Goblin Ethics

Odd Future Wolf Gang has taken the music world by storm over the past year and the leader of the group Tyler, the Creator released his major label debut in May to a hail of both criticism and praise. On Goblin Tyler and co. take graphic lyric content to new extremes, leaving audiences shocked, repulsed, and starving for more. In this paper I seek to focus on the many ethical dilemmas listeners face when listening to Goblin and to contemplate the reasons Tyler chose to create such ethically challenging music. Using the READR method as a guideline, I take a step-by-step process in illustrating the ethical concepts in Goblin.

Reviewing the text with a keen eye for ethical concerns is important in order to compile all elements and context that give Goblin its ethical (or perhaps unethical) character. A good place to start is the music video for the album’s first single, Yonkers, since this is the first taste of Goblin released to the public (February 2010). Over a menacing hip-hop march, Tyler raps in paradoxical rhymes, touching on themes such as kinky sex (“threesomes with a f---ing triceratops”), murder of popular celebrities (“stab Bruno Mars”), recreational drug use (“I slipped myself some pink Xannies”), while also injecting a constant stream of profanity including racial and sexual slurs. In the video Tyler plays absentmindedly with a large cockroach while he’s rapping, which he eventually eats. The song finishes as Tyler puts a noose around his neck, climbs onto the stool he’d been sitting on, and kicks it out from under himself. We see his feet kicking as he, presumably, dies.

The themes mentioned above are only several ethics-challenging features that are prominent in Goblin. Others are: nihilism, hate for his parents, sexism, rape, mass murder, disdain for Christianity, child murder, disrespect for the elderly, and satanic references, to name a few. Tyler is particularly adept at combining these elements in a single line of a rap, for example, “I raped a pregnant b---- and told my friends I had a threesome” (combining kinky sex, child abuse, sexism, and rape.)

Throughout Goblin we hear Tyler conversing with a shrink-like character, Dr. TC. Here Tyler’s nihilistic attitude prevails time and time again; his verses often surmise with some declaration of “I don’t give a f---”, or “f--- everything”. It’s an anticlimactic conclusion to his expertly crafted rhymes that are often quite graphic and contribute to a vivid image in the listener’s head. There is no doubt that Tyler is a skilled rapper and at only 20 years old arguably the best of his age. It is important to note that no members of Odd Future are over 21.

Since “Yonkers dropped and left the craniums mindf---ed” Tyler and Odd Future have received co-signs from several big names in rap. Getting a co-sign means to receive compliments either verbally or in writing. Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Diddy, and Method Man, among others, have all co-signed Tyler, giving him their stamp of approval. MTV’s audience solidified Tyler’s prowess by voting him “Best New Artist” at their Video Music Awards. Why is Tyler the recipient of all this praise when the content of his music runs contrary to the “good” ethics practiced by most of society?

Enumeration is the next step in the READR method; here I examine the component parts of Goblin that exist in and alongside the ethical diversions. This is essentially the story Tyler is telling with Goblin. We know this because he has said in an interview, “If you listen my albums you’ll see that each one is like a movie. It’s my own story, a crazy movie that’s always playing in my head.”

Let’s enumerate some of the facts about Tyler, Goblin, and Odd Future as a whole.

Dr. TC’s presence throughout the album is a personification of “Tyler’s Conscience”, who is both an antagonist and guidance counselor for Tyler. He and his friends, the Odd Future Wolf Gang, are self-made music stars who rap about their thoughts on modern culture, girls, and their own personal exploits. Their dark sense of humor is both charming and disgusting, as the critics’ voices can attest. They are dealing with becoming overnight stars, and even though they’ve made ripples in the mainstream music circles, they refuse to change their approach to suit the masses. Most popular music earns only loathing from them, however female pop stars in their age category are often targeted as the objects of their desire (Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, etc.)They are proud of their originality and of the fact that they worked their way from the bottom up, writing, producing, releasing, and even designing their own art for their music and their collective persona, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill them All.

Tyler’s personal emotional troubles stem from one main entity: the fact that he is a self-described bastard. Tyler has never met his father, this vacancy has had a profound impact on his life. Rather than keeping this information out of the public eye it has become a musing Tyler references in nearly every song. He says he hates the man who fathered him, he is undoubtably hurt that while most kids grow up with a father figure of some kind he has had nothing of the sort. Instead he has his “Gang of Wolves”, his family, all of whom he kills in two tracks on Goblin. Another emotional issue is the regrettable removal of Earl Sweatshirt from the group. As the story goes, Earl’s mother heard her son’s debut album and was so upset by it that she sent him to a remote recovery school for behaviorally challenged boys. This incident hurt Tyler deeply, as Earl was his main partner in crime (Tyler refers to Earl as his little brother) and, at 16, regarded by many as the group’s best rapper. In short, Tyler feels like he has had an uphill battle his whole life and now that he’s making headlines his dreams are coming true and still his troubles plague him.

If we look at the gangsta rap genre before Odd Future we find much of the same ethical borders crossed. High levels of profanity, sexism, racism, drug use, etc. are par for the course in the genre. Odd Future takes these elements and combines them with renewed creativity and imagination, along with minimalist backing tracks that give the listener the feeling of a cartoon horror movie. The resulting concoction is something to behold, because it is easy to consume yet arresting to our ingrained moral ethics. Some listeners feel it is too much for the moral senses and retreat to something less obscene, or at least something obscene in a more familiar way.

