Never one to follow the status quo, Billboard cover star Tyler, the Creator sits down and shares the most honest version of himself that went into his Billboard chart-topping album, ‘Chromakopia.’ The hit-making artist looks back on his 13-year career and how Camp Flog Gnaw has grown with him throughout the years. He also shares his new ventures, what he’s looking forward to in the future and more!
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Can you do it once more leaning back though, for that mic? Thank you, thank you. I just don't want you leaning in front of it. Yeah, yeah, I got you.
00:05No, no, lift that up, you're getting the mic.
00:08Hey guys, it's me, Tyler, and you're here with Billboard Magazine, and I can't wait till you see all the cool things that we have coming for you guys, guys.
00:18Including exclusives, and exclusives.
00:25Fuck yeah.
00:28Oh, fuck.
00:39I'm so fortunate, like 13 years in and my latest shit is my biggest, bro, that's rare.
00:45It's niggas out here that their first album is the only one that they get to perform when they go places.
00:49Like they have to use that as a marketing thing, because that's the one people connect it to the most, and kind of sometimes it might feel like the other shit's disregarded.
00:58So I'm like, bro, this album, eight, 13 years later, and this doing this, that don't happen much.
01:07So I'm over here sitting like, oh, I don't know anything.
01:09I thought I had a grasp on this shit.
01:11I thought I knew song structure and like, oh, all the kids are on TikTok.
01:15No one cares about lyrics anymore.
01:17I'm a boomer.
01:18And I'm like, no, this shit is turnt.
01:21I don't know shit.
01:23Nigga, I'm so confused in like the most positive way.
01:27And I really love it.
01:28Like first week, number one was like, all right, cool.
01:30Sick.
01:31Kind of figured it's been a while.
01:32Second week was like, oh, these niggas really listening.
01:35Third week was like, all right, what the fuck is going on?
01:38I don't want to be found.
01:39I don't want to be found.
01:41I don't want to be found.
01:43I don't want to be found.
01:45I started flogging all because when I put Goblin out, I wanted to shut Fairfax down and throw
01:50like the carnivals that we had in Hawthorne that they would have at like the random churches
01:54over there.
01:55And the city was like, no.
01:57So we basically was like, yo, fuck it.
02:01Let's just go to a parking lot and put the rides there.
02:05Let's put that and like perform and have rides and things and shit like that.
02:10And then it grew over time into what it is now.
02:18My lips look too wet?
02:19No, they look good.
02:20Okay, cool.
02:23I want to bring this up because someone's like, why don't you close out the festival?
02:26I don't want to close out the fucking festival.
02:28Honestly, we need to get it to where headliners could go on when they want to go on.
02:32I want to be on stage at 5 p.m.
02:34I don't want the fucking last closeout.
02:36I don't need that shit.
02:37Like, oh, I'll close it out, bro.
02:38I want to go to sleep.
02:39So next thing I headline, let me go on at 7, off by 8 fucking 15, shower, clean my dick,
02:46eat, and go the fuck to sleep, bro.
02:48For Flogging Office, it's two days.
02:49On Sunday, I just want to watch people.
02:51I just want to watch the motherfucking artists I like.
02:54When Mustard played...
02:55Is anybody from L.A. like me and this motherfucker today?
02:59I'm over there with so many folks that are in the L.A. music scene.
03:04Dude, seeing Ty and YG and Mustard right there, I'm really from the city.
03:09So these guys was making music when we was freshmen in high school, when it was just
03:14Pusha's Inc.
03:15Seeing them two by each other.
03:16You that nigga on the low low.
03:17You that nigga, you the one that be talking to the po-po.
03:20Super ill.
03:21And especially within the context.
03:22Like, they on stage, Ty's about to go out, I'm here.
03:26It's this thing I built.
03:27And it was just so much love.
03:28And that we were all existing and all doing our own thing at high levels.
03:32I loved it.
03:33Kind of feels like L.A. didn't have something that was its own thing.
03:36Granted, people come out and do concerts and stuff like that, but it didn't feel like
03:39it was something that was, like, ours.
03:41So I'm happy that Flogging Off being just so consistent.
03:44As folks that's from the city feels like this is theirs.
