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Tyler, The Creator will stop rapping about rape; music industry just got a little classier
By Colette McIntyreNovember 16th, 2011, 3:45 pmComments (16)
Well world, it looks like our little Tyler, the Creator is beginning to grow up — the rapper has proclaimed that he will no longer rap about "rape and cutting bodies." It seems like just yesterday that he was telling bitches to suck a dick, calling Bruno Mars a faggot, and starting a comment war about the First Amendment on this very site! It just happens so fast, you know? (And by fast, I mean about a thousand riled-up feminists and unapologetic homophobic slurs later.)
In an interview with Spin, Odd Future's ringleader claims that his upcoming release, Wolf, will be far removed from the stomach-turning sexual violence and nihilism of Goblin:
'Talking about rape and cutting bodies up, it just doesn't interest me anymore,' he says, contemplative and sincere, 'What interests me is making weird hippie music for people to get high to. With Wolf, I'll brag a little bit more, talk about money and buying shit. But not like any other rapper, I'll be a smart-ass about it. Now it's just girls throwing themselves at me and shit, but I got a girl back home. People who want the first album again, I can't do that. I was 18, broke as fuck. On my third album, I have money and I'm hanging out with my idols. I can't rap about the same shit.'
Is this the same young artist who came up with the chorus, "I'm Dracula bitch / Don't got a problem smacking a bitch / Kidnapping, attacking, with axes and shit / 'til I grab them throats and start smacking them shits"? Can I believe my eyes — a "contemplative and sincere" Tyler, The Creator who just wants to make "weird hippie music"? Has he finally grasped that his tasteless forays into misogyny and homophobia aren't edgy or artistic or shocking but instead are dated and possibly dangerous?
Well, probably not; it's more likely that Tyler is just an up-and-coming artist who is more concerned about keeping his fanbase engaged than the implications of his language. Either way, we're getting rape-fantasy-free music! Now we're on to something! "Weird hippie music" that doesn't make allusions to punching sluts in the face is music I can get behind. And in case you think I'm the only one excited about Odd Future's... future, Tyler himself seems uncharacteristically cheery in the interview: "I've never been this happy in my life. I just got a shirt with a fuckin' cat on it!"
Four for you, Tyler! You go, Tyler!
Commentarium (16 Comments)
I would really love if prissy white people would stop acting like black people are the only ones who are ever sexist or homophobic. I am in no way supporting sexism or homophobia, nor am I saying Tyler, the Creator doesn't have some horribly insensitive lyrics, but good God do the knives come out whenever a black person says anything remotely objectionable. And yet we readily laugh at The Hangover's overt sexism and the unending gay panic of Apatow productions.
What do I take away from this? Is bigotry acceptable when it's played for humor? Clearly not always, since Tracy Morgan got in all kinds of trouble a few months ago for it. So I guess it's only white people that are allowed to cross boundaries and get away with it? Because judging from the way we police the hell out of black people, it would seem so.
Less confrontationally speaking, you can like an artist without agreeing with every aspect of their personality. How many artists do you like who have been unfaithful at some point in their life? Who have committed a crime? Been openly bigoted? Because Tyler, the Creator sure isn't the only artist to behave badly in public. I have no special attachment to this kid; hell, I've never even heard his music. But for God's sake, how about we focus on institutionalized discrimination for once instead of being horrified at its results? Censoring Tyler, the Creator won't end this country's history of proud bigotry. There are bigger fish to fry than a morally repulsive young black artist.
I think you should ask Michael Richards if it's okay for white people to play bigotry for humor, if anyone can find him nowadays... and for the record, Eminem has been raked over the coals repeatedly for the content of his music... he got no slack because he was white... you could argue that he actually got it worse, considering how hard he had to work to gain acceptance in a field of music largely dominated by black artists. I'm not saying there's no racism here, but it's not as one-sided as you're portraying it.
Fair enough. I just don't think it's as productive to criticize black culture for being exclusionary to whites as it is to criticize white culture for being exclusionary to blacks. The solution is two-sided and interdependent, but I'd prefer to see white people proffer the olive branch first.
Good old Rock 'n' Roll has been accused of a fair amount of sexism.
Michael Richards was not playing anything for "humor," he was just being an asshole.
Eminem, though, you have a point.
I will concede that white people seem to take a certain amount of pleasure out of telling black people that they are wrong and offensive.
An artist's "personality" and an artist's "art" are separate items. Was the article about this person's private life or his prepared, performed, recorded, and promoted "art"?
Nice mean girls reference...good move:P
perhaps Tyler will be satirizing the talk of fame and money that we find so much in other contemporary rappers on his new album, I could see that more than a serious support of materialism from him
wow i am so upset about a teenager yelling at a machine about things that happen every day but now i am happy because he is going to yell at a machine about things that happen every day
oversimplification is no way to make a point.
passive voice sucks
I liked Tyler's albums Bastard and Goblin and I am also excited to hear this third album. I think he is going to collaborate with his buddy Frank Ocean a lot in the future which I really like.
Really? I found Goblin incredibly underwhelming.
I found it underwhelming at first, but I warmed up to it eventually. I like the cheesily bad beats and the dark and psychotic lyrics. I didn't like the song Bitch Suck Dick too much, it's funny but kind of out of place in my opinion, but songs like She, Golden, and, of course, Yonkers more than made up for it.
I don't see a problem with his old raps. Lots of people have different senses of humor, doesn't mean anyone is actually being violent.
Just chill