If it wasn’t already clear, Odd Future are now an entire sub-culture within hip-hop with a thick narrative built around their antics, their records, and their image. Around the world hundreds upon thousands of 12-25 year old kids spout their cringe-worthy affinity for all things Golf Wang, and they are all reduced to mere sycophants when in the presence of their idols. In this case, only four of their heroes were here for the Earlwolf tour, but it was more than enough to reiterate the power this collective hold over their young fanbase.
As fans shoved and stampeded their way to the front of the venue – not unlike Once Direction fans – the Enmore was overwhelmed with faux-swag and excessive hyperactivity. By the time Taco came out for a 20 minute DJ set, the front section was awash with drunk and stumbling tweens.
Taco kicked off with ‘Turnt Down’ by Hodgy Beats, testing the crowd’s energy. The OF member took us through a bunch of new-gen rap like ‘FDB’ by Young Dro and ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ by Kid Cudi, all serving the purpose of getting us hyped until Tyler and Earl jumped out of nowhere and got straight into ‘French.’
“They tried to ban me from Australia again,” Tyler taunted over the mic, prompting his followers to voice their anger towards the lobbyist who tried to put a stop to this tour. This was most of Tyler’s crowd interaction: making sure all of us knew how pissed off he was at that particular lobbyist, even going as far as (jokingly) wishing STI’s upon her children and spitting vitriol in her direction; unfortunately playing into everything negative the Australian media has had to say about the controversial artist.
Earl, on the other hand, was much less outspoken and spent his time mostly toying with the crowd, building their anticipation up so that when he actually tugged the spotlight back from Tyler, the fans all exploded with cheers. This constant back and forth between the two rappers (with Jasper playing the hype-man) kept fans thoroughly entertained and was the only reason their medley style of performing actually worked.
Despite Tyler being the dominant personality on stage, material was balanced well between the two emcees as Earl’s ‘Blade’ and ‘Drop’ popped up early before Tyler bit back with tracks from Wolf.
Tyler’s solo segment gave us a string of hits from all three of his themed albums, concentrating heavily on his most recent LP. Every track, in particular ‘Domo23’ and ‘IFHY,’ took attention away from his over-the-top rants and reminded us that we were here to witness a highly skilled rapper who just happens to know exactly what his fans want.
Complementing each other well, Earl and Tyler got into some of their joint work, like the wild ‘Orange Juice’ and my personal highlight ‘Woah,’ the first single from Earl’s upcoming LP Doris and a perfect demonstration of the youngest OF member’s superior flow.
Deciding to take his vendetta against the aforementioned lobbyist even further, Tyler dedicated ‘Bitch, Suck, Dick’ to “that c*nt,” an action that got the biggest crowd response of the night as fans encouraged him to go deeper and deeper into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Though I am not one too usually take these things seriously, I think that Tyler and his flock of sheep are pushing things a bit too far; using the excuse of “it’s edgy and cool” to condone excessively abusing someone whose only crime is ignorantly taking an artist’s work out of context.
While it was an extremely entertaining set - with both rappers balancing their different styles well - there were many gaps which only existed because other OF members weren’t present (Example: ‘Sandwitches’ ended abruptly because Hodgy wasn’t there). As such, this wasn’t as enjoyable as last time the collective toured these shores, but there is no denying that this was, as expected, an unbelievably fun night.
Set List
French
Blade
Sam (Is Dead)
Tron Cat
Nightmare
Drop
We Got Bitches
Bimmer
Jamba
Cowboy
IFHY
Domo23
Chum
Whoa
Fish
Blow
AssMilk
Orange Juice
Kill
Earl
Yonkers
48
150 Molasses
Burgundy
Hive
Pigs
Bitch Suck Dick
Answer
Oldie (Tyler’s verse only)
Tamale
Couch
Sandwitches
Encore
Tamale (reprise)