If you have been an online fan of music for the past 15 years, you have probably seen more than a few Tyler, The Creator tweets, social media posts, and other statements about his fanbase. He definitely appreciates their support, but when he complains about them for whatever reason, they are sometimes quick to clap back. Especially this week.
As caught by Kurrco on Instagram, the Hawthorne native recently liked a tweet from a user criticizing his white fans for their shallow or disrespectful engagement with Black art. "tyler's fanbase hates black music despite tyler himself having a very deep love and appreciation for it. n***a has charlie wilson, erykah badu, dj drama etc. collaborations and they still refuse to engage with black art on any meaningful level. very cannibalistic," the tweet reads. This emerged at around the same time as Tyler, The Creator's tribute to the legendary and recently deceased D'Angelo, presumably as a response to the more ignorant reactions to his post concerning the soul icon's impact.
Tyler The Creator Controversy
Of course, this relatively vague statement led to a lot of debate, and also a lot of criticism for the former Odd Future frontman supposedly fueling this discrepancy himself. Users on Twitter brought up old statements that they interpreted as possibly anti-Black, the edgy content of the early OF days, and other controversies such as selling merch with blackface. Tyler himself hasn't publicly responded to any of this at press time.
The discussion continues to grow on Twitter, and the importance of that conversation is not for a white Puerto Rican to pass judgement on as an unwilling part of the problem. Nevertheless, it adds to more recent examples of Tyler, The Creator's challenges to online narratives. He recently called out DJ Akademiks for claiming that the person he was spotted in New York City with was his new boyfriend.
Other responses are far more light, and this latest debate has the kind of weight that would populate more conceptual records like CHROMAKOPIA. But it's also a point of controversy that emerges every so often, regardless of what Tyler is up to these days. We'll see if this recent reiteration yields different results.
