From Tyler's Mountain Dew commercial

Earlier this month Mountain Dew pulled its Tyler, the Creator directed commercial wherein a trash-talking goat in a police lineup (full of black men) taunts an assaulted women attempting to identify the perpetrator. Accused of both racism and trivializing violence toward women, it was another Tyler troll, and makes one wonder how it got past PepsiCo execs.

See also: Our Tyler, the Creator Cover Story

But while it may be the most controversial soda commercial starring a rap artist, it's by no means the most bizarre. Here's our picks for the top five weirdest soda commercials in hip-hop history.

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Left: Tyler the Creator (Credit: Kevin Sullivan/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom) Right: A design by Cat Cult

By Ren MacDonald

Ten years ago, Inland Empire native Ian Campbell founded Cat Cult, an artist collective whose members paste pictures of screen-printed cat heads on sidewalks, traffic signal boxes and buildings throughout L.A. County. As a teen in his Pomona garage Campbell, now 33, started making likenesses of his mom's cat on stickers. While he was studying at Art Center College of Design, the images evolved into numerous different breeds -- from striped tabbies to Russian Blues -- with diamond eyes and decked out in wizard caps, cowboy hats and vampire capes.

See also: Battle on Beverly: What Happens When One L.A. Street Artist Takes Another's Painting and Puts It Into His Own Creation?

Cat Cult has a not-insubstantial fan base. Besides boasting thousands of Instagram followers, its art has been featured in gallery shows and sold on T-shirts and sweatshirts at retailers such as Fred Segal.

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SBTRKT
Club Nokia
10/14/12

At Club Nokia on Sunday night, the show was opened by Kilo Kish, a pretty rapper/singer from New York. Think Ke$ha but way more indie. Next to come on was Syd the Kyd, from the duo The Internet and Odd Future. She performed a DJ set.

See also:
*Syd the Kyd on Odd Future, Her Sexuality and Why She Hates the Word "Lesbian"
*Why Is Frank Ocean's Coming Out a Big Deal, But Not Syd the Kyd's?

DJ sets often run the risk of sounding underwhelming, but Syd the Kyd was surprisingly good at picking and mixing interesting songs. The crowd loved her. If nothing else it was proof that playing "Milkshake" by Kelis is a guaranteed way to bring the crowd to your yard.

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Life or Death PR

Hodgy Beats (pictured above, left) breaks down the new MellowHype album, 'Numbers'

Between all the madcap happenings surrounding the Odd Future crew -- Tyler's maniacal musings, Frank Ocean's R&B ruminations, the occasion palm tree burned down by one of their fans -- sometimes folks forget about MellowHype, the two-man outfit comprised of caustic spitter Hodgy Beats and producer extraordinaire Left Brain.

See also:
*Reviewed: Odd Future's Carnival and Show (With Lil Wayne) at Club Nokia, 9/30/12
*Syd the Kyd on Odd Future, Her Sexuality and Why She Hates the Word "Lesbian"

Don't make that mistake! Today the duo follows up their acclaimed 2010 mixtape BlackendWhite with Numbers, their official full-length debut. We spoke with Hodgy about their gritty sounds, pushy record executives, and annoying reporters.

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Timothy Norris

The Odd Future Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival & Show
Club Nokia
9/30/12

See also: *Our slideshow of Odd Future's Carnival and Show
*Odd Future and Streetwear Employees Resent Fairfax Avenue Tourist Influx
*My Brother Smoked A Blunt With Lil Wayne; That's When Things Got Weird

Who needs the L.A. County Fair? Taking place in a parking lot across from Staples Center on Figueroa, Odd Future's "first annual" Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival featured all of the sights and sounds of a State Fair, including rides like the Yo-Yo, a big slide and yes, a ferris wheel.

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Tasia Trevino

Not long ago we wrote about how the Fairfax Avenue cool kids -- specifically Odd Future's Tyler, the Creator and employees at streetwear shops -- weren't too happy about the hordes of tourists who have descended on the district. Indeed, we there at 10 am on a recent Thursday, and the line of snapback clad, Hawaiian-shirt donning kids waiting to get into Supreme was a half block long.

*Odd Future and Streetwear Employees Resent Fairfax Avenue Tourist Influx
*Did Odd Future Start a Fairfax Palm Tree on Fire? Despite What You've Read, No

But that's not how another group of Fairfax tenants see it. In fact, interviews with employees and proprietors of the Jewish restaurants and shops there reveal that they're quite glad to have the influx.

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See also: Odd Future and Streetwear Employees Resent Fairfax Avenue Tourist Influx

Have you seen the video of the Fairfax Avenue palm tree on fire? It's below. On August 1 the palm exploded into flames after being shot by a bottle rocket. Its branches fell onto the awning of a local pizza place, setting it on fire.

The pizza shop is next door to the Odd Future apparel store, called OF, and the fire was started in the midst of a release party at the store.

The incident was first reported when Gawker posted a bystander's video on Friday, and that's when things got weird. To be specific, a bunch of sites wrote a bunch of gibberish. They mentioned our recent story on the tensions between the collective and Fairfax tourists (thanks!), but then announced that Odd Future themselves started the fire.

But that's totally wrong! Here's the real story.

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See also: Frank Ocean - The Wiltern - 7/17/12
Why Is Frank Ocean's Coming Out a Big Deal, But Not Syd the Kyd's?

Depending on your political point of view, Chick-fil-A is either a patriotic chicken chain whose brass advocate "traditional" marriage or a homophobic gulag to be avoided.

R&B singer Frank Ocean most likely finds himself in the latter camp, considering he sorta came out of the closet a few weeks back.

He's not the only one. There are many rappers who, judged by their outfits, seem like they aren't about what Chick-fil-A's about. Here are five, starting with Lil Wayne.

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Timothy Norris

Frank Ocean
The Wiltern
7/17/12

See Also:
*Our slideshow from the performance
*Why Is Frank Ocean's Coming Out a Big Deal, But Not Syd the Kyd's?

Since nobody's talking about much else on the Internet right now, we won't bore you with too much background on Frank Ocean. He's a 24-year-old R&B singer aligned with Odd Future who lives in L.A., just released his first official album on Def Jam, and recently came out of the closet, more or less. Whereas at one time that may have been career suicide, it now looks like the savviest career move imaginable.

His new work, Channel Orange, is getting great reviews, and for what was essentially his hometown coming out party last night the line wrapped around the Wiltern. Ocean already had a strong fan base here. But the ticket prices for his show -- which ran for $150 to $300 on Craigslist -- were evidence of his superstar turn.

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