The first skit on Dena Tape 2, Hodgy Beats's first full-length since 2010, will induce déjà vu in hardcore Odd Future fans. A hopeless stan approaches Hodgy for a photo at what sounds like the annual Odd Future carnival, in much the same manner as the fans who accosted Tyler, the Creator at Six Flags on the OF mastermind's "Colossus". Tyler’s song went on to explore the dicey relationship between artists and fans who take their every word as gospel, but Hodgy doesn't seem to have given the issue quite as much thought. Rather than dig into the skit, or go anywhere with it, he regards the fan with total contempt and excuses himself, promising to return. A couple of tracks later, in the skit’s sequel, he’s schooling us on his favorite hash, the pesky admirer abandoned and long-forgotten.

Gerard Damien Long has never displayed the commitment of others in his camp, preferring instead to leap from idea to idea as fast as his jagged, lightning bolt flow will take him. On his new tape, despite his clear effort to inject some substance into his work, what we see is largely more of the same. As always, Hodgy excels at blasé funtime rap, replete with guns and drugs and sex and little in the way of effective personal exploration or storytelling.

Hodgy’s efforts to grow have been the selling point of the tape, and it’s quite obvious when he’s trying to show that he’s matured: on "Cudda Been", "Moneyball" and "HakuemeniB" he drops his usual demonic grin and raps solemnly over beats originally used by Lupe Fiasco, Kendrick Lamar and OutKast. But Hodgy has trouble channeling the spirits of these more thoughtful rappers, and his stabs at frank discussion come across as discombobulated and unfocused. At one point on "Moneyball" he dedicates a couple of bars to an unclear thought about the relationship between greed and President Obama. Either he doesn’t care to work out what he’s trying to say, or he isn’t really trying to say anything at all. In any case, the next line begins a short discussion of his relationship with a stripper.

Hodgy explains his own personality on the best of these tracks, "HakuemeniB", giving us some insight into his weaknesses on wax. He admits to being compulsive and heated, and generally comes across as a hedonist with a heart of gold. It follows, then, that he remains best over punchy, percussive beats. On Dena Tape 2, he slays tracks like "Da Man" and "Wild Boy" through a light-fingered flow reminiscent of Azealia Banks at her most agile. Like Banks, Hodgy is purposively provocative, but there isn’t any particular ideological force driving his edgier rhymes, which are often racial jabs like "Asian eyes like a nigga rap for rice." (It's worth mentioning that he's part Filipino.) He simply thrives on mayhem, and when fenced in by highly structured, rhythmic production, he shines.

The original Dena Tape was the first solo project ever released under the crew’s umbrella, according to the Odd Future subreddit. Since that time, Hodgy’s had a son, grown from the age of 19 to 24, and released or been featured on over a dozen tapes. And yet it seems like he can’t help but to keep things light. To celebrate himself rather than think about his failings, to toss off an easy punch line instead of working to craft a complex thought, and to mock his loser fans rather than genuinely try to understand, explore or even warrant their admiration. After more than five years, he still comes across as one of the lost boys, happily treading water in Neverland and still not all the way willing to grow up.