Earl Of Slander!!!
 

HUGZ

!!! indeed

good thing they didn't see you compare them to Wu-Tang!

I downloaded the Earl album after reading that article and it's been on repeat all night.

That's because it's absolutely amazing. Every time I hear the title track there's still a part of my brain that can't quite process how good it is.. That album is probably my fave, and it's certainly the most 'perfect'. 'Bastard' and 'Rolling Papers' are also essential though. The other are less consistent, but still pretty great, and all have at least a few totally killer tracks on. These guys are still managing to drop gold pretty much every time right now. I can't wait for the new MellowHype....

Oh, and can I point out that Tyler's opening on 'French' might just be my favourite of the year:

'Got all the black bitches mad 'cause my main bitch vanilla
she trying to get her groove back like Stella, grab the umbrella
when it comes to yo perception of my shit I'm Hellen Keller
when it comes to the perfection of my shit I know you smell the
rectum, I'm like a chromosome, I always X 'em
like Wolverine's stepson attacking a deadly weapon
I'm opening a church to sell coke and Led Zeppelin
and fuck Mary in her ass *beat cuts for a second, breaks down laughing*'

OMG Earl (of Slander)... this Earl album is un-fucking-real. Wow. I'm gonna d/l all their shit now. Was it ALL released this year alone???

earl put the ass in assasin
puts the pieces of decomposing bodies in plastic
puts it in a pan and mixes it up with scat then gobbles it like
fat black bitches and cat fish

I've been trying to tell you this ;) There's not much release info on the various stuff, but as far as I can work out the first thing to drop was the 'Odd Future Tape', which is a pretty messy mix tape from mid 2008 (I think?) when Tyler was like 16 or something stupid. It's the weakest release, but still pretty damn amazing. There's a great track on there that is made from 2 beats using samples originally used on Doom songs, who Tyler name checks as an influence a fair bit. Then there's the Hodgy Beats 'Dena Tape', which I have no idea about, and haven't got around to spending that much time with yet (what I've heard still KILLED though).


Generally, finding information about these guys is deliberately hard. They've successfully maintained a pretty good media cloak. Like the whole 'Free Earl' thing, where all we really know is that he's gone for now, and that apparently it's something to do with his and Tyler's mother having heard all the rape lyrics and kind of wigged. I've been following them pretty closely on Twitter and shit, and it's entertaining as hell, but the closest you ever really get to definite is a new release dropping or something like this, which is hilarious, but hardly informative.

I'm fairly certain that the whole new 'wave' of stuff though, everything that's been on the tumbler site, 'Bastard' and all the releases to the right of it up top on the page (as far as I'm aware they're in chronological order), has come out since this February yeah. Shit is unreal.

EDIT: Oh, and this interview is bad ass.

the pitchfork article makes it sound like it all has come out since Jan/Feb which is amazing. That first tape they actually said was 2008, so I skipped it. I wanted Tyler's album but the link is down! I d/l'd the actual Odd Future album Radical next. But EARL is great. There's a lot of beats that remind me of Doom beats. I was slightly worried by the first track with the repetitive "god damn!" thing, but then realized it was more of a skit that was tongue in a cheek, and the rest of the album pretty much floored me. I'll listen to the OF album tomorrow's commute. But hopefully they re-up Bastard cuz the title track video was incredible. But yeah. I'll d/l it all soon. It's awesome. I'm so glad you kept reminding me about it.

Well I'm really glad you finally clicked with it. My favourite hip-hop stuff to break this year, no doubt.

Radical is probably one of my least favourite ones. Well actually, that's not really fair, because I haven't listened to it enough to really judge it properly. But when I've listened to bits of it before, it hasn't grabbed me instantly like some of their stuff has. It still has some gold on it though. 'Drop' especially. It's a mix tape of them rapping over other peoples beats though, which is why it's a little less musically interesting to me. The flows are still killing however.

