Guys, I'm back. I know I said I wouldn't but I had too much to say and my pals on Facebook don't care. I've been thinking about doing a Dre and making a return for a while now, eight months, sixteen years, same thing, right? But what an eight months it has been...
There has been the Bad Blood video, #AnacondaGate, the 1989 tour and plenty of non-related Taylor Swift things too. Kendrick dropping album of the decade, discovering my ideal pop star Ezra Furman, love for Stormzy and everything exciting that grime is giving. 2015 has been pretty decent but it was some news that I heard today that made my hiatus shorter than One Directions (ITV2's The Big Reunion 1D Special coming soon).
It was this.
It made me feel sick, confused and sad. If you aren't aware, when I like a musician I get obsessed and I will defend them till death. I believe in Taylor, Kanye and Tyler, these have been my top three for a while, not just musically, as artists, business people and as human beings too, I watch every interview on YouTube on repeat, read each news snippet and rarely a day does back when I don't listen to them. I've had many arguments over Kanye, felt proud every time somebody cool quits hating on Taylor and realises she's wonderful but Tyler is still pretty unknown for many to have much of an opinion.
It's Leeds/Reading Festival this weekend, I spent every August Bank Holiday Weekend there from 2001 to 2011. I almost did a (another) u-turn and got myself a day ticket this year after noticing that my two favourites Tyler, the Creator and Kendrick Lamar were on the same day, but I didn't. So I wasn't too disappointed about the news that Tyler was cancelling but I presumed it was to do with a clash of schedules as it is the MTV VMAs this weekend as well and it is pretty common for American artists to pull out of their festival performance in favour of the award show, I was wrong. The LA rapper tweeted this...
I don't like using tweets as news stories but it sums it up pretty well really. Tyler is one to go to extremes but he wasn't kidding, his manager, Chris Clancy who has also worked with Eminem (both Em and Tyler share similar shock tactics for attention) wrote this...
Then the Home Office responded...
Absolutely ridiculous.
The first time I really paid attention to Tyler was around the time he released his second album Goblin, I was at Camden Crawl, it was chaos. It was more of a statement than a performance and if you was going to ban Tyler it would have been during this period of his life, 2011, still a teenager, fearless and fighting for attention. He'd already had backing from Pharrell and Kanye, worked with Justin Bieber and he was part of the new wave of rappers. He didn't need the mainstream, he was fine doing it by his own rules, surely you've got to give him credit for that.
The Camden Crawl show almost turned it a riot as Tyler and his Odd Future band mates made noise, swore a lot, there was crowd surfing from the rappers (Hodgy Beats had to go to hospital) and a stage invasion from their energetic fans. If guitar music was becoming stale these guys were the new rock stars, they gave a shit, they knew how to make music fun, these were teenagers themselves, they didn't incite violence.
Tyler is an interesting character, he's a very clever kid and I believe that one day, when he allows the mainstream to see it, he will be crowned as a genius. He isn't your typical rapper, he doesn't drink, do drugs or sensationalise hood life. Instead he encourages his fans to be free and be who they want to be. His knowledge of music insane, he loves obscure jazz and pop and his latest album, Cherry Bomb has elements of punk and lounge vibes next to collabs with rappers Kanye and Schoolboy Q. Who else does that?
At just twenty three he has released four records, on his own terms, all have shown progression, maturity, witty lyrics and stories that talk of depression, death and aspirations. Again, who else does that, especially in hip hop, a genre where self-doubt is seen as something to hide. If you listen to his lyrics rather than than the swearing you'll find a fragile figure who is just grateful that he gets paid to live a life where he can be creative (and buy his mom a house).
He doesn't just make music to rap too, his production skills are constantly pushing creativity, he was the leader of LA trailblazers Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA/Odd Future) who have apparently called it a day (TBC). This group involved the likes of the soulful Frank Ocean, a handful of rappers including Earl Sweatshirt who is also earning plenty of praise, skaters and artists. There have been two Odd Future mix tapes and a lot of music that was given away for free online (he understands his fanbase). He has his own clothing line and a multi-media app, both under the name Golf Wang (he recently designed an anti-homophobic t-shirt), designed trainers for Vans, wrote and directed a tv commercial for Mountain Dew which got pulled for being 'controversial' which it wasn't until taken out of context and has his own sketch show on Nickelodeon. He's only twenty three and has many more boundaries to push, banning him from countries isn't going to achieve anything.
But people will criticize him for raps about rape and homophobia which he released as a teenager, we all make mistakes, he isn't that same person, nobody is the same person they were at eighteen and twenty three. When other figures in hip-hop have been arrested for gun possession or actual violence is Tyler really the one to be punished, especially in the same week that the NWA biopic is released in the UK?
C'mon guys, even on Goblin he pre-warns listens, 'don't do anything that I say in this song, it's fucking fiction' then on Buffalo from the latest album... 'Can't wait to see the look on y'all niggas faces, that boy T nuts, surprised his thoughts isn't chafing, fuck them crackers up at Mountain Dew them niggas is racist, cabbage was made, critic faggots was shook, so I told 'em that I'll exchange the word "faggot" with "book".'
I adore Tyler, I listen to his music and I am not homophobic or violent.
It's just music. For fucks sake! Lets not stifle progression. It you don't like it, do something else. He's no longer a teenager, he quit rapping about rape and the 'f' word some time ago.
Listen to every word on Wolf, you might understand.
Expect an eight month catch-up soon...
