Editor’s note: This column contains language that may be offensive to some readers.
 
I, along with thousands of others, flocked to City Park in New Orleans on Sunday to witness the guitar prowess of Jack White and the “funk soul brother” Fatboy Slim.
However, my peace, love and happiness was ruined by members of the rap collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. By now, I’m sure most have heard about how one of the members allegedly slapped a female photographer during the show.
The band’s representative is now telling Billboard.com that the accusations about band member Left Brain are untrue and that he simply swiped at the cameras and didn’t hit photographer Amy Harris.
However, there was more to the incident than the slap heard ’round the world.
One photographer with glitter on his head was called out by a member of the rap group, who then berated the photographer and called him a “faggot.” Other photographers had water bottles thrown at them and were told to get real jobs.
Sure, none of this sounds too insulting, but take into account that throughout the show, members of the group were saying it was all just for fun.
Who exactly was having fun in this situation? The photographers being harassed?
Most upsetting are the lyrics in Odd Future’s songs, which are misogynistic, homophobic and downright morally wrong.
The band’s catalogue includes songs about stalking and raping women, as well as diss songs about other rappers like B.o.B. and Bruno Mars — whom Odd Future frontman Tyler the Creator says he wants to stab in the esophagus.
Critics heap praise on the band, and swarms of impressionable teenagers flock to the group to imbibe their messages of anarchy and apathy.
In fact, as I stood toward the back of the crowd on Sunday (for fear of the mosh pit in the middle) I noticed it was mostly high school-aged students at the show.
Many members of the collective are actually teenagers themselves.
Why is this so troublesome? Well, youths are our future.
This is the same attitude that has people putting things like “screw politics” in their political views section on Facebook.
This isn’t going to cut it. I, too, find politics bureaucratic and infuriating, but that shouldn’t stop us from taking a stance and staying informed.
Some probably don’t agree with the Occupy Wall Street protestors, but isn’t it best they’re trying to do something about what they see as wrong?
This is the same attitude that leads to people jokingly tossing around homophobic slurs or the “n-word.”
I realize some people think the words have no inherent malice or spite, but that doesn’t mean they’re OK.
Try saying any of the words from Odd Future’s profanity-laced rants out loud in the Quad and see who doesn’t fire up torches and sharpen pitchforks.
I know the group insists their lyrics are just for fun, but that simply doesn’t cut it anymore. Cultural icons are supposed to be role models. Yes, there have been rock stars who have shot up, lit up and snorted up in the past, but what you do to your body is your own business.
Odd Future is advocating violence and ignorance. This can be threatening to other people, as was the case at the Voodoo Experience, where I saw a parent carrying their toddler through the same crowd that housed the previously-mentioned mosh pit. Or as was the case with the female photographer.
Odd Future is a talented group with a real passion for what they do. Their live show would have been great if not for the offensiveness and violence.
As long as Odd Future chooses to use such hateful lyrics, listeners should choose to ignore the band.
Boycott their shows. Don’t buy their music. And maybe our future won’t be so odd.
 
Kevin Thibodeaux is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Lafayette.
 
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Contact Kevin Thibodeaux at [email protected]