As far as the others go, find some way of getting 'Bastard' as soon as possible. It's less focused than the Earl, but the heights are just as flooring. If you can't find it anywhere, PM me, and I'll upload it somewhere for you. As I said, I'd also really recommend 'Rolling Papers', from a production standpoint as much as anything else. It's mostly Tyler beats, and feels like the kind of stoner cousin to the 'Earl' album.

Outside of those, everything has at least some killer tracks on, but I haven't really put the time into absorbing them properly yet. 'Voyager' is a pretty cool instrumental album, done by some guy from outside the 'core' Odd Future crew. 'Yellow/White' and 'Ali' are the 'proper' albums for MellowHype (Hodgy Beats rapping and Left Brain on beats) and Mike G respectively. Check them out if you like their verses on the other releases I guess.

But yeah, what is really astounding is just getting your head around the fact that almost all of this shit has been released since February. It kind of messed with my whole conception of the 2010 hip-hop scene when I discovered it. And everything they drop seems to be keeping up the standard so far too. I mean supposedly this year will still be getting a new MellowHype album, which they've leaked one fucking killer single from, and potentially a new Tyler solo, which he's apparently been working on as like his 'main' project since before he even started work on 'Bastard', so god knows how good that could potentially be. Then in that interview he also says that him and Earl were working on a kind of Madvillain thing with them co-headlining, before Earl got sent away, and that they hope to finish that up as soon as possible, so right now it just looks like they're going to keep this up, which is INSANE!

yeah it is insane.

Just the amount of material that's dropped in 8 months is sick. EARL is crazy. First of all his flow is ridiculous. He reminds me of Buckshot when Black Moon first came out. BTW do you think he's really 16? Or is the character of Earl just 16 on that album? It's hard to tell. But he sounds young. And the subject matter is a bit... y'know. But at the same time it sort of makes sense -- it's like a 16 yr olds fantasy. The violence, the mysoginy, the homophobia... it's almost American Psycho updated to now. It's sick. The beats are great. The also remind me a bit of early Black Moon and obviously DOOM is a definite influence. But what really blows my mind is if you pay attention it's as if every syllable has been overly thought out. There isn't a wasted syllable! And even ones tossed off as afterthough ("...bitch") are actually there to do something in juxtaposition to what the beat's doing. It's really really heady shit. KInd of unbelievable. Further unbelievable is that blog aren't touching these guys. They've actually figured out a way to do their own thing, create their own mythology and blow up on their own site without the much needed help of getrightmusic or nahright or any of those site. Crazy.

Yeah, I mean quite apart from the music, the fact that they're this group of 16-19 year old dudes and they've managed to craft this whole unique aesthetic and internet presence pretty much entirely on their own just blows my mind. You're right about Earl's rapping as well. Not only is it just plain dope flow, but what's probably the most staggering part is how tight, how perfect it is, even when it's sloppy. Like that the way he briefly drops the flow and just starts talking in 'Luper' after the 'fam of four' line, then pauses and brings the beat back with that perfectly placed 'bitch'. This kid is like 17 and he's exploiting every facet of some weird ass beats that even most 'great' rappers would be at least a bit thrown by. I really don't know many rappers that could sound as good as he does on a beat like 'Stapleton'. Stunning.

As to the subject matter, I totally agree about the fantasy element. Somehow they manage to pull off all the rape and ultra violence in a way that's more charmingly teenage than menacing, and are all the stronger for it. It reminds me of nothing so much as a bunch of kids sitting around trying to out shock each other for kicks, which I guess is essentially what it is haha

yes I think yr totally right on. And that "fam of four" part is amazing!! I think my favorite line on the album is when he says "lets see you try to blog / with yr f'ing arms cut off"

it's awesome that a thread called "earl of slander" is the official Odd Future thread now. rateyourmusic says they're from the West Coast. The plot thickens. This sounds sooooooooooooo East Coast. Blew my mizzy.

My favorite verse! :D

These guys are gonna blow up BIG.

Try talkin on a blog wit your arms cut off...

Finally a new rap crew that's putting out some hard shit! I'm so pleased.