7.0
The collaboration of two OFWGTA members Hodgy Beats and Left Brain is an interesting one. MellowHype is what it’s called and they’ve self-released BlackenedWhite last year on Halloween via OFWGTA’s website, when they weren’t as known they are now. The move to re-release this album again on a semi-mainstream indie label Fat Possum is a risky one. Will it taint their “underground” image? No, as Tyler, the Creator and other OF members has stated in interviews and in songs, they wants OFWGTA to go to the top. I believe it’s a smart move to get a different spectrum of OF out there rather than just Tyler or Earl Sweatshirt.
The reissue of BlackenedWhite is basically the same album except with a couple of new tracks and the exclusion of a lot of tracks, which is a puzzling move considering most of those songs were pretty solid including “Gram” and “Chordaroy”, except the latter included vocals from Earl Sweatshirt who if you haven’t heard is MIA and they didn’t have permission to use his vocals on the reissue. Fortunately the new song, “64”, makes up for a lot of ground the excluded tracks lost, but it still isn’t enough.
On MellowHype’s debut, Yellow/White, Odd Future elements were written all over it; the mixture of minimalistic and new age hip-hop beats to create something that is unfamiliar to the ear and yet it sounds so right. Unfortunately, BlackenedWhite mixes more of the “pop rap” elements to it with more crunk beats and those annoying fast beats that turn me off to the modern pop hip-hop that infests the radio. “Gunsounds” does some cool play with gun sounds as part of the beat and Hodgy Beats rapping is as strong as ever, but I just hate the non-relaxed feel of it the way MellowHype’s debut felt.
Some of the best songs off BlackenedWhite are the ones with different feeling beats like on “Brain” and “Right Here” where Hodgy Beats and Left Brain’s stoner side show with a more chilled and relaxed feel that suits MellowHype much more. Overly vulgar tracks like “F666 the Police” and “Igotagun” are just plain annoying. The best moments off BlackenedWhite come from Hodgy of course, but even moments from Frank Ocean on “Rico” or Domo Genesis on “Brain” are acceptable and overshadow the performance of when Left Brain takes the mic, which is just awkward. Left Brian really needs to stick to the beats and production after a performance on “Circus” with his lazy flow.
BlackenedWhite feels incomplete, probably because I was so used to the other tracks being included along with the ones on the reissue, but what Hodgy and Left Brain put on here isn’t bad, low and high points are everywhere, but the high ones are far superior to the low points. Too bad the duo couldn’t have taken more elements from their debut to create something even better, but hopefully the next album can be a nice medium between the two to create something that is the best release from Odd Future to date.
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