03:50Were there nerves performing an album that's been out for a couple weeks?
03:55Not at all.
03:56I was more curious on how the new songs were going to do.
04:00It was not nerves.
04:01Like, nerves, not at all.
04:02And I don't say that like, oh, I don't get nervous.
04:04Like, it genuinely, like, no.
04:06Because, no, not at all.
04:08I know I'm good and I know that they're excited.
04:11So, like, both of these positive energies, it's going to be great.
04:14I can never guard no hell cash.
04:19Dude, I was so excited for Ra-ta-ta, because that's just me being silly.
04:23I'm talking about shit, but I'm just being silly, using different voices, the ad-libs.
04:27I'm a fish.
04:28And, like, I'm just saying dumb shit, but, like, people, they respond to it.
04:33And I think because that one's, like, just so pure me.
04:36Like, people yelling the ad-libs.
04:38Like, if you rewatch this shit, people are like, are those women?
04:41Loud as fuck.
04:43And I'm like, yes!
04:51Tyler, what's the last movie you saw?
04:52Oh, I watched Edward Scissorhands yesterday.
04:55Well, yeah, I watched it.
04:58You should have known that nigga was crazy.
05:00How good he did that role.
05:03It's my first acting role, so, like, I'm just going in there like, this is fun and I'm learning.
05:08But I've always liked just trying shit where it's like, I don't know what I'm doing.
05:12Worst come to worst, I fail and life will move the fuck on.
05:16And that's why I like this, because it's that at, like, a high level.
05:22Now when you edit this, they're not going to see when I turn my body.
05:26If you live in LA, you've probably seen me, like, just living.
05:31I, like, really like driving my bike and just walking into a bookstore.
05:35Like, mad normal shit.
05:37Like, this year I ain't took no break.
05:39It was all reactive.
05:40Like, what do you call it?
05:42Fight or flight.
05:43Like, this whole year was just, like, that.
05:45I want to be an actress and make some chairs.
05:47Do some weird shit.
05:49That's what I'm saying.
05:50I don't know what I'm doing.
05:51At 43, nigga, I might have a dangling cross earring.
05:53Bald.
05:54Walking around with no shoes and shit.
05:56One braid.
06:02Bill, y'all in the fucking shot.
06:04Why didn't y'all just tell him?
06:06I was waiting for him to go.
06:07No, it's okay.
06:08You got to speak up, man.
06:10You could have whispered to me, that big nigga's in the shot.
06:13Yeah, I've never not stuck to my guns.
06:16Like, any version y'all seen of me was the most honest version at that time.
06:19Call Me If You Get Lost had folks hitting me, like, bruh, this shit hard, nigga.
06:23I just bought a Ferrari because of this.
06:25I just did this.
06:26And, like, as a fan of rap music, you love that type of shit.
06:29It's beautiful.
06:30But this one is hitting a different pocket.
06:33If I'm not trying to make songs to relate to folk, I'm just telling niggas,
06:37yeah, the day I woke up, made some eggs, and been wearing hats all these years
06:41because I hated my hair.
06:42Here's a song called I Killed You.
06:45This has nothing to do with y'all.
06:47Everything is self-indulgent to me.
06:49And people are like, yeah, me too.
06:51I'm like, the fuck?
06:52I'm just shocked that what I did make is working not only speaking numbers
06:57to why, like, I'm able to do this Billboard interview.
07:00Because I'm speaking a language that you guys speak, is numbers.
07:03But also on the other side, it's resonating with people on some, like, nude, naked shit.
07:08No necklace, no shirt, no fucking da-da-da.
07:11It's really hitting folks.
07:12And to hit both of those at the same time, 13 years in my career at the highest level,
07:17is mind-boggling to me.
07:19Half of it was the plan.
07:21I've had this shit in my head since I was fucking 12.
07:24And the other half is like, yo, this is crazy.
07:27This shit is really where I wanted it to be.
07:31Like, it's super, I'm on both sides.
07:33I'm like, what the fuck?
07:34This can't be real.
07:35And I'm like, I told y'all.
07:37It's cool.
07:42You the boss right now, dude.
07:43This nigga looking at everyone like, is that the last question?
07:46Nigga, we here for you.
07:48My D.