Above: "Bastard" and "French" performed live at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood
I have a confession: I have a man crush on OFWGKTA's Tyler, the Creator. I follow him @fucktyler on Twitter, I've spun Bastard countless times, and I have a playlist on my iPod filled with every single Odd Future release. Tyler explains the appeal well in "Seven," the second cut off of Bastard: "Because I'm 17, compose my own beats, lyrically I'm dope enough to ass fuck the guy who made nicotine." Or maybe the allure is in those lethargic beats of which Tyler speaks, listlessly stumbling forward like the Wicked Witch of the East on barbiturates and giving Disaro's best a run for their gravewave money.
And if it's not the high-quality material this crew is producing at such a young age, it's Tyler, the Creator's perfectly gravelly voice. Pause. But really, the first time I heard him rap, I was sure that there was some kind of pitch shift or filter on his voice. It's got the gnarl of street veteran whose vocal chords have seen a bit too much smoke in their day—not a high schooler. In fact, I'd go as far as to proclaim Tyler, the Creator the joint recipient of the Best Rapper Voice award along with CyHi da Prynce (exhibit a: "she found out about April so she chose to Maaarch"; exhibit b: "my name ring beeellz"; exhibit c: "thugs think I'm a Blood 'cause I won't take this red suit oooff").
I'm sure that my love for all things OFWGKTA will yield a much longer piece in the future, but I'm trying to direct all my creative juices into this Kanye piece I'm working on (HYPE!), so I'll quit now before I dig myself deeper into a hole with all these questionable remarks about how much I love some dudes' voices. Now, get the hell on the East Coast's Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All bandwagon. I'm the driver.
