American rapper Tyler, the Creator has found himself in his biggest controversy since his artistic turnaround in 2017. The catalyst? A tribute tweet about D’Angelo. Let’s take it back to where it started.
On Oct. 14, the multitalented and legendary singer and performer, D’Angelo, passed away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 51. Thousands of tributes rightfully flowed on to our screens, coming from friends and admirers alike.
One of these tributes came from Tyler, which was met with adverse responses from many of his fans. These fans either made fun of D’Angelo, or disregarded him entirely, asking Tyler for a new album instead.
Many users on X, formerly known as Twitter, had thinkpieces and words regarding the fans’ behavior. One twitter user, @thedigitaldash_, made a tweet defending the Grammy winning artist.
“Tyler’s fanbase hates black music despite Tyler himself having a very deep love and appreciation for it. He has Charlie Wilson, Erykah Badu, DJ Drama etc. collaborations and they still refuse to engage with Black art on any meaningful level. Very cannibalistic.”
Tyler himself, in solidarity, liked the tweet. This was the act that opened a familiar Pandora’s Box.
This small act was a green light for those who had been holding on to his controversial past. Numerous tweets, making fun of the Trayvon Martin case, using various racial slurs, as well as references to R. Kelly’s past acts came out of the woodwork. These tweets were never taken down and Tyler himself has said that he won’t care if people bring up his provocative past.
Tyler is no stranger to controversy. He was banned from both the United Kingdom and Australia after his lyrics were deemed homophobic and offensive. Those same lyrics seem to resurface every time he promotes a new album. This time, photos of him dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe as well as in whiteface doing the Nazi salute have surfaced. These photos, which many haven’t seen, are not surprising to those who have known and listened to Tyler for years.
Early in his career, Tyler was known more as a shock and provocative rapper, as well as most of Odd Future. The group would rap about murder and assault and Tyler often tweeted out things that were deemed “out-of-pocket.”
The biggest problem with all of this is Tyler is mostly to blame. He cultivated his diehard fans, most of whom are white and after his turnaround with 2017’s “Flower Boy”, he expected those fans to do the same.
Throughout all of these tweets and photos resurfacing, Tyler has remained silent. In his absence, both his longtime and newer fans are questioning how inappropriate his past behavior was. The question now is whether he will address any of it because many people agree that this is the worst that he has looked in the public eye since he hit the scene in 2009.
