Why Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All is the only thing that matters in Rap to a 33 year old

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All are the only thing of any importance in Hip Hop right now.

I don't say this to attract visitors, to piss my alpha Hipster stench of being trendy on you, or come at you as some die-hard Hip Hop purist. I say this because it strikes me that these ten guys are the only folks that bring the energy and cutting edge who-knows-what the rest of Hip Hop lost for some time now. I say this after listening to Curren$y, Wiz Khalifa, Gucci Mane, Lil Boosie, Pills, Slaughterhouse, Immortal Technique, Joe Budden, Kanye West, and the current crop of "cool" rap music that you see on HipHopDX, AllHipHop.com, and any other blogs of "underground" rap.

Maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges. There is enough room in Hip Hop for everyone, and I do like my share of closer-to-the-radar rap music. Fact is, OFWGKTA is on some other trajectory, as I saw last night at U Street Music Hall. Standing on line were leather jacket sophisto Howard students, baggy jeans bald heads, the skinny jean skater massive, and organic eating-big rimmed glasses-Hipster mosquitoes. A very different crowd from the 90s-2000s trajectory of the Jiggy, Thug, and Backpackers of before. This other trajectory OF is on really hit me when I heard that 2dopeboyz refused to give them any bit of love, not that they have to. It has become common knowledge that some level of beef arose out of this.

And I realized, there is a generational gap at play here...

The irony is that OF bring out that nervousness of cutting edge that I, and the rest of the 90s-2000s trajectory, thrived on in our heyday. That rebelliousness of the "Golden Era" was due to the fact not a lot of folks understood the genre. Unfortunately that rebelliousness was branded and is now available for download at iTunes for suburbanites, boonies, pop kids, and other mainstream channels. OFWGKTA bring a different rebelliousness that blogosphere-independent Hip Hop folks don't get (I did a few searches on Nah Right's search tool for any OF, and nothing). If I were to guess what rebelliousness is, I would say is that they represent the same threat to the mainstream as citizen journalism, as the DIY of punks of yesteryear, that they really DON'T give a fuck... making their own videos, make their own beats, rap with a disregard and obliviousness that creates their own world. We don't feel invited, yet we kinda are, and we must conform to where they are at to be included in that party

(reminds you of early Hip Hop, no?)

Fact is, OFWGKTA piss people off, they are rude and offensive, not all their beats are dope, and not all their flows are dope. Yet, a lot of their music is absolutely stellar, many of their verses are labyrinths of wordplay and their artwork is beautiful in all its ugly glory. You could of made the same critique of inconsistency in many a tune from the hallowed "Golden Era". But that's the point, you can have ProTools, Logic, Reason, MPCs and any other piece of fine production equipment, you could wear the nicest necklaces, have the most intricate double/triple rhyme schemes in town... but if you are not pushing yourself, the genre, and your friends, then what do you have?

DC Performance