I love Odub.  Some of his stuff gets me pumped, most of it makes me laugh, and some of it even tugs at the heart-strings. As an artist, many of his songs pull their beat and thematic inspiration from pop-rap hits.  A few I can name, but honestly I am not deep enough in the genre to know whats a lyric-swapped hit and what’s completely original. The other thing Odub will do for climbers of a certain age is unleash a wave of nostalgia, but more on that later.  Here I am going to review his older stuff, but I will make a point to check out his later works soon, namely “To Mock a Killing Bird”.

My favorite song has to be ‘That‘, a redub of ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’. Its the kick in the ass I need to suck it up and train. ’99 Problems’ and ‘Catch Me‘, receive similar high marks for being funny as hell and instantly relate-able to most climbers.  Less funny, but still good for a listen are ‘I know, Dyno!‘, ‘Da Booty‘, and ‘Dirt Off Your Holds’.   ‘Shake it Out‘ is solidly written, speaks to the problems of being driven by ego, and ends on a great punchline. 

Speaking of ego, Odub takes a moment to call out the ego-centric antics of Dean Potter in his earlier years, so much so that his song ‘Not All Roses‘ solicited action against him, in turn giving motivation for later tune ‘Cease and Desist‘. Other serious songs include ‘Here for You‘, dealing with the various setbacks we can face as climbers, from work schedules to cancer, and ‘She Tried‘ which wraps a tale of lost love in a metaphor of a climbing accident. 

And now the negatives, both for the same reason.  ‘Gym Hoes‘ is a take off of ‘Gold Digger’, and while it gets nostalgia points for name dropping; Sharma, Tim Kemple, Obe Carrion, Ivan Greene, Klem Loskot, Chris Lindner, Dave Graham, and Cordless Pads (whew)….. it falls down a peg on my more  recent listens since I have been made aware of this issues surrounding slut-shaming.  Similarly, ‘She’s on Fire‘ pays lip service to Lauren Lee, Angie Payne, Steph Davis, Beth Rodden, and others, but does so in a very women-as-objects sort of way. Its framed as a ‘how fortunate we men are to be amongst such goddesses’, but it doesn’t sit right with me as I’ve gotten older.

Overall, this stuff is great. If you ever need a giggle, you like rap, you wanna get a little nostalgic, or just want to get pumped – turn up some Odub. You’re inner climbing nerd will thank you.