Bieber, Queerness, Yelling At Strangers: What We Learnt From Tyler, The Creator’s ‘GQ’ Interview
“I like girls—I just end up fucking their brother every time.”
Tyler The Creator is doing pretty good. That’s the main takeaway from his excellent interview with GQ, a profile that captures an artist right at his prime.
Sure, Tyler is still difficult in the way that all great artists are difficult — his latest album IGOR isn’t the kind of record that someone who spends their days meditatively staring at the surface of lakes.
But he’s got good friends, his creative enterprises are paying off, and he’s excited for the future. That’s an achievement for a musician who once released a music video that starts with him eating a bug and ends with him hanging himself.
Here are the four biggest takeaways from the chat with GQ‘s Carrie Battan: catch up ahead of his return to Australia this December/January.
Tyler The Creator Likes Trouble
Tyler has always been a troublemaker — his early records were unabashedly ugly — but the GQ interview reveals that he takes that energy into his real life as well. A longtime friend calls him a Chihuahua — all bark, no bite — and the profile starts with Tyler confronting a random passer-by playing his music.
“It makes me dislike him,” Tyler says, of the passer-by. “I really hope he took that in.”
He Wrote ‘Earfquake’ For Justin Bieber
‘Earfquake’ is Tyler The Creator’s biggest single to date — but he didn’t even want to record it himself. In an ideal world, the hit would have belonged to Justin Bieber, who Tyler wrote it for. But Bieber turned it down, and then dodged the opportunity to appear on the track as a backing vocalist.
Hell, even Rhianna turned down an opportunity to work with Tyler. He might be bigger than he’s ever been, but there are still some things that he’s hungry for — a collaboration with pop royalty among them.
IGOR Is All About Artifice
Tyler’s newest work IGOR is unabashedly a break-up record. But the GQ profile also outlines how it’s an opportunity for Tyler to construct a new self. His look for the record was struck upon after he cut out photos of women he liked from magazines, and the live show for the album has all been about spectacle.
“The IGOR shit plays a thin line between goofy and funny and art,” Tyler says in the chat. “I always have to be careful so it doesn’t fuck everyone’s perception up. It’s art, and an idea.”
He’s Queer, But Doesn’t Really Talk About It
Tyler’s queerness was first thrust into the light in a somewhat messy way. After facing criticisms for his supposedly homophobic early work, the rapper pivoted into a new era with Flower Boy, a sonically diverse record that included multiple references to same-sex relationships.
As the writer of the GQ profile Carrie Battan puts it, “he rapped about his romantic involvement with men — without bothering to stage a coming-out moment.”
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— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) November 19, 2019
The profile itself serves as something of a coming-out moment, with Battan noting that Tyler brings up his queerness in a typically abrasive, in-yer-face kinda way. “These days he can be so over-the-top about sleeping with men that it still seems like a joke,” Battan writes.
And then there’s this quote from Tyler, probably the interview’s most salacious moment. “I like girls—I just end up fucking their brother every time,” the rapper says.
Yep. Tyler is still gonna Tyler.