Last night at Tyler the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw festival in Los Angeles, Odd Future member Hodgy Beats launched into an onstage rant about Tyler which then continued on Twitter and Instagram, and saw him accuse Tyler of “changing faces” and “being a fraud”.
All the drama kicked off during the OFWGTA set, which featured Left Brain, Mike G, Domo Genesis, and Hodgy Beats – who reportedly took the opportunity to launch into a monologue about leaving OF, starting his own label, how being famous changes you, and that he was not paid for his performance at last year’s Camp Flog Gnaw. How the rant was received by the crowd themselves is mixed, although the Consequence of Sound live review called it one of the night’s “weird, rambling lows”. It transpired from Tyler’s tweets later in the night, that he watched the entire thing happen from side of stage.
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He then retaliated later during his own performance (watch below). Pausing the show after playing “Fuck It”, he went on to say: “Niggas got me fucked up. I put too many niggas on. I helped too many of my motherfucking friends out. And niggas gonna come foul? And you know who the fuck I’m talking about nigga. And yes, it’s getting real. I love you though.”
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Then the whole beef took to social media, where Hodgy called out Tyler on both Twitter and Instagram. Hodgy tweeted: “think about who built the name OF together as a unit. Now Think about who took the first initial shit on OF”. Before posting his last few pops on Instagram: “niggas treat us like were disposable. Hodgy Doms left Mike g.Where earl go? I know he had no part in the carnival .Real recognize real. Gone”.
Tyler didn’t address Hodgy directly on Twitter, but did tweet that “THEBE AND I ARE FINE BTW” in reference to he and Earl’s relationship, and responding to a follower about the whole debacle he tweeted: “I DONT KNOW, BUMMED ME OUT I WAS SIDE STAGE LIKE WTF WOW, WHAT DID I DO”
Tyler’s had a mad year already. He released Cherry Bomb (his most accomplished album yet), he supposedly announced the end of Odd Future (before then putting it all down to misreporting and that the collective were still together), and then he was banned from visiting the UK by home secretary Theresa May. Where does last night’s spat leave the state of Odd Future as a collective? Who knows. But whether the collective can still even exist when Tyler, The Internet, Earl Sweatshirt, Frank Ocean, and Domo Genesis have built such individual careers and sounds, is a question we’ve been asking since May.
In the case of Hodgy, despite his contentions (which haven’t just been aired at the Odd Future Carnival but also in Snapchat stories and tweets throughout the year: where he’s blacked out an Odd Future tattoo and said this year’s performance would be his last at the carnival), it’s often apparent that he still leans on Odd Future more than Odd Future leans on him. He continues to upload his music to the official OF YouTube channel – as recently as last week. And he didn’t have to perform at the carnival last night, if he felt this passionately about his untenable position.
On the flip side, Tyler’s endeavors to create Camp Flog Gnaw shows that despite not releasing a collective record since 2012, the premise of the group can still bring 30,000 fans to a festival, and that speaks volumes for their undying appeal. Hodgy tweeted during his outburst: “If it wasn’t for OF where would Tyler be?” But considering Tyler’s integral role in the art, videos, promotion, direction and music of the original Odd Future explosion – and the existence of last night’s carnival – some fans are going to be left thinking: actually, if it wasn’t for Tyler, where would OF still be?
UPDATE 11/16 6:00 PM EST: Hodgy Beats posted an Instagram video of him and Tyler squashing the beef. The caption reads “Fuck you Tyler,” and in it Hodgy says “Tyler told me to stop being a bitch, so I said all right.” Then they both do handstands. Friendship! It’s fun!
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