They hadn't actually hired him yet. Berru was working pro bono, and traveling with them on his own dime. He figured he'd just keep hustling until they took him on for real.
Without significant results, though, Berru was certain they'd abandon his small company, Life or Death PR & Management, as soon as a big-label deal came along. Still, he was convinced of their impending success, and set out to prove that he deserved to join the party.
Berru got bonus points when Ryder flipped her LA Weekly exclusive into a subsequent piece for the hot London mag Dazed & Confused. From there he reached out to hip-hop sites and trendy music blogs like Brooklyn Vegan to increase the number of downloads on Odd Future's free mixtapes. He also scored the guys interviews with targeted outlets like the Fader, mtv.com, and Thrasher, which have young Web-savvy readers who tweet more than they talk.
Before long, even highbrow outlets like the New York Times were holding forth about OFWGKTA'sinadvertent brilliance — an NPR story on them was actually titled, "Why You Should Listen to the Rap Group Odd Future, Even Though It's Hard."
Still looking to land Odd Future a network coming-out party, Berru helped book Hodgy and Tyler on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, where they performed on February 17. Demonstrating skater agility and attitude, the pair instantaneously burrowed into pop culture while the Roots laid down the doom-scape for their viral banger "Sandwitches." To cement the impact, Mos Def — the Che Guevara of the last underground rap revolution — emerged on camera after Odd Future's set to exhale a massive holler. His enthusiasm was palpable, as was the excitement on planet Twitter, where it became immediately clear that Odd Future had just pissed in America's stream of consciousness.
Since rocking Fallon's show, Odd Future has become the latest lens through which hip-hop heads discuss the industry. As such, they've been compared to countless acts that came before them, and for the most part, they can't stand the analogies. Mike G especially hates hearing about their likeness to underground artists who bent the genre in the 1990s — no doubt a reference to claims that Odd Future has been influenced, however indirectly, by everyone from Kool Keith and Del to Cage, Necro, and Insane Clown Posse. Tyler's a voracious reader of OFWGKTA coverage, and often takes to Twitter to impale blaspheming publications (he declined this interview because, he says, he's done doing US press for the time being).
But there is one similarity they don't decry, as the obvious parallels between Wu-Tang and the wolf gang are numerous — from the stylistic variation among members, to the reliance on morbid in-house beats that repel all and any mainstream rap trends. There's also the Berru connection, and the new distro deal, which will allow individual Odd Future members to release music on their own terms, and with absolutely no input from Sony executives. Indeed, that exact model was designed by former Clan manager Divine.
