Best New Track

"Oldie" probably doesn't need to be ten and a half minutes long. Any of the following could've made the song "tighter": speeding up the 36 BPM/36 Chambers lurch of the backing track, having Earl Sweatshirt's momentous comeback verse as the closer, cutting out Jasper Dolphin entirely. But that's missing the point: OFWGKTA was a rap crew before they were a "Loiter Squad", so "Oldie" accomplishes what "Window" and even "Sandwitches" couldn't before. It's their definitive for-the-love posse cut, somewhere between "Protect Ya Neck" and "Make ‘Em Say Ugh" in terms of form and function. In such close quarters, their competitive camaraderie manages to accomplish what two years of outside criticism couldn't, and everyone involved from Domo Genesis to Hodgy Beats and, yes, even Jasper Dolphin sound legitimately inspired to steal the track, even if Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt end up doing so anyway. Like much of The OF Tape Vol. 2, "Oldie" was made for both the diehards and Odd Future's own amusement. If Goblin or anything else they did in 2011 made you jump ship, though, it's the willingness to push each other here, rather than simply push buttons, that might remind you what was so exciting about these guys in the first place.

[from The OF Tape Vol. 2; out now on Odd Future Records]