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2. Tyler, the Creator ft. Earl Sweatshirt - "Assmilk"
Date released: 2009
Album: Bastard
Months before Odd Future dropped "Earl" onto the Internets, blowing the minds of rap fans who had been waiting for a rapper like Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler released Bastard with this Earl-featured "AssMilk." Over one of those instrumentals that highlights everything that's beautiful about Tyler's production, Earl and Tyler trade four bars apiece, spitting some of the most maniacal rhymes we've heard a pair of teens spit. "Me and Ace is sick my malaria carriers" is one of those lines where, if you weren't a fan of Earl back in the day, you would be now, even if you're not too into lyrics about cannibalism. There's even a weird segue where Tyler apparently fucks Earl's eye up during a take. One of those cuts where you can see why people loved OFWGKTA... and why they feared the wolves.
3. Earl Sweatshirt ft. Tyler, the Creator - "Couch"
Date released: 2010
Album: Earl
For what its worth, if Earl's mother wanted to point to one track that highlighted whatever horrible influence she thought Tyler had on her son, she could point at the macabre nightmare of "Couch." We hate falling into the "horrorcore" description that people threw at Odd Future's music, but you can't help it when you've got acid-riddled ladies having duct tape "quacking back" at them. No one said the Wolf Gang shied away from the darker undertones of life, and hell, they were teens who followed stories about serial killers and had wild cinematic brains. You also have to love that Tyler ended up killing Earl on his own track.
4. Earl Sweatshirt ft. Tyler, the Creator - "Pigions"
Date released: 2010
Album: Earl
Earl proved one thing: this young spitter named Earl Sweatshirt had something special. Not many MCs would spit lines like "the Odd nigga with a spoon in ya Danimals/As hungry as a cannibal trapped in a van of canteloupes," and get compared to a young Nas and Eminem at the same time. It wasn't that long ago that Marshall Mathers was spitting homicidal lines because he was so good that rapping about how good he was got boring. And at the end of the day, when a talented someone with problems gets high and wants to express themselves at a young age, this is the kind of content you get. Everyone sees it today, but credit to Tyler for spotting talent early: "I told you he could rap!" he says at the end of the track.
5. EarlWolf - "Orange Juice"
Date released: 2010
Album: Radical
One of the best parts about Odd Future is the fact that while many saw them as being "horrorcore" rappers or whatever, their love for rap always included some Gucci Mane or Waka Flocka. Grabbing the instrumental for Gucci Mane's Bangladesh-produced "Lemonade," this was one of the first appearances of Earl and Tyler hopping on a track together, after the release (and early buzz) from Tyler's Bastard and Earl's, um, Earl. Back when Tyler was still pissed as bloggers for sleeping, back before Earl got sent to Samoa. Two of Odd Future's brightest going for theirs over those huge pianos. Tyler's talking chopped bodies, Earl's on beast mode, showcasing the epitome of the "two dope boys" not giving any kind of fuck. "Rap's alpha team" went for broke on Radical, and this was one of the most replayed cuts from the project, without a doubt.
6. MellowHype ft. Earl Sweatshirt & Tyler, the Creator - "Chordoroy"
Date released: 2010
Album: BlackenedWhite
The duo of producer Left Brain and rapper Hodgy Beats (together, MellowHype) grabbed Odd Future ringleader Tyler and a laid back-sounding Earl for "Chordoroy," off their second studio album. Left Brain's spacey, synth-laden beat sets the scene for a few rounds of low-key boasting, with Earl making rapping sound ridiculously easy, and Tyler finishing things off with the comedy/shock factor of lines like "fingers in the middle of bitches bodacious butt-cracks."
7. Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the Creator, & Hodgy Beats - "Fuck This Christmas"
Date released: 2010
Album: N/A
Folks who need an anthem for hating on Christmas? Here you go. The drum-less bars from a depressed Earl from the start let you know what time it is. Highlighting Tyler's love of beautiful chords, Earl is bagging people and talking about being in the home that he hates. "Fuck This Christmas" dropped while the "Free Earl" campaign was underway, dropping a few days before the Christmas of 2010. The best part about this track, Odd enough, is Hodgy's "harmonizing" and adlibs throughout the hooks and tail-end of this anti-Christmas track. Make sure you give grandma's thong present back.
