For those who have watched Tyler, The Creator's evolution from the beginning, it's been a wild ride. Not many would have expected that rowdy teen writing vulgar songs to be where he is today: making buoyant pop, covering GQ and accepting awards from the Wall Street Journal. However, when you look back with some distance from those early days, patterns in his career trajectory could be detected. Tyler highlighted some of these links in an Instagram post he shared today that reflects on his debut mixtape, Bastard, on its tenth anniversary.
He started by shouting out Syd (of The Internet) and Travis (Taco) for opening up their home to him and allowing him to record there. He also thanked their parents for feeding him and providing hot water. Bastard had many disturbing lyrics, which earned him some backlash for years. "I had ideas, an unmeasurable amount of energy and wanted to piss off/get a reaction from anyone who had ears," he explains. "I had such a dark sense of humor and hoped some of it bled through the outrageous shit i was saying."
Tyler then goes into the musical influences on Bastard. "Pigs Fly" was intended to be "his version of a Sade song." While, on the surface, the music he makes today may sound drastically different from the music he made then, he notices connecting threads in his intentions. "I love listening to those old beats and pointing out what I was trying to do that I've perfected now. He points out that "New Magic Wand" off his latest album, IGOR, is "really just the perfected idea" of "French" off Bastard.
You could read all his reflections below. Also, give Bastard a spin to celebrate its birthday.
