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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Monday, February 17, 2025

Music Review | Odd Future's Hodgy Beats releases average EP

California hip?hop collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (more colloquially, Odd Future) dominated the Internet in 2011 and most of pop culture in every aspect. Once an unknown group of teenagers from Los Angeles, Odd Future burst onto the scene in early 2011 when its members - Tyler, The Creator and Hodgy Beats - performed the high?energy, slightly scary, mostly swag "Sandwitches" (2010) on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

As with Die Antwoord and their "Enter the Ninja" music video, the video of the duo's performance blew up the Internet. Blogs and music sites went crazy asking, "Who are these guys?" "Should we be scared?" and "Where is Earl?" Riding that wave, Tyler's "Yonkers" (2011) music video collected millions of views on YouTube and helped him win the Video Music Award for Best New Artist. Odd Future had everything they needed to blow up - everything except for the music.

Odd Future rode out the success from a few of their songs, but they became popular because of who they were, not what they did. People fell in love with these kids who seemed to not care about fame and just wanted to skateboard and have fun. It was what we wish all of our artists were like.

Sure, they got criticized by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (and many, many other organizations) for their offensive lyrics, but they were making the art that they wanted to make. They weren't selling out to record labels or putting out Dr. Luke?produced cookie?cutter pop?rap, and they were not afraid to call people out when they felt they deserved it.

So, what does 2012 hold for Odd Future? They have the potential to become legitimate rap superstars, but they could just as easily fade into obscurity like Asher Roth or OJ Da Juiceman. The answer to this question rests heavily on whether Odd Future can put out solid musical efforts this year. Hodgy Beats' "Untitled EP" answers that question with a resounding "maybe."

Clocking in at only 17?and?a?half minutes over eight songs, this brief release seems very insignificant in the Odd Future world. The production is more musical than usual for an Odd Future album, which is welcome at times but also takes away from what originally made them interesting and different. Hodgy Beats lays down solid verses on every song, but that's about the full extent of his performance on the EP. It's not great, but it's solid. Hodgy is an above?average rapper, but what made previous MellowHype (an Odd Future subgroup consisting of Hodgy Beats and producer Left Brain) albums great was the wackiness in the production and craziness of the lyrics that Hodgy fails to bring alone.

What we have here is a mediocre EP, which is disappointing because Odd Future has made itself out to be the anti?average rap group - the group for people who were tired of mainstream pop and want to hear people being creative and different. If that's the direction that Odd Future wants to go, "Untitled EP" is a step in the wrong direction.

There are no real standout tracks on "Untitled EP." "Samurai" is probably the best song of the lot, but that's a big maybe, because the tracks are largely similar and unimpressive, especially when you've seen what Hodgy Beats has been able to do in the past (see "Primo" or "64" off "BlackenedWhite" (2011)). The songs are individually good, but there is no real lasting power in any of them. They are unlikely to be played or remembered in two months. The EP comes off as more of a Lil Wayne throwaway mixtape rather than a real studio effort. It is music for the sake of having their voices out, quantity over quality.

This is a pivotal point in Odd Future's career. They sell out shows across the country, have an Adult Swim show, "Loiter Squad," due out later this month and essentially control their fate. But in order to prove that they are not just some novelty act of kids rapping about stabbing Bruno Mars and instead are actual musicians with lasting power, they are going to have to step up their music this year.