ODD FUTURE WOLF GANG KILL THEM ALL

dude youve gone from 'they're going to change the game' to 'i just know that i like them'

i wouldn't be shocked if blog rappers two years from now are taking cues from ofwgkta instead of lupe fiasco

― J0rdan S., Friday, March 11, 2011 10:57 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

blog tunnel vision

well that's their audience, at least at the moment

yes, i like them
and i expect them to be game changers
what am i not being clear about here?

y'all are talking about two separate things tho -- music as a business vs rap as an art form

their influences are so obvious and spelled out (oftentimes literally verbally by the members) that i don't think there's gonna be a huge noticeable post-ofwgkta wave

at least purely musically -- wouldn't be shocked if some rappers picked up on their aesthetic choices (since some of them aren't that far off of skinny jeans rap in the first place)

(also soulja boy already did his 'dre the developer' tumblr thing)

xp okay, i'll buy that.
in terms of the art form, they're awesome throwback jerseys, not super innovators
but atm they respect musical melody and rap history and lyrical listenability and clarity and complexity and they do it with panache and while having a lotta fun and THAT'S innovative

i guess i just dont get what theyre aesthetic choices are or i dont think they're distinctive enough to add up to much more than niche appeal. which is fine & its where they should be imo. this taking over the game stuff is nuts. do you guys really think they have a 'smells like teen spirit' in them?

i dunno who means what but i dont think business wise or musically they are gonna be game changers.

their influences are so obvious and spelled out (oftentimes literally verbally by the members) that i don't think there's gonna be a huge noticeable post-ofwgkta wave

― J0rdan S., Saturday, March 12, 2011 12:06 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

i don't follow that logic. drake's influences are incredibly transparent but he's still managed to be influential on even lower forms of rap life.

drake did manage w/ that nasally vocal tone to have a distinct aesthetic flavor tho

i cant believe anyone who was feeling diddy-dirty money last year saw him in his studio bumping 'yonkers' & picturing him going "this is IT!!"

i mean if anyone has that ability, its the guy who he did end up tweeting about from the crew, and thats the one who had already been signed & had hustled & written songs for R&B artists already, and who released a record that sounds more out-there cuz of tyler's influence

i don't know -- drake also had grocery bag xp

i also prefer their CONTENT
i prefer dumbfuck bullshit rape jokes over nonstop dumbfuck drug hustling references or nonstop dumbfuck CHECK OUT MY CARTIER swaggity swag swag
god willing they'll grow out of the dumbfuck bullshit rape jokes and not into the nonstop dumbfuck swaggity swag swag

A couple things:

The original draft of the article featured a one time def jux signee comparing his hustle to OF's. His thoughts, in short: it's a lot easier today and there's good and bad that goes with that. Mostly good though. Billboard cut that part, probably because nobody but you old nerds give a fuck.

I don't think Odd Future is *the future of the record industry* I just think they're *a present of the record industry* and that this is an interesting thing to explore in a trade publication about the record industry. If someone asked me to write a billboard cover story on def jux in '01 i would've been really psyched to do that too.

I talked to a rapper tonight who considers OFWGKTA his primary influence. He first heard Tyler on a Neptunes message board a few years ago. He's already pretty good at making music.

Lil B will NEVER be Mudhoney. He's closer to the Pixies. I fucking hate you al shipley and your buddy who is writing the book about dogs in sunglasses.

i think talking about how OF could change the music biz is much more interesting tho

why am i typing about this at midnight anyway?
hot chick waiting for me in bed etc

i.e. we've seen plenty of intersection between indie rock & rap in the past three years or so, but OF are interesting in that they're signed to two indie rock labels while still operating w/in the (very amorphous) major label rap universe, from getting co-signs from kanye/diddy/pharrell to sending beats to pusha to being managed by two interscope execs

i think that there is potentially where OF could pave roads. indie rock labels have produced quite a few #1 albums recently, and it's a system completely untapped by underground rappers. i.e. can anyone give me a good reason why big krit is or SHOULD WANT to be signed to def jam as opposed to fat possum or merge or a label that will put his music out in physical form and still make him some money?

Also I like what Jordan is saying

my post ties into what we were talking about last year in some thread that i forgot -- with major labels completely cannibalizing vanity labels started by rappers to promote/produce smaller talent, there's no one label that can replicate the cash moneys/no limits of yesteryear -- all these rappers are so eager to rush into the major system on t.i. or gucci's small labels but almost none of them ever get to put music out or if they do no one pays it the time of day because of how the system operates

am i saying that fat possum is going to be putting out big kuntry king & young dro albums two years from now? no. does fat possum have any incentive to do that? no. but damn do i wish that young dro was signed to fucking fat possum right about now.

j0rdan precisely otm. hence the arcade fire parallels!

but i dont think anyone paid any attention to that analogy ;_;

i've made various 'statement purchases' over the past few years -- i bought graduation cuz i wanted ye to 'beat' 50, i bought carter III cuz i wanted this rapper that i loved for so long to sell a million records and i'll buy mellowhype's album off fat possum records cuz i want to support this method of getting rap records to consumers

yeah that is a good point, im not convinced that odd future's music is going to sell those copies yet is the only thing

i dont see odd future stuff appealing to huge, huge portions of a traditional rap audience (and i meant the audience is 'traditionally into rap' not 'into traditional-sounding rap'). i mean, who knows what their music will sound like, but ....

