one, save for Frank Ocean, who changed his legal name to Christopher Francis Ocean.
Studio Chatter: A lot of older songs feature this and it is all hilarious.
Supergroup: PNCINOFWGKTA, currently a one-song only deal. Consisting of Casey Veggies, Earl, Hodgy, Domo, and Tyler. Somewhat funny when you consider that Casey used to be a part of OFWGKTA too.
Tagalong Kid: Arguably, the other 40+ members of the group that skate and create art as they are rarely visible from a public standpoint (a few have shown up in their music videos, most notably a blonde boy named Lucas.)
There are also the OF-"affiliates" like Trizz and Jack Mushroom.
True Companions: Tyler and Hodgy have said in a few interviews that because they write, record and produce their own songs, direct their own videos and create their own artwork and photography that they don't require anyone but themselves and would prefer to work without outside influences. Each member is supportive of each other's work entirely and they appear as one unit during live shows.
Word Salad Title: OFWGKTA by itself is one, but supposedly the full name of the collective isOdd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All Don't Give A Fuck Litter Life Bacon Boys Loiter Squad Butt Fuck Bitch Niggas and is a collection ofall of the group's names in one long string.
Because of the sprawling nature of thisTroperiffic group, we've split up some artists and groups within the collective into manageable entries below.
Hodgy Beats
Rapper and one half of MellowHype. Originally exhibiting a mellow, unsure delivery, Hodgy Beats' rapping style hardened to a more aggressive style after working with producer Left Brain. Has a rather distinctive laugh that is heard across many tracks. Hodgy also has a good singing voice and has used it on several tracks, including Tyler's "Analog" and Domo Genesis' "Drunk".
Discography:
The Odd Future Tape (Odd Future compilation, 2008)
Hodgy Beats provides examples of the following tropes:
The Cameo: Some uncredited singing appearances across the board, most notably on Domo Genesis' "Drunk" (though he is mentioned by Domo himself in the first verse.)
Characterization Marches On: Early on, Hodgy wasThe Stoner. After hooking up with Left Brain, his delivery grew more aggressive and moved towards more gangsta rap topics such as money, police and illicit substances.
Record Producer: Left Brain focuses mainly on producing and leaves Hodgy to appear in the press. He has produced not only for Hodgy and MellowHype, but for other members in the group.
Rock Me, Asmodeus: To the point that the re-issue cover ofBlackenedWhite is an upside-down cross.
Updated Rerelease:BlackenedWhite was originally released online on October 31st, 2010, but a remastered version with a new cover was released on July 12, 2011. The tracklist was changed, notably removing the songs with Earl Sweatshirtdue to his mother not signing release forms for his verses to be used.
Cloudcuckoolander: Mike G is nearly always spaced out. One interviewer from Shade 45 had to ask if he was okay.
Mood Whiplash: "Stick Up" is a thoroughly serious heist narrative until Taco appears out of nowhere and accidentally walks in the path of Mike's bullet.
Matt Martians is Odd Future's foray into instrumental hip hop, with a decidedly psychedelic bent. When lyrics are employed, they usually revolve around women or space themes. Martians has headed two projects within OFWGKTA:The Super 3, featuring himself and either Hal Williams, or Betty Vasolean and Yoshi Jankins, Jr. (the internet is a bit fuzzy about this) andThe Jet Age of Tomorrow with Hal Williams. A few of Odd Future's rappers appeared on Jet Age's albumJourney to the 5th Echelon. Jet Age produced Kilo Kush'sHomeschool album under the name Junior Varsity, as well as two songs for Soulja Boy. They've also used the name Dem Acura Boyz.
Discography:
The Super 3
The Purple Cows EP (unreleased, 2008)
The Odd Future Tape (Odd Future compilation, 2008)
Two friends of Tyler's who happen to appear on a handful of songs. Neither has much skill in writing lyrics, but that doesn't necessarily stop them from trying. They have admitted to not doing much else and work very much like hype men during live performances. Jasper is one half of I Smell Panties, while Taco is one of the group's photographers. Taco is also OFWGKTA engineer Syd tha Kyd's younger brother and their house is used as the group's recording studio. Tyler, the Creator has thus far had both of them appear on one song off of each of his albums.
Taco and Jasper provides examples of the following tropes:
Butt Monkey: Taco. Roughly a third of Earl's twitter is talking shit about him (calling him by his real name, "Travis"). He also gets messed with the most onLoiter Squad.
Piss-Take Rap: Almost every time Taco or Jasper step up to the mic, they produce this. Especially hilarious is Tyler's song "Tina", where Taco is given eight bars to rap and ends up spending six of them eating potato chips very loudly instead. With no backing beat whatsoever.
Refuge in Audacity: During Tyler's "Tina", Jasper is in the mall and the club simulatneously. Taco is "with your girlfriend eating chips" and manages to prove so directly afterward.
Rhyming with Itself: Jasper Dolphin ends up rhyming "shit" and "bitch" with themselves on occasion:
"I'm loud as fuck, I'm ignorant Beat your bitch in her mouth just for talkin' shit You lurkin' bitch? Well, I see that shit Once again I gotta punch a bitch in her shit"
Jasper Dolphin: "You dead bitch, I'm hot as fuck I ain't never cold, but I'm icyBITCH"
I Smell Panties
An early project by Tyler, the Creator and Jasper Dolphin. I Smell Panties was a comedy rap group, poking fun at all of the rap cliches that were big in the latenoughties including clothes, bling, gang warfare and club culture. The most prominent subject was that of slutty women giving the group herpes and other STDs. Jasper's lyrical skill is practically non-existent in this group, providing off-the-cuff spoken word remarks and nervous laughter. While Tyler has to this day still recorded songs with Jasper, they have not released them under the I Smell Panties name.
Discography:
I Smell Panties (2008)
The Odd Future Tape (Odd Future compilation, 2008)
I Smell Panties provides examples of the following tropes:
Basso Profundo: Even at this early stage, Tyler was using pitchshifting software to drop his already low-pitched voice even further.Inverted as well, as both his and Jasper's voices are sped up; in "Hi to Me", Jasper plays a woman with his sped up voice.
Instrumentals: Drop the left channel on "Bapes" and "Bapes (freestyle)" and you suddenly have instrumental versions.
Mood Whiplash: The sudden hilarity of "Lisa" really brightened upThe Odd Future Tape.
Piss-Take Rap: Everything. The start of "Bapes (freestyle)" is the only exception.
Spoken Word in Music: Aside from Jasper not being able to rap at this stage, "Hi to Me" contains extended speaking passages.
What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: After everyone (and their families) gets fantastical STDs in "Lisa", Jasper walks in and says, "Wait wait wait, that bitch stole mymotherfuckin' Bapes!" A response of "She stole your Bapes!?" follows.
The Creative Bunch
A "sub-clique" within OFWGKTA that consists of some of the "other 40 or so" members of the group making rap music. Theyare officially a part of Odd Future, but rarely interact with the rest of the group outside the odd production credit. The group consists mainly of Jack Mushroom, Trizz, and Skoolie 300.
The Creative Bunch provides examples of the following tropes:
One of Us - "Kings" samples the original source of the "THIS! IS! SPARTA!" meme, so it's likely.