4fortyfour

So, Odd Future. The story of 2k11, or disgusting homophobes?

Argument A in favour of Odd Future: Odd Future are musically brilliant –

I am aware of Odd Future’s musical brilliance. In fact, it seduces me. I think Earl Sweatshirt’s Earl is one of the most heavily exciting things I’ve heard. Like ever. But musical brilliance is one thing, casual homophobia is another. Every second putdown in an Odd Future song is the word ‘faggot’. In fact the word ‘faggot’ occurs twice in ‘Earl’.

How many gay guys do you think Odd Future hang about with? What do you think they really think about gay men? No, seriously. Stop and think. What does Tyler the Creator think about gay men in his mind when he is writing raps that condemn every single person he hates as a ‘faggot’?. Do you think he actually has any respect for gay men when his quickest, easiest, insult lashed out over most of his raps is the word ‘faggot’? Do you think swan-diving into a crowd of hipsters at SXSW is enough cultural hype to distract rational minded people from the fact that you are multiply on record for hating gay people in the most vocally abhorrent way? Do you think people who saw these hype gigs should ignore the raw tsunami of homophobia in your mixtapes and albums thus far? “faggot”, “fuckin faggot”, “motherfucker sucks cock”, “you don’t like it? you’re a faggot”.

*edit – comments have drawn attention to the fact that a member of Odd Future is gay. I did not know this, so some of my initial thoughts on this are now altered.

Argument B in favour of Odd Future: Odd future are playing around with ‘labels’-

Okay, every other word in an odd future rap is ‘nigger’ (if we *ahem* exclude bitch, but that’s another story) because, as black LA teens they are messing with a label they were labelled with. And that is a proper exercise in the culture wars. But the label ‘faggot’…? How many guys in Odd Future have been tarred with this brush by society? How many of them are gay? Can they play around with the word ‘faggot’ the same way they can play around with the word ‘nigger’? Is Tyler gay? Does Tyler even like gay people?

Argument C in favour of Odd Future: Odd future’s raps are expressionism – take them seriously and you are a dork –

Charlie Sheen bet the shit out of a couple of women. He stands to make his fortune out of a one-man show around The States. Chris Brown’s publicists are advising him to not act too soft because his fan base seem to prefer a man who slaps his bird around a few times. Odd Future would like to see you “drown your bitch in a tub of cum and throw a shark in it”.

True expressionism?

Or nasty cultural phenomenon?

You decide.

Sound lads. Sound.