So what decisions are we faced with when Tyler drops this in our laps? If we bob our heads along and start to learn the lyrics are we too homophobic devil worshipping rapists? What are Tyler’s expectations of us, and what will society think of our choice? Suppose we believe that it’s all just a joke; Tyler has said the explicit content is included as such for his own amusement because he likes to make light of issues that others take very seriously. Surface analysis of each of those ethical decisions is needed before we may accept the music as art and not just a conglomerate of hate.

Why in some songs will Tyler only refer to females as b----es but other songs on the album, “She”, “Her”, and “Analog”, he is holding them in such a high esteem? Why don’t all women get this kind of respect? In each of those three songs he is trying to earn a woman’s affection and he shows a softer side as he details his feelings. In “Her” he states that not all females are b-----s: “All the b-----s they f--- are known as b-----s and sluts, but She’s special. I know to ya’ll I come off as rough, but I’m the nicest to Her. . . I want the cheesy date to the movies, the stupid walks on the beach and sharing straws in a cup, I never had that. . .”

Tyler also uses the words fag and faggot as a slur, as in “Now that mister fag is gone there’s nothing that can stop me.” Elsewhere on the album in a confrontation with Dr. TC Tyler insists that he is not homophobic; he has reiterated in interviews that he uses the word’s negative connotation to describe things he doesn’t like. Using the words b----, fag, f---, and nigga in numerous variations is ubiquitous in rap music so listeners are somewhat used to these profanities even without Odd Future’s influence.

But how do we adjust to ethical diversions that are not so common in rap, for instance stalking girls to kidnap and rape them; “hide your daughters, hide your sisters, hell hide grandmama too, cause the fisherman is rapin’ everybody in the pool.” For the amount of times Tyler references rape it is not unreasonable for listeners to assume that it is a fantasy of his. He has received harsh criticism from rape victims and anti-rape advocates for promoting the act in his music.

Religious slurs: “F--- Heaven I ain’t showing no religion respect.” All of Odd Future are atheist and they hardly pass an opportunity to badmouth Jesus and other aspects of Christianity. Obviously this a key factor in polarizing audiences because Christians will not listen to blasphemy against their God. Tyler really feels that religion and Christianity in particular is a sham; he aligns Odd Future with Satan in numerous cases, for instance in “Tron Cat”, “Satan’s getting jealous of the Wolves, the demons say they preferrin us...” and in the same breath ridicules the church: “we’re murderous, young enough to get the f---in’ priest to come and flirt with us.” Atheist listeners may identify lines like the latter as well-placed strikes to religion, however to openly bash others’ beliefs is, as a whole, considered morally wrong.

Violence in Goblin is completely over the top, as evidenced in “Tron Cat”, “While you niggas stacking bread, I can stack a couple dead bodies, making red look less of a color more of a hobby.” The group relishes in graphic descriptions of violence, both for its dominating factor as well as shock value. The violence is purely a product of the members’ imaginations; they do not actually practice what they preach. At the start of the song “Radicals” Tyler offers this “random disclaimer: Hey don’t do anything I say in this song, ok? It’s f---ing fiction. If anything happens don’t blame me White America. F--- Bill O’Reilly.” This conveys that he doesn’t really condone violence, but he uses it for creative expression and shock value.

Determining the context and reasons for these ethical decisions Tyler makes is crucial in deciding whether or not to omit certain sections for ethics’ sake. As listeners we are the ultimate deciders of whether we will give Odd Future our attention, based on our own ethical beliefs. The decisions we make are often unconscious but they tell a lot about our own ethical standards and understanding. Upon inspection we can understand the background leading to the ethical diversions in Goblin and it is up to us if we feel the diversions are part of the creative expression and if they are necessary.

Can Tyler afford to forego some violent descriptions without sacrificing his artistic intentions? Violent descriptions are practically a trademark of Odd Future’s music, creating the big shock factor that is responsible for a good deal of what makes the group different from other entities in rap. We can also factor in the rappers’ young age, citing the media desensitization of their generation in regard to violence. To them it is not a big deal to talk about murder casually, albeit in a fictional context. As long as the listener knows that they don’t condone real-world violence then it is the listeners’ choice to listen to the music or not.

Another key trademark of Tyler’s music is his candid portrayal of the emotional struggle of growing up not knowing his father. This is a unique issue that is not often portrayed in popular music that supplies the music’s character, context, and an empathic response from the listener. Since it is a real sentiment that has affected the artist’s life it should be kept in at all costs. The detailing of these feelings helps listeners understand where Tyler is coming from when he approaches music and lyric production. It can also be taken as reason for Tyler’s resentful and nihilistic attitude toward society. Being fatherless (or bastardized) makes him feel at odds with many members of society who did not have to deal with this difficult issue their whole lives.

The gangsta rap ethic is not tolerable by everyone. Followers of the genre know that the use of profane racial slurs, curses, and negativity is part of what differentiates it from other styles of music. If the listener does not believe in this ethic than they can choose not to listen to gangsta rap; if they do choose to listen however, they must accept that they will be exposed to relentless use of explicit language. Our First Amendment allows artists to publish this sort of content and in doing so they should realize what the ramifications may be; criticism and polarization of the audience being the foremost.

As an artist in the United States Tyler is well within his rights by publishing this type of music. He has certainly learned the consequences of releasing such ethically controversial material, but the praise he’s garnered from the music world is proof that such diversions can be accepted. Judging by the massive degree of success that Odd Future is experiencing we can expect that they will continue to release such controversial music. In the end the choice falls to the listener’s own preference for the types of ethical diversions they come in contact with. Is the music all about hate? Or is it a creative detour from the mainstream that is authentic, brash, and more than a little refreshing? You decide.