Tyler The Creator

Tyler, The Creator seems like a super chill guy. Every interview I’ve seen him give he has appeared relaxed and just content to explain how his mind works. His live shows by contrast are a mix of unmatchable energy during his tracks, then as soon as it finishes he’s all “yo, that was cool, let’s keep going,” in his unmistakeable baritone.

He also seems like a guy who knows what’s going on in the world. He may not look it at first glance, with his trademark Golf Wang style carrying an extremely heavy early-nineties influence that in previous years would have seemed either lame or ironic. Bright colours (mostly pastels) and clashing patterns may not exactly be something that would be considered fashionable by conventional standards, but Tyler doesn’t really care about conventional.

At his recent fashion show at MADE LA, he showcased a collection of clothes that continue to fit his “don’t give a fuck” attitude. It was a spectacle to watch, and if you think that it’s merely about what the models are wearing, that’s where you’re wrong. People laugh at the fashion industry for making some really stupid looking things, but much of the fashion world is using clothes and the rest of the show as a sort of social commentary. And that was what Tyler, The Creator’s goal for his show (which you can watch in its entirety below) was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWb9b4UwtRA

Following his successful show, he caught up with The Fader for an interview. In it, he discussed his reasons behind the liberal use of pink and lighter colours in his show, which he addressed in a statement during the show itself, stating he was “an inner city black kid [who] wasn’t the most masculine and liked pink.” When asked to explain this further, he said:

“The black community is very fixated on that hard masculinity, they always gotta be hard and fucking tough. I was never really a tough guy, I don’t like sports, I have some feminine mannerisms. The reason why I was just saying that is because society always tries to box everything up, and you always have to be one way or another. You don’t have to be the tough guy all the time. […] [In] the black community, everything is sus or gay or that’s not fucking hard, and we like face tats and gangbanging. No, not everyone is like that. It’s kids who’s probably growing up and don’t know themselves yet or have the strongest self esteem so they’re trying to fit, and hopefully they can see people who are successful and not following the ‘always have to be masculine, threatening, and hard’ way of life.”

Tyler also said that the point of the colourfulness of the show was to get people into his world. He dislikes the pedestrian and boring nature of standard fashion shows, and he wanted his to be different.

“I was just inviting people to my world. Most fashion shows just happen in a weird little room and people just sit in a very calculated way to make a technical runway and people just walk back and forth. And that’s it. I just didn’t want to look like the other guys. I’ve never been to one, I just looked it up. I just noticed they were all the same thing — except Chanel’s has cool set designs. I give Chanel props, and the last Louis Vuitton cruise [show]. But other than that they’re pretty boring.”

You can read the whole thing here, and I encourage you do. It’s a fascinating read.

Thanks, The Fader

Image: The Four Oh Five

This weekend, Tyler, The Creator has followed the footsteps of Kanye West and other rappers before him in launching his very own fashion line, Golf Wang. The fashion show took place yesterday and was live streamed across the globe. A surreal and unique experience, it involved scenery, skits, and a skate ramp in the middle of the runway. Much like how West debuted The Life of Pablo along with his own fashion line, Tyler took the opportunity to debut a brand new song, My Ego.

My Ego features gloomy, glitchy and gritty sounds similarly seen on his 2015 release Cherry Bomb. Flexing his deep and grimy style that we know him for, Tyler addresses his ban in Australia and the UK, along with his forthcoming shoe line revealed during the night. As the title suggests, the track is a reply to the controversy surrounding his alter egos and how people have mistaken his fiction for fact.

“Said some old lines was offensive
I was young, I can’t apologise for that shit
They took my fiction literature for literal
I ain’t no motherfuckin’ criminal”

Taking to his Twitter shortly after the show, Tyler explained the track was a throwaway made just for that night. That said, it may well appear on a mixtape or EP and some point in future. Take a listen to the roughly recorded live take of the track, or watch the full live stream of the show below, with the song coming on at the 42 minute mark.

https://soundcloud.com/good1ne/tyler-the-creator-my-ego

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWb9b4UwtRA

Image: Supervisor Wire

“I guess getting people to give a fuck. Sometimes it feels like I do so much shit that it could get lost or just written off as nothing.” Speaking to Hypebeast ahead of his fashion line Golf Wang‘s runway debut at MADE Fashion Week in Los Angeles later this year,  Tyler, The Creator pin-pointed that as the hardest thing to do with any of his projects. “But people seem to stay interested in whatever I’m doing, so I’m grateful.”

