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troymango · 5 years

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Defying Definitions: Tyler, the Creator

Tyler, the Creator is an artist that actively avoids labels, refusing to be confined or restrained in his creative pursuit by those who don’t understand him or limited by expectations of his fans.

His career always existed as a middle finger to any establishment, be it of genre or identity, the new age rebel just happened to be a young skatepark punk who likes to wear pink and he connects with a generation of kids that grew up in the bloom of internet comedy and social media.

“Fuck what everyone thinks. I’m gonna do my thing.”

Tyler and the Odd Future (OF) collective (the full name being Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All Don’t Give A Fuck Litter Life Bacon Boys Loiter Squad Butt Fuck Bitch Niggas, or OFWGKTADGAFLLBBLSBFBN) started online, posting immature prank videos and shock-comedy much in the style of Jackass to media sites like YouTube. Today, he manages a sprawling Golf Wang fashion brand, which includes the Converse and Lacoste “Golf le Fleur” line, and produces entertainment ventures such as Camp Flog Gnaw music festival and shows on Adult Swim and VICELAND.

The entrepreneurship of Tyler Okonma is inherently memetic, his self-described “empire” was established in 2007 and has grown through a series of inside references, a distinct sense of irreverent humor, and bold and unabashedly eccentric tastes that capitalize on meme culture when meme culture was still an underground group of internet dwelling teenagers.

Behind the OF body of work are some incredibly talented artists, as the group spawned off careers that far out-shadow the now-defunct ragtag gang of pranksters (although the brand OFWGKTA lives on in your local Zumiez). In addition to Tyler, OF gave us Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, and the Internet.

While at a glance, it may seem counterintuitive that Tyler has found such significant success, that his extreme sense of humor from his adolescence should be in the way of him prospering in the public eye due to just how abrasive and unsavory it comes off to those on the outside. Many of the cultural or social establishment have carried that line of attack, smearing his character and associating him with terrorism and suggesting that he incites violence against women and homosexuals.

The distaste for Tyler, surprisingly, comes from both sides of the political spectrum, from the conservative right that abhors such values and lifestyle choices and the left which is horrified by his politically incorrect language and vulgar sense of humor against protected classes.

Ironically, perhaps, that is precisely what makes Tyler such a prominent figure to so many of us, his ability to voice a sensitive and genuine personality behind the hubris, his guise of explicit mischief. If you know, you know (or so I think it goes).

Of course, OF does not come into being in a social vacuum, the cultural environment of the 2000s and preceding decades shaped the Tyler we know and laid the groundwork for him to found such a group at the age of 16. Eminem specifically was a direct influence on the lyrical content and aggressive style of the group (and also Goblin, Tyler’s first solo album, and to a lesser extent, Wolf and Cherry Bomb).

This is my way of saying that without gangsta rap, there really could not be a OF. In other words, “Gangsta Rap Made [Tyler] Do It.”

Simply, Marshall Mathers is not the Real Slim Shady, it’s a character he played to launch his career. And while Pusha T characterizes himself as essentially Pablo Escobar, he really didn’t deal drugs for very long. H*ck, Ethan and Hila Klein of H3H3 Productions dealt drugs briefly to make ends meet when they were a young couple trying to make it on their own.

Really, it is not even a debate over concepts of “street credit,” which is an important discussion to have, but rather one about the entertainment industry and how to out-do your competition, or more generally as a means of survival.

The first time I heard Odd Future (circa 2010, I believe it was) I was actually a little off-put, if I am going to be honest. I had a very sheltered sense of humor and socially conservative values that the OF group really challenged. As I entered middle school, that was due to change, and by the time I was a freshman in high school, I was becoming more involved in the periphery of online meme culture, just steps away from the likes of Bo Burnham, Filthy Frank, and OF.

“My music got better. I asked myself, ‘Why do Kanye and Pharrell and Jay-Z respect me, but the people that respect them don’t fuck with my music?’ Well, maybe if I stop being funny on the internet, people will focus on my talent.”

