The OF Tape Vol. 2

the take

Oh, how I feel nostalgic when I play this album again and reminisce on how fucked up my mentality is because of this album (and Odd Future as a whole). It should also be said that "The OF Tape Vol. 2" didn't really age all too well, both in terms of sound and the various ranges of success each member would have in the years following. But somehow, I still remember damn near every word and adlib like it was yesterday. As childish and juvenile as this project is, I still see the greatness each member of Odd Future had, even though this album was all over the place. Save for "Ya Know", "White" and "Analog 2 / Wheels 2", you'd get what you'd expect from a bunch of teenagers from Los Angeles: loud, aggressive lyricism with a means to shock the overly offended becuase shock value wasn't frowned upon then as it is now... but I digress. Tyler, The Creator and Left Brain handle the majority of production here, with The Super 3 crafting "Ya Know". "We Got Bitches" is truly terrible, though, but still fitting after releasing "Tina" and "BSD" to the masses years before. But also, that's the thing: this album was made by teenagers to show the world to not be so uptight and have fun while being your authentic selves. "Vol. 2" wasn't supposed to be all too lyrical and introspective; it was supposed to be a fun project. Of course, if you weren't really tapped into the Odd Future wave at the time (like I was, circa 2012, actually), then you'd be one to be a sensitive fuck and take everything they said at face value to be truthful. "The OF Tape Vol. 2" may be a perfect example of "if you weren't there, you'd probably won't understand", as it's a musical time capsule. At least... for myself, it is.