From the brightly coloured shorts and jackets to the cheeky graphic prints, the brand has always had a distinct Tyler feel about it, which is exactly what fans both expect and like. One of his recent t-shirts was a print of Donald Trump, which shows the business mogul-turned reality tv star-turned presidential hopeful with a Hitler-style moustache. The photo is framed by text reading “President of the United States”, “We Fucked Up” and the years of his projected term.

Image: Complex AU

The rapper said that while he knew not everyone was going to like his new collection, he wanted to stay true to his vision. “Especially where fashion is now, striped shirts and bright colours isn’t really considered ‘cool,’ but fuck it. If you like it, you like it, and that’s how I approach everything I do. It’s made for my pleasure and personal taste.” As per usual, Tyler isn’t going to fuck with something he doesn’t want to, and equally, he’s stoked that so many people are into his brand. “Sometimes things sell out in 10 seconds… To this day, the fact that people fuck with the brand is still amazing to me and it only makes me want to make it better–’better’ meaning different stuff, making sure the quality is good, putting 100 percent into everything. Every time I get word that something sold out, I legit smile. I hope I never lose that.”

Even with a legit runway presentation coming up, the rapper isn’t going to be changing his approach, and he has also hinted that a women’s wear line might be in the works. “I love when older women wear scarves, so I decided to make a scarf this season just to see an older black lady in it. Seeing that could spark something in my head and the next thing you know, I could have a womenswear line that makes glasses and purses and Goyard trunks with our cat logo on it. But one step at a time…”

He added that across all his work – from fashion to music – there’s one constant: “Making what feels good! Right now I’m into the color match-up of purple and baby blue, and I know I’ll be over it in the upcoming months, but as of right now it just looks good in my eyes, so the new season will have a lot of that. I say that just to say it’s like a time capsule – just like an album.”

Images: HypeBeast

It’s safe to say that Tyler The Creator has a pretty distinctive voice. Some rappers voices and styles tend to blend together a little bit sometimes, but you could hear him a mile away. That’s probably part of the reason, aside from his skill, that he’s been so successful as an MC, but also in his other voice work. He hosts his own radio show, and late last year he featured in a cartoon called The Jellies. Well, he’s back at the voice acting game again, this time as a potty-mouthed three legged cat called Oscar. Yes you read that right.

The character stars on The Adventures of Drunky, an R18+ animated short being developed by Augenblick Studios, who also did The Jellies. It follows Drunky (Sam Rockwell), who has his life destroyed by God (Jeffrey Tambor) and the Devil (Steve Coogan) after they make a cosmic bet. He has to work his way through Heaven and Hell to rescue his love (Nina Arianda), and of course save the world. They’ve just announced the film to the world via an Indiegogo campaign, and hope to raise 100k, with studio head Araron Augenblick making the very valid point that “movies like Drunky are going to start a new wave of animated feature films. If more R-rated cartoons are successful, more will get made.”

Tyler’s always said that music isn’t the only thing he wants to do, and it’ll be exciting to see how his voice acting career takes off after Drunky no doubt lands a hit.

Image: The Adventures of Drunky

Tyler, The Creator has managed to once again catch the eye of the fashion world, with the rapper’s clothing label Golf Wang set to debut its wears at the Made fashion week in Los Angeles this summer.

Tyler’s clothing designs have always attracted a flurry of commentary, from his Golf Pride World Wide pro-LGBTI shirt, which used a Neo Nazi groups logo against itself. His most recent stunt is a depiction of everyone’s favourite cluster-fuck, Donald Trump, with a Hitler moustache and a caption naming him America’s next president. The point I’m making is that when he releases limited edition clothing it’s pretty great. The Golf Wang collection usually features fairly simple pieces of clothing, such as shorts and polo shirts, with the often funny limited edition designs being the real highlight of Tyler’s creativity.

Image: High Snobiety

In a phone interview with Vogue, Tyler, the Creator attempted to shed light on his creative process when it comes to fashion: “I just make whatever clothes I want to wear for the next five months and then run that. I don’t really put deep, intricate thought into it – it’s more like a feeling,” he explained like a true fashion designer, before elaborating on why he decided to try his hand at the fashion world when he was approached by Made, “I just figured, why not? Why not do something different? Not everybody in the upper fashion world is wearing all-black Saint Laurent pieces and is super pretentious. I want to show them a different world.”

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of new and original designs spring from Tyler’s mind for the upcoming summer show, and whether any of them will be available on his somewhat lacking Golf Wang online store. If Golf Wang fashion appeals to you, you might want to keep your eyes peeled for any limited edition stock making its way into the online store June 10 and 11, which are the dates for the Made L.A fashion show.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFnz1ME5jfo]

Image: Mass Appeal