The arrival of Odd Future was a cattle prod to popular culture. Armed with just their laptops and alarmingly confessional hip-hop tracks that contrasted tales of teenage woe with violent fantasies, a dozen high-schoolers rode a tidal wave of rap forums, Twitter and the then cresting Tumblr to bestride the world stage. They emerged from Los Angeles at the end of the 2000s, before exploding in 2011 with the release of Tyler, the Creator’s controversial breakout hit Yonkers. The group sparked a thousand thinkpieces about their controversial lyrics, which in turn only made them more popular.
While Tyler was the leader, Odd Future’s first flush of fame was haunted by the spectre of Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, AKA Earl Sweatshirt. With his malevolent tone and ultraviolent, often brilliant lyrics, Kgositsile occupied a special place in Odd Future lore from the drop of his debut single, the self-titled Earl, on which he proclaimed he was “twisted, sicker than mad cattle in fact I’m off / Six different liquors, with a Prince wig plastered on”. As memorable as the song was its viral video, which showed the 16-year-old and his friends blending a mixture of booze, weed, pills and cough syrup before throwing it all up. The grainy camera footage then pivots to the group picking up gruesome skateboarding injuries.
