LeRockBox Online Magazine

A year ago, when nobody knew who they were, the demonic L.A. skate-rat rap collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All cranked out music at an alarming rate. And now that nobody will shut up about them, they’re still doing the same thing. Since 2008, Odd Future have released no fewer than 12 full-length albums, as well as assorted between-releases singles– all available free on their Tumblr. Some of those releases are brilliant, paradigm-shifting works of violent vision. Others are entirely forgettable. Almost all of them are worth your hard-drive real estate, and almost all of them will confound you in one way or another. Below, you’ll find a guide to every single one of those albums, from their introductory 2008 mixtape The Odd Future Tape to Frank Ocean’s Nostalgia, Ultra., the experimental R&B tape that the crew released just a few weeks ago.

The compilation that predates the Tumblr. The Odd Future guys claim that they released this introductory compilation in 2008, and that the songs had been done since 2007. Listening to it, it’s remarkable how fully formed Tyler, the Creator was way back then, especially compared to the other rappers in the crew. Tyler and Left Brain’s queasy lo-fi production aesthetic is already in place, and Tyler throws his asthmatic rasp through all sorts of weird filters.

A couple of the tracks here later showed up on Tyler’s Bastard album, and he’s so far beyond everyone else here that it’s ridiculous. “Bitches Brewin‘” is a well-done story-song about losing his virginity to a 26-year-old, “Commercial” vents pure rage at his absent father almost as forcefully as he’d later do on “Bastard”, and “Pimp Slap” gives us this immortal boast: “Fuck dogs, I walk around with my pet dinosaur.” But Tyler’s most illuminating moment on the album comes on the outro “Fin”, where he offers thanks to everything that ever inspired him. It’s a list that includes the 212 bus, D12’s Devil’s Night, Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, “Reading Rainbow”, Terry Richardson, Hitler, Mussolini, Salvador Dali, “all the porn in the world,” and Dr. Seuss.

The rest of the crew is still completely green. Later stalwarts like Earl Sweatshirt, Mike G, Domo Genesis, and Taco hadn’t shown up yet, and altogether too much of the tape’s running time goes to clumsy buddy Casey Veggies. Hodgy Beats was still at an early stage of his development, and he offers some truly wince-worthy lines here: “Money is good, but it could be evil/ Spell it backwards: live/ Keep it all cerebral.”

The group already had a serious collective snarl to them, but they hadn’t yet adapted the rape/stab/snort shock-value evilness that would eventually become such a huge part of their story, so it’s weird to hear Hodgy get downright emo on the breakup song “Our Story”. Also, some of these guys actually rap about money and luxury cars, which has sort of become the opposite of what these guys are all about. So the tape works as a fascinating glimpse of a rap group figuring out its identity, but even with a handful of strong Tyler moments, it’s not really anything you need in your iTunes.