i also find that this state of affairs, where indie rap that appeals to critics is all that charts, to be really depressing :-/

i wouldn't be shocked if blog rappers two years from now are taking cues from ofwgkta instead of lupe fiasco

― J0rdan S., Saturday, 12 March 2011 04:57 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The thing out of this is any new rapper is a blog rapper. Even Drake and Minaj were. And this ties in to following the indie route instead of jumping on a major. I know this will set eyes rolling but M.I.A. going through Diplo (I can't remember his labels name) and then XL, and similar Dizzee on pirate radio and then XL, actually got records released, cultivated a fanbase and started to make money. Tyler is obviously doing the same. And while Lupe and Drake were successes jumping on majors, how many fucking Papooses are there.

i also find that this state of affairs, where indie rap that appeals to critics is all that charts, to be really depressing :-/

― deej, Saturday, 12 March 2011 05:39 (9 hours ago) Bookmark

this is nowhere close to happening. and young money will still dominate the same way that arcade fire aren't nickelback.

"The thing out of this is any new rapper is a blog rapper.

yes that's why

this is '11 def jux in a better market for def jux type rap

is a bit fallacious.

that would be like saying "cool kids are run dmc or the beastie boys in the wrong era/market"

audience and market change over time.

this is nowhere close to happening. and young money will still dominate the same way that arcade fire aren't nickelback.

― Samuel (a hoy hoy), Saturday, March 12, 2011 9:47 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah but its not the top that falls out in this scenario its the middle

this is where i do my regular observation that at one time, C-Murder went platinum. not exactly a household name at the time

dunno if it counts as indie rap either.

thats my pt. i find a state of affairs where you are either indie rap, or you are young money, to chart, to be depressing. theres a huge middle area that gets left out

so who is your overlooked c murder (/no limit) in this regard?

ten rings on like a basketball player
freshman of the year like a basketball, player

guilty lol

whiney if you're gonna meme that, at least have the transcription right

in an ew column this wk ryan phillippe mentioned "yonkers" was on his ipod

that sounds like a pretty 'ew' column.

fyi the only person on this board who has ever stanned for oj's rapping was j0rdan

i will not take this revisionist history

i will not take this revisionist histor-aye

lol

it would not surprise me if arcade fire made very close to the same amount of $$ selling 500,000 on merge that nickelback makes selling 4 million on whatever shit show major they are on.

fyi the only person on this board who has ever stanned for oj's rapping was j0rdan

― deej, Saturday, March 12, 2011 4:05 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

hahah

some thoughts now that i have time

• deej, I do think OF production has a distinct SOUND. Beyond the RZA and Neptunes that clearly define them, theyre def up on the aesthetics of contemprary lo-fi indie rock (ie, Salem, Toro Y Moi, Ariel Pink) and so their sound definitely has a kind of water-logged, burnt-edges, mushed out, cassette-friendly sound that is very unique to them. The only rap producers who I think maybe flirt with a similar sound is like Sensational or Edan and shit. And obviously the Stones Throw axis, but a Madlib beat obv based on SAMPLES, and OF gets props for very rarely using samples (another reason their music translates so well to getting picked up my record labels)

• Re: "Def Jux circa 11," that whole scene was built on a similar DIY model (i believe "independent as fuck" was bandied around plenty) and hatred of mainstream rap, real or implied by fans (get off me go fuck puffy vs bruno mars/esophagus etc). But one thing all those ca 90s rappers had that OF doesnt is an obsession with "the art," "the craft," "the elements." Not that OF aren't skilled, but they're also the type to call Boogie Down Productions and Gravediggaz wack bullshit.

• It really is silly to me that there isn't some small, boutiquey rap label putting out hard copies of successful mixtapes. Not like Fabolous rapping over Rich Boy beats or whatever, but the ones that live on their own beats and have no "DJ PRODUCE GOT THAT FRUIT" bullshit and play like albums. Like the big tapes from Big KRIT, Playboy Tre and Roach Gigz in 2010. Those could all sell a quick 4 or 5 thou easy for any label that dared put them on CD. Easy money for the artist and something to hold. Like I kind of wish some enterprising Jagjaguwar/Sub Pop/Merge type would pick up the ball on this one. I guess OF is an easy one to start with because they really do have a very vocal white/hipster/indierock audience as a big chunk of their fanbase. But I think there's nothing stopping that crew from getting into KRIT a little heavier. Def has more actual cred/authenticity (ie, the stuff that's important to white/hipster/indierock audiences) than whatever Arsonists/All Natural/Paul Barman/Sucka MCs/The Shining/D-Stroy ish that indie rock labels were putting our ca. 1999.

rofl @ "DJ PRODUCE GOT THAT FRUIT"

i think krit is probably being prepped for a bigger label release

i do agree that the rap market is incredibly under valued in terms of potential sales right now

even a major label would be smart to do a small run of KRIT WUZ HERE and you know they fucking wont

part of me wants to like call my friends at [popular indie record label] and get this ball rolling myself

thought krit got snapped up by def jam?

Yeah he is

because an artist has never fallen through the cracks and lost any career momentum at def jam before