Earlier this month, Tyler the Creator and his Odd Future collective arrived at the Coachella Music Festival strapped and ready to start a ruckus. They were swagging the fuck out after a chaotic mid-afternoon Friday set, spraying unsuspecting victims with squirt guns until security said no mas and allegedly kicked the whole crew out.
After the incident, Tyler tweeted a picture of the "faggot nigga" who kicked him out, and gave the poor dude more shit for "taking his faggot job (too) serious" in a subsequent Twitter outburst. While Tyler's I-don't-give-fuck attitude is starting to piss people off, the PR mastermind's also generating mad media buzz along the way.
Just about every relevant music blog, culture rag, and skateboard magazine has written about the 20-year-old rapper, his lyrical gang of underage hoodlums, and their vulgar brand of independent street rap. Consequently, Tyler's forthcoming album, Goblin, has become one of 2011's most anticipated releases.
"I'm pretty excited," says Jason Jimenez, co-owner of Sweat Records, "I've been looking forward to this album more than most."
Jimenez is hosting a Goblin listening party at the Vagabond's weekly Shake party on Thursday, May 5, a full five days ahead of the album's scheduled May 10 release date. He says in addition to previewing Tyler's record, resident DJ Rob Riggs will be playing Odd Future tracks throughout the night.
"(Odd Future) writes stories about certain things that people don't want to talk about, but people think about," Jimenez says. "No filters, no apologies, they just let it go, and deal with it later on."
Until last year, Tyler the Creator was a relative unknown. He was studying film at a Southern California community college, killing time by skateboarding with his bros, and "doing real bad hoodrat shit." Then, he and the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA) crew created a Tumblr blog, and started posting free mix-tapes.
Bastard, Tyler's first record, was released on the group's Tumblr in February, and highlighted the rapper's incredible rhyming abilities and bass-heavy beats.
But Bastard also triggered debate. Naturally, lyrics about rape, murder, and the excessive use of the "f-word" (not fuck), will likely piss folks off.
In a recent interview with French music website The Drone, Tyler defended his brash lyrical content, arguing that everybody thinks about dark shit, and compared his music to the film industry.
"You see the shit that they do in movies," he says. "I just don't get why when it's in a song, people make such a big deal. When I make a song, it's just like a fucking movie to me. I want to go into detail... I'm not just talking about raping a bitch; it's a story line. I'm writing this song from the mind of some fucking serial killer from 30-years ago who was a white male."
Like Tyler says, "It's fucking art... Listen to the fucking story." Whether you like it or not, Odd Future's writing hip-hop's next chapter, so you might as well embrace it, fucking prude.
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