8. Odd Future - "Oldie"
Date released: 2012
Album: The OF Tape Vol. 2
What sets "Oldie" apart from many of the other songs on this list is the obvious fact that this is an all-out group effort. Over a basic looped snare drum-dominant beat, all the members of the gang take turns rhyming, and while there have been many collaborations between OF members in the collective's history, no other song has seen everyone on one track. Hell, even Frank Ocean flexes, yielding possibly one of the best verses in OF history, and Jasper, who isn't a musical member of the group, spits. Their video is a bonus, the shoot of which also doubled up as a Terry Richardson photoshoot, giving you a look into their fun, goofy dynamic, their reckless spirit summed up neatly in a 10-minute video.
9. Casey Veggies ft. Tyler, the Creator, Domo Genesis, Hodgy Beats, & Earl Sweatshirt - "PNCINTLOFWGKTA"
Date released: 2012
Album: Customized Greatly Vol. 3
Former Odd Future member Casey Veggies linked up with his old crew on this energetic posse cut from his Customized Greatly Vol. 3 mixtape. The beat, produced by Tyler, has the kind of off-kilter, manic energy that we've come to expect, and while Tyler himself only vocally contributes with the shouted hook, the rest of the crew step up. As with pretty much any project that he hops on, Earl's verse steals the show, referencing both his fatherless upbringing and his prodigious mic skills in whirlwind of tongue-twisting rapping.
10. Earl Sweatshirt ft. Tyler, the Creator - "Sasquatch"
Date released: 2013
Album: Doris
Earl and Tyler have undeniable chemistry. On almost any track the two of them are on together they are instinctively on the same wavelength, and you can feel the two rapping for, and to outdo, the other. However, in the years since Odd Future's all-out assault on popular culture, a lot has changed. We all know the narrative—there's no need to go into what happened off the records—but "Sasquatch" highlights a potential problem in the partnership.
The Earl we hear on Doris has grown up and the album is (relatively) mature; laconic, introspective and technically dazzling, it's impressive how far he's come. Tyler, on the other hand, seems stuck in time. Hearing them over this spacey, laid-back beat, one after another, only draws attention to the fact that the precocious youngster has outgrown the charismatic older brother. Tyler's referencing Taco Bell gorditas and dingleberries and dropping Chris Brown & Rihanna jokes in an attempt to shock. Next to Earl's verse, a dizzying spray of internal rhymes and scene-setting imagery ("It's like 6pm and his temple's throbbing"), he just sounds immature and clumsy. They almost seem to be making different songs here, and it's a far cry from the way they used to click on their earlier releases. If this is an indicator of how the album is going to go, we're not sure that listening to Earl Sweatshirt eclipse Tyler, The Creator for the length of an album is really something we want to hear.
11. Tyler, the Creator ft. Domo Genesis & Earl Sweatshirt - "Rusty"
Date released: 2013
Album: Wolf
Are you one of those cats who think that Odd Future is all about 666 and hating on religion? Well, you might be right about that, but there's an eerie beauty to what these guys are doing outside of the theatrics, and "Rusty" is one of those tracks that Tyler uses to let loose. Over some throwback drums, Tyler is the one that truly shines, hogging the bulk of this track to express himself about the OF detractors who forever hate on the content of his music. He's still grabbing his dick and saying fuck you, but he's throwing your bullshit in your face to prove a point; he's in the middle of the road, having to satisfy fans and critics when he's really just trying to express himself. Domo keeps it grimey because that's what he does, and Earl's lone verse on the magnum opus that is Wolf ends in gunshots that play a bigger part in the huge, overarching story that is Tyler's solo albums, but Earl doesn't waste the little time he has on the project to go mental.
12. Earl Sweatshirt ft. Tyler, the Creator - "Whoa"
Date released: 2013
Album: Doris
Before "Whoa" gets started, Tyler, The Creator snarls, "N*ggas think 'cause you fucking made 'Chum' and got all personal that n*ggas won't go back to that old fucking 2010 shit about talking 'bout fucking... all that. No, fuck that nigga, I got you. Fuck that."
On Earl Sweatshirt's long-awaited debut album, Doris, there was some concern that Earl would be a reformed version of the twisted personality we met on his 2010 debut mixtape, Earl. "Chum" proved that he was still in top form as a rapper—more mature but still capable of weaving wordplay into dense, lyrically advanced raps—but "Whoa" assured fans that he was still capable of that mischievous rap that has always been a defining quality of Odd Future. Even though Tyler's introduction might lead you to believe this song was going to be another shocking display of vile rhymes, it was smarter than that. Earl still talks his shit, but it's less concerned with over-the-top imagery and hones in on Earl's talent with language. Tyler plays the background, and it acts as a careful step in a new direction, one that keeps things moving forward without leaping too far from the home base.
