Latest news with #OddFuture
Vogue
27-05-2025
- Business
- Vogue
Tyler, the Creator on Delusion, Gatekeeping, and His Latest Collaboration With Converse
The impetus for the new collection came just over a year ago, when Tyler headlined Coachella and created a dossier of printouts from the back catalogue to give a presentation to the Converse team. 'It's the fastest we've ever made a shoe,' confirms Lindsay Almeida, Converse's global senior director of entertainment and sports marketing. For Almeida's part, working with Tyler just makes sense. 'Nine-point-nine times out of 10, we say yes to [Tyler's ideas]. That's the kind of trust we've built over the years. Everything you do, it might not click in the moment, but overall, it's right. We've been on this ride for a long time and we just keep it real.' This trust didn't come out of the blue. 'From 2011 to 2016, I was building a resumé of things that worked in my realm. So when I did link [with Converse in 2016], they had a reference point to say, 'You know what, let's trust this guy's idea, because it clearly worked in some type of way,'' Tyler explained, fielding questions from the crowd. 'That's the importance of trusting yourself and just putting shit out so you can build that resumé.' It's a testament to the working relationships Tyler has fostered almost 20 years into his career, too. From exploding onto the scene with his friends (via the now disbanded music collective Odd Future) to creating a de-facto record label in his teens, he's always had an entrepreneurial streak, boosted by his tight-knit network of kindred spirits. Odd Future alumni include the likes of Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, and Syd, who, through their comedy sketches and outrageous beats, would go on on to change the face of music-making, one genre-defying, agenda-setting project at a time. The now 34-year-old has worked with his managers, Kelly and Christian Clancy, for 15 years, no small feat in a fickle industry: They ditched their high-flying jobs at Interscope Records to join forces with Tyler. '[Tyler] exists in a world where, if he follows the algorithm, that's not him,' says Christian. 'He has to go over there and let the algorithm adjust to him.' It's clear that inside the sprawling, kaleidoscopic machine that is Tyler's brain, Clancy et al are the driving force that facilitates his self-described 'delusion.' 'To make stuff, you have to be delusional,' Tyler says. 'And when you're delusional, you need people around you that trust you… I knew what I wanted to do since I was legit five years old. This is the only thing I was supposed to do.'
Irish Times
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Tyler, the Creator at 3Arena review: A brilliantly evocative, provocative performance
Tyler, the Creator 3Arena, Dublin ★★★★☆ Long before Kneecap were drawing the wrath of the British establishment, Tyler, the Creator had a claim to the title of most controversial name in rap. Lyrics strewn with apparently homophobic and misogynistic remarks earned him a ban from the UK government in 2015 on the grounds that he posed a threat to public order. Turned away at the border, he claimed he was being treated like a terrorist. But as is often the case with talented demagogues caught up in a moral panic, there was more to Tyler than shock value – though songs such as Radicals were undoubtedly shocking ('Kill people, burn shit, f**k school'). Notoriety established, he would spool off in the opposite direction with music that celebrated the simple joys of life and connection. He also broke one of mainstream music's ultimate taboos by hinting in his lyrics that he was sexually fluid ('Sorry to the guys I had to hide/ Sorry to the girls I had to lie to'). READ MORE The many sides to Tyler are on show during a brilliantly evocative and provocative concert at 3Arena on Saturday night. It begins with the 34-year-old Angeleno materialising in a gloopy green haze, like a groovy Wizard of Oz. A mask covers the top half of his face as he opens with the gorgeous orchestral swell of St Chroma, a gauzy banger from his latest album, Chromakopia. All the way back to his formative hip-hop group Odd Future – whose enthusiasm for violent wordplay saw them barred from New Zealand – Tyler has been an astute manipulator of image. This latest tour begins with the rapper wearing a military-style outfit that accentuates the frame of his body, suggesting a cartoon character brought to life. The outrageous costume is combined with robotic dance moves. He pops and wheels like a cybernetic James Brown while white gloves and epaulettes riff on dress-like-a-dictator era Michael Jackson. Inspired by his mother's life, his struggles with fame and the Lewis Carrollesque children's fantasy novel The Phantom Tollbooth, from 1961, his new tracks Noid and I Killed You blend pastoral melodies and nail-spitting rhyming. But the gloves come off when a gantry descends, and he walks above the crowd. He dispenses with the face covering, too, as he plunges into the emotive Take Your Mask Off, an emotive rumination on staying true to your real self. The theatrics are amped up further when Tyler descends to a mock-up of his teenage bedroom. Here he indulges in some staged insulting of the audience, dubbing them 'w**kers' – a word he surely didn't pick up in suburban Los Angeles. He next cycles through the body-horror hit parade of Yonkers and Tron Cat, the tunes that saw him turned away by UK customs (on the orders of Theresa May, who was home secretary at the time). Nightmares turn to dreamy escapism when he returns to the main stage for a seismic Thought I Was Dead before he brings down the curtains with a soulful power ballad, I Hope You Find Your Way Home. While pyrotechnics ping, he leans into his beautifully syrupy falsetto and expresses the hope that everyone in the room gets to where they are meant to be. Hip hop's one-time bete noire has cycled through his multitude of personas and stands before the adoring room older, wiser, sadder and sweeter. It is a reminder to other rappers likewise vilified by the authorities: they can scorn and demonise you, but they can never take away your voice.
