<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nObscene. Outrageous. Hilarious. Radical. Idealistic. Rebellious. Ridiculous. Dumb. Brilliant. Tyler, The Creator, and his band, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, defy definition. Their apoplectic expressiveness has seen them compared to everything from the rabble-rousing Wu Tang Clan to the ski-masked Slipknot, while their multiple personalities bring to mind the sadistic similes of Slim Shady and the punk ethos of The Sex Pistols. Lyrically, nothing is off-limits to Tyler and his LA bandmates; rape, death, white supremacy, genocide and serial killers are as nonchalantly treated as orange juice and sandwiches. As shocking as they are comical, this self-contained unit of teenage skaters who rap, write and self-produce, create their own artwork and make their own videos, are the most exciting movement Hip-Hop has seen in, well, forever. And at the forefront stands Tyler, a 20-year-old who could be about to make the biggest impression on popular culture since Kanye West created The College Dropout<\/em>. Wonderland meets Tyler, The Creator, in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\nThrasher Magazine Death Match Day Party, The Scoot Inn, 1308 East 4th Street, Austin<\/strong> \nThere\u2019s at least one broken nose, four icepacks and a couple of pints of blood bobbing about the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA) performance for skate mag, Thrasher. Dressed in a rainbow tie-dye tee, American Apparel socks, blue Vans and a khaki Supreme cap, he surveys the scene elatedly and peels his lips back in a grin. Then he hurls himself feet first into the thronging, screaming mass below him. \n \nThe Garden, 1906 Belford dr, Austin<\/strong> \n\u201cHi, I\u2019m Jeffrey,\u201d says Tyler, the Creator, n\u00e9e Tyler Okonma, by way of introduction. Two minutes later, he\u2019s no longer Jeffrey, but he\u2019s not quite ready to be Tyler, either. There\u2019s nothing ordinary about Tyler. When he did sign to a record label, it was to UK indie XL. \u201cThey have awesome artists; Giggs, the XX, M.I.A., it\u2019s all the weirdos. I don\u2019t like the word \u2018weird\u2019 cos I used to be called that, but it\u2019s all the weirdos in one place, getting out to the rest of the weirdos in the world, so it\u2019s all cool.\u201d<\/p>\nHis debut single, \u201cYonkers\u201d and the accompanying video, which sees him eating a cockroach, throwing up and then hanging from a noose (he directed it himself), has already clocked up over 5,000,000 views on YouTube. Now Tyler\u2019s got recording sessions with Pharrell Williams in the bag and a new fan in the form of Justin Bieber (\u201cHe\u2019s tight, he\u2019s chill\u201d). It won\u2019t be long before Tyler and his comma are unavoidable. Yet, despite the celebrity fans and high profile appearances, there\u2019s little fear that Tyler will suddenly stop rapping about wanting to stab Bruno Mars in the oesophagus or blowing up B.o.B\u2019s plane. His, and Odd Future\u2019s, provocative lyrics have prompted, inevitably, condemnation from the more conservative, leading some to mis-label and, he says, mis-interpret what it is that they do.<\/p>\n
He has a legion of followers, thanks to his debut album Bastard <\/em>and its ruminations on ass rape and OxyContin. The follow up, Goblin<\/em>, he says is a \u201cpart two\u201d of sorts to Bastard<\/em> \u2013 the pair will only make sense together. Given the intensity of his lyrics, what\u2019s his frame of mind when it comes to creating? <\/p>\nAs a self-confessed non-drinker and smoker (\u201cI\u2019m straight-edge\u201d), how does he create tracks like \u201cAssmilk\u201d and \u201cBlow\u201d? What comes first? The words or the music?<\/strong> \nI don\u2019t know, cos I don\u2019t like writing to beats. Every song to me is like a movie, so if I make a beat it will be the soundtrack to a scene in a movie. So ideas will get thrown around in my head, and I\u2019ll go home or just be skating down the street with no music on, just writing it in my head. Or sometimes I just write shit. I\u2019ll find a word and write shit from that word and then make a beat. <\/p>\nSo you don\u2019t want to stab Bruno Mars? <\/strong> \nI do want to stab Bruno Mars [laughs]. Well, I don\u2019t want to stab him but I just hate the music that\u2019s being made right now. Pop music is annoying. It all sounds the same with the dumb-ass hooks and the girl singing some motivational shit and the shitty breakbeat drums with the guitar doing the same fucking chord progression. It just fucking sucks. <\/p>\nWhy is it hard to be yourself these days? <\/strong> \nI don\u2019t know. I guess it\u2019s opinions, people don\u2019t know how to accept things anymore. People don\u2019t know you\u2019re human. It\u2019s just opinions and once you get past giving a fuck, you\u2019re good. I\u2019m enjoying life right now. I met my idol last week, Pharrell Williams. <\/p>\nAt 12, after watching a Neptunes bonus DVD where Pharrell played \u201cThrasher\u201d on the piano, Tyler taught himself keyboards. He also plays drums and would like to take up saxophone. \u201cWhen I get older though. That shit\u2019s a fucking bitch to learn, but I think when I\u2019m older I\u2019m going to be able to play that shit and have jam jazz sessions.\u201d <\/p>\n
Though he hates a lot of rap now, he remains a firm fan of Wacka Flocka Flame and Eminem. He\u2019s been frequently compared to the latter, thanks to his sadistic pop culture references and Shady-esqe alter-ego Wolf Haley. \u201cI\u2019m still listening to Relapse<\/em>,\u201d he points out. \u201cA lot of people hated that CD, but they didn\u2019t look past the genius of it, they just looked at the accent that was annoying them. I never heard no shit as genius as the wordplay on that album. That shit made me listen to my shit like I fucking suck. I respect Eminem, he\u2019s in a whole different mindset.\u201d <\/p>\nWith ambitions to \u201cWin Grammys and VMAs\u201d, can Tyler retain his oddball status as the king of the outsiders? \u201cI stand up; I be what I want,\u201d he insists. \u201cMost people want to do what they want, but they\u2019re kinda not allowed to, so I\u2019m their escape to say shit they wish they could say. I\u2019m not the only person in the world doing this, but I guess I\u2019m one of the youngest right now to not care about other people. I just do what makes me happy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Photography: Matt Irwin \nWords: Hattie Collins \n \nA full version of this article first appeared in <\/em>Wonderland Issue 26, April\/May 2011<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Foul-mouthed rapper, director and Odd Future band leader Tyler, The Creator is one of the most exciting new faces in hip-hop. Prepare yourselves to get lost in his weird, weird world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9419],"tags":[296,295,293,297,292,304,291,298,294,290],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Tyler, the Creator | Wonderland<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n