20-05-2025
Tyler, the Creator review — ten years on from his UK ban, the rapper let loose
From a record crate on a homely lounge stage out in the crowd, Tyler, the Creator pulled a copy of his 2011 album Goblin and waved it aloft like a youthful rap sheet. 'This album got me banned from this country,' he said, referencing a five-year ban handed down personally by Theresa May in 2015 due to the horrorcore rap provocateur being so lyrically liberal with references to violence, homophobia, misogyny and rape.
'I was a menace,' he confessed. But a decade on, the 34-year-old stood before the O2 arena as rap's most unlikely Renaissance man. Since 2017's Flower Boy he has been incorporating classic psychedelic soul, jazz and sweet-hearted pop balladry into his increasingly self-analysing albums, and has admitted to a fluid sexuality. 'Sorry
