I chose this item for my portfolio because it’s an example of my written work that is 100% original. I was told to write about any subject regarding the festival, and I chose the controversial rap group Odd Future. I don’t have any real training in journalism, but the post was selected for the front page of the website and it, once again, shows my ability to work on the fly and quickly adapt to any situation in the workplace, while still giving my own signature touch to each piece I produce.
Here is the link for the edited article posted online: http://wxrt.radio.com/2011/07/18/mosh-n-sway-odd-future-take-over-the-pitchfork-music-festival/
Below is the unedited article:
Mosh ‘n’ Sway
by Aaron Weiss
The phenomenon that is Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (Odd Future for short) within the “indie” community could be categorized by some as unprecedented. After all, the stereotypical Pitchfork reader is quite enlightened, often to a fault, giving away to pretentious opinions and an overly-critical view of pop culture that surrounds them. They support a group so long as they’re unknown, the stench of “selling-out” driving them away, the garlic to their vampire sensibilities. So when a rap group comes barreling in with lyrics filled with references to rape and littered with cuss words that would make Tarantino blush, it would be expected that the “hipster” crowd would avoid them.
Yet we’ve underestimated this crowd. How quickly we forget that the forefathers to this generation of elitists also latched on to Kraftwerk, Devo, and Cluster, groups that were so avant-garde and so against everything that was on the radio at the time, they became symbols of the underground music scene. It makes sense that OFWGKTA would be so heartily embraced by this culture. To easily dismiss them as “crap rap” is ignorant of their personalities and the culture of the group.
Replacing chains with beat-up baseball caps and switching out scenes of poppin’ bottles with goofy sketches about golf, Odd Future goes against today’s mainstream hip-hop in a forceful way, unafraid to mock the culture of excess it introduced. In reality, the newer artists popping up on critics radars are much more in tune with certain rap groups of the late 80s and early 90s, artists unconcerned with glamour or posturing. Artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and the whole Native Tongues collective are being done justice today by Odd Future, Kid Cudi, Childish Gambino, and B.o.B.
Odd Future swings the haymakers, unleashing their anger in their stage shows, but jabbing away with more-clever-than-you-think lyrics on their EPs and LPs. Kid Cudi and Childish Gambino bring unprecedented introspection, with Cudi frequently questioning his own mental state and weed-induced visions, while Gambino (the alias of actor Donald Glover) considers swallowing a bottle of pills with a whiskey chaser amidst fears of disappointing his parents, and admits to vomiting due to not sleeping for days in a row. While B.o.B. is by far the most commercially successful of this group, he might be the most bold, effortlessly moving between different genres, masterfully riding the fence between hip-hop and alternative rock with great production quality to back it all up.
Of course, if you’re not a fan of hip-hop, then you’re not a fan of Odd Future. They are unmistakably still rappers. There were more than a few people who opted to camp out for Ariel Pink instead of braving the massive raging tempest that was the Odd Future crowd. Just don’t be too shocked to see these indie kids trading in their swaying and bobbing for moshing at Odd Future. Because if you want to find today’s alternative music, hip-hop is where you’ll find it.