We're not sure which is weirder: that Fat Possum Records would connect with L.A. hip hop posse Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, or vice-versa. The Mississippi-based imprint began as a renegade Southern label dealing in classic raw blues by R.L. Burnside and T Model Ford, among others, but has since expanded to break everyone from the Black Keys to Lissie to the Smith Westerns. The label announced Wednesday morning that it will be remixing and remastering "Blackenwhite," by the Odd Future-related project Mellowhype. The full-length dropped on the Odd Future website on Halloween as a free download and became part of the first wave of buzz that propelled the savvy crew from South L.A. onto a national stage. 

Comprised of Hodgy Beats and Left Brain, the album's opening couplet captures the essence of the project: "It's a Monday night I'm coming home like it's a Friday/Everyday high I'm burning kush on the highway." The 16-track release features appearances by some of Odd Future's most high-profile members -- Tyler, the Creator (whose solo debut will come out on XL Recordings in the spring), Earl Sweatshirt, and the crooner Frank Ocean. It will come out on CD and vinyl this summer.

And expect Odd Future to own South by Southwest this year. The rollout on the many Odd Future projects to come will reach a fever pitch in Austin, Texas, where the collective will close out the mtvU Woodie Awards on March 16.

Related:

Odd Future's Tyler the Creator signs one-album deal with XL Recordings

Odd Future destroys 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon'

-- Randall Roberts

Frank Ocean wants you to know that he does not make straight-up R&B. According to his Twitter feed, he believes that no artist can be hemmed into a single genre. He also believes in the power of Zen and Real Food Daily. He hasn't yet endorsed the latter's nachos, but he's probably a fan. The kid seems to have things figured out.

At least, that's the impression one gleans from the crushed velvet crooning and bedroom funkadelia offered on his debut, "Nostalgia, Ultra." And it's true that the line between hip-hop and R&B has been permanently blurry since Sean Combs started slapping James Brown breaks onto Mary J. Blige's mezzo-soprano -- which partially explains why erstwhile Puff Daddy has endorsed the L.A.-based Ocean. 

But you'd be forgiven for mistaking the singer's slippery soul for one of the finest R&B debuts in recent memory. Ocean creates a next-generation R&B/rap hybrid that builds on the backs of the giants: R. Kelly, the Neptunes and Kanye West, and the older soul gods he'd probably never even enumerate.

In the way in which it balances rock, soul, and funk, it almost recalls a young Shuggie Otis. A Radiohead sample plays on an interlude, while Ocean laces the Eagles' "Hotel California" and MGMT with his West Coast Wolf Gang swagger. Yet the most encouraging part of the record is the revelation of Ocean's immediate and fully defined personality.

In an R&B world glutted with faceless pitch-corrected clones, Ocean has a storytelling skill that will take him far. On "Songs for Women," he admits that he never could play the guitar like Van Halen, while spinning a tender-hearted but wry ode to a high school love. Then he admits that he sings songs to get at women. While on "Novacane," he tells a story of going to Coachella and smoking out of an ice blue bong with a porn star who wants to be a dentist. R. Kelly would be proud.

For the last six months, every armchair critic has been hysterically decreeing that the future will be Odd, but no one anticipated the transition would be this smooth.

-- Jeff Weiss

Download:
ZIP: Frank Ocean -- "Nostalgia, Ultra"

Tyler the Creator, of the sprawling and self-mythologizing L.A. crew Odd Future, just inked an enviable deal with the indie-vanguard label XL, and this feral performance on Wednesday night's episode of "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" shows what teenage rap fans in town have insisted on for months. Namely, that Odd Future is absolutely insane and the unchallenged heirs to SoCal's mantle of menacing wierdo rap. This take on "Sandwitches," the B-side to Tyler the Creator's new single "Yonkers," gets a full band assist from Odd Future cohort Hodgy Beats as well as the Roots. Tyler mounts Fallon at the credits and leaves a dumbstruck Mos Def screaming, "Swag!" into the camera for no reason other than total joy. This video pushes Odd Future to the top of any Coachella-goer's must-see list.

-- August Brown

Following a lengthy bidding war that reportedly included Interscope Records, Tyler the Creator, the fountainhead of ballyhooed local rap collective, Odd Future, has signed a one-album deal with XL Recordings. According to sources within the Odd Future camp, the 19 year-old rapper/producer will receive "full creative control and will eventually receive his masters back." The sources didn't specify when the latter would occur.

The British-based home of Radiohead, Vampire Weekend, and Adele, XL will release  "Goblin," Tyler's commercial debut at an undetermined date this spring. At the moment, "Yonkers," its first single is available for sale at iTunes."

Last Friday, Odd Future released the "Yonkers" video, which has gone on to become a runaway viral smash, with roughly 375,000 views in its first 72 hours. The startlingly evocative video's success reflects the partial culmination of a massive wave of attention that has surrounded the teenaged crew since its emergence last summer.

Currently in the midst of a short run of dates throughout the East Coast, the group's next local appearance will be at the Coachella Festival in April.

--Jeff Weiss

Notoriously foul-mouthed Los Angeles rap collective OFWGKTA, a.k.a. Odd Future, has had quite a year; six months ago, nobody had heard of the high-schoolers. But blog buzz, a penchant for pushing buttons and some wickedly funny, in-your-face lyrics have resulted in lots of press and downloads.

It's also meant a label bidding war, a booking at Coachella -- and, as of 10 minutes ago, an appearance on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" for the most prominent of the posse: Tyler, the Creator. The rapper just tweeted this:

"Tyler The Creator And Hodgy Beats Of OFWGKTA Will Be On Jimmy Fallon The 16th Of FEBRUARY. oddfuture.com."

Word from the Odd Future camp is that Fallon's house band, the Roots, will be backing them.

-- Randall Roberts

Though you may not have noticed amid the avalanche of strong drinks, loud explosions and soon-to-be remitted resolutions, the rap world made pledges of its own last week. But instead of vows, there were symbolic gestures to send the year stepping in the right rhythm.

In what's shaping up to be an auspicious tradition, several rappers and groups are offering free downloads that will help you survive your first day back at the office/school/monastery -- a worthy successor to last year's harvest from the Cool Kids, Yelawolf, XO, The Knux and Kendrick Lamar.

Below is a bluffer's guide to what will help prop up your caffeine high. Note: Some, if not all, of these downloads contain cussing.

The Jet Age of Tomorrow -- "The Journey to the 5th Echelon"

Even if you are a committed skeptic to the expanding cult of Odd Future, you cannot deny the genre name ascribed to the sophomore album of the space funk travelers the Jet Age of Tomorrow: electric sex music -- what you would expect from a group that channels a cosmic slop of N.E.R.D., Sa-Ra and Dam-Funk.  Highly recommended for those inclined toward Afro-futuristic funk, sunbursts and sundry Alpha Centauri swag.

As OFWGKTA claims: "this Is A All Around Upgrade From The VOYAGER Release. The Quirky Spaced Out Sounds Will Have Your Ears Mind [Screwed] For Days, So We Advise Not To Do Drugs While Listening." Or at least not until 5 p.m.

Download: (via Odd Future)

ZIP: The Jet Age of Tomorrow -- "The Journey to the 5th Echelon"