I find that Tyler’s frustration in finding success without respect or perceived legitimacy or outward acceptance, despite the approval and support of his idols and inspirations (Kanye West, Dave Chappell, Eminem, Jay-Z, and Pharrell, to name a few) is a pathetic double-standard that lesser-talented or less-experimental artists never have to work against because they don’t challenge antiquated beliefs or social attitudes. The fact that Tyler has not only held his own but achieved his success in spite of these institutions (and Theresa May) really, in my view, only cements his legitimacy as an artist and businessman and cultural icon, and those who don’t respect him will fall to the wayside.

With the release of IGOR, Tyler’s latest album that tells a narrative of love had and lost, conversation reignited in establishment publications such as the Guardian (the most insufferable newspaper) and in the SocJus blogosphere about his past use of slurs and whether he should be “redeemed” or “accepted” into queer culture or just the culture at large (which of course is dominated and owned by institutions that percieve him as a threat, a rogue artist that undermines their influence). And I guess, in fairness, the “controversy” surrounding him never really ends, as these media sites seek web traffic and publish hot takes to rake in advertiser money.

Tyler is aware of this baggage as a roadblock to his aspirations, and as such he preemptively sought to distance himself from his adolescence. In 2016, Tyler changed his Twitter handle from @fucktyler to @tylerthecreator, and tweeted “RIP FUCKTYLER, WILL MISS YOU, ITS BEEN GREAT, BUT NOW ITS TIME FOR ME TO......IDK WHAT EXACTLY, BUT ITS TIME, IM OK WITH THAT. LOVE YOU.”

His sound and persona have matured and mellowed, and he has grown to be an adult (who is still characteristically irreverent). But who is Tyler? A troll? The creator? Let him tell you.

“I’m Tyler. My favorite color is kelly green. I love Baduizm, by Erykah Badu. And I’m not anybody’s fucking poster boy.”

Quotes came from the Wall Street Journal Magazine feature on Tyler: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tyler-the-creator-is-a-singular-talent-11572960622

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troymango · 5 years

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Muse-en-scène

On the one side of town you never thought you’d end up in, a small town’s legacy rock band announces an abrupt retirement to a crowded group of young adults largely unfamiliar with their work and an adolescent anarcho-communist feminist band spreads their message against the establishment. The venue, a small house complete in its image of an Americana mixed-race working-class family with two kids, exists as an enclave of artistic expression in the middle of a post-industrial Midwestern town, a middle-finger to the political cynicism and economic anxiety that depresses the disenfranchised of the greater Rust Belt.

Hours away, a basement, converted haphazardly into a sweaty, energetic venue, places a cover charge to help pay rent. A week before, its floor was two inches underwater from the spring slush and rain. The host’s paintings fashion the walls at prices meriting the lifestyle of cheap beer and cigarettes, a perfect choice for the college student with a fetish for grunge aesthetics. High-schoolers brings their families to mosh to their eccentric and melodramatic grunge-goth-punk performance, an elementary school-teacher demonstrates his confidence in his folk-fusion rock-and-roll, and a college band plays their last show before their diplomas place them on opposite coasts.

I remember when all of this was brand-new to me, when I first entered the Burdock House and encountered a couple of vaguely familiar faces (who have now become very dear friends) and the first time that a member of a touring band bummed a cigarette off me (who ended up grabbing coffee with at a diner afterwards). It feels good to support the rough-and-coming music of those around me, to wear their merch and to share their shoddy LP’s online in an effort to introduce more people to my local do-it-yourself music scene.

At first, I was just tagging along with my friend and his math-rock band, but these (now defunct) places hold a very special place in my heart and, I would say, have profoundly changed me.

Plugging into this music scene has been one of the most rewarding choices in my adult life. I’ve seen a lot of bands come and go in just four years, which gives me a funny sense of my age for a small portion on the whole 21 years I’ve been chugging along.

A disclosure to my fellow zoomers out there (and definitely all the doomers) who hold similarly abject feelings towards Facebook, please excuse my continued presence on the social network for it, no joke, is well and truly a great source for networking in the music scene, scouting local bands, and keeping track of upcoming shows. If you can put up with family members sending you Farm-ville requests (is that still a thing?) and tagging you in photos you really wish they wouldn’t, I’d argue that it’s worth the embarrassment. (I swear it’s not just my antiquated sensibilities or my strong desire for a MySpace renaissance speaking here.)

This blog is dedicated to this music scene where I claim belonging. I (obviously/subliminally) encourage you as a reader to reach out and connect to yours if you are so able.

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