A DECADE AGO, a ragtag group of rabble-rousing artists, skaters, and jokesters from Southern California called Odd Future stormed the gates of the rap game. The collective’s open contempt for tastemakers and A-listers ran counter to the charm offensive that got you a career in hip-hop back then when legends were built one blog post, one famous co-sign, and one guest spot at a time. Odd Future was a self-contained unit housing all the rappers, singers, and producers needed to make records, and members featured heavily on each other’s songs, taking a page from the Wu-Tang playbook. As crabby as it was savvy, the group built a vast catalog, lashing out at icons, idols, and influencers high and low. Its members waged a campaign of deliberate transgression that netted support and fury in equal measure, then used the attention to shine a light on their stellar crafts. Their art blossomed. Their sensibilities mellowed. The collective drifted apart.
In de facto leader Tyler, the Creator’s biting new song “Manifesto”— a long-overdue reunion with his old squad’s gifted stoner rapper Domo Genesis—he revisits the era when Odd Future blew up: “Protesting outside my shows, I gave them the middle finger/I was a teener, tweeting Selena crazy shit/Didn’t wanna offend her, apologized when I saw her.” The song is a cut-off Call Me If You Get Lost, the 30-year-old’s sixth proper studio album, and a full-circle moment in which the lighter and more soulful aesthetics of 2019’s IGOR are scaled back in favor of brash beats and raw rhymes. Whereas the aim with his Grammy-winning last album seemed to be to stretch his compositional abilities to their limits, Call Me If You Get Lost follows the string of rap-centric loosies he has released since then.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Early and Often: David Freedlander - Momentum vs. Machine The Trump and Harris campaigns battle it out for every last vote.
WIth two weeks left to go, the contours of the 2024 presidential election are clear: Both campaigns need voters who usually don’t vote, and Kamala Harris needs to bring the Democratic coalition, including its Trump-curious members, back home.While the Republican side plans to spend the remaining days of the contest trying to lure low-propensity voters to the polls, the Harris team will attempt to persuade voters of color to return to its side and will try to increase numbers among white voters in previously red suburbs.
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
