Please enjoy this article written by a student in DMHS's "Introduction to Journalism" class!
Tyler Okonma aka “Tyler the Creator” was born on March 6th, 1991 in Ladera Heights, CA. Not only is he a big success alone, but he is also a part of a rap group known as Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (AKA Golf Wang or Wolf Gang). They released their first album in 2008, and Tyler decided he wanted to start his solo career so he went on to record his own album.
In 2009, Tyler dropped his first ever solo album called “Bastard.” This album landed on No. 32 on Pitchfork Media's list of the Top Albums of 2010. His solo career seemed to be doing well, so he continued to go on tour with his group to promote their second album. In 2011, Tyler said he was under a 1 album deal with XL Recordings and he dropped his second solo album that same year. A lot of people loved him and his music but others found it somewhat offensive and people came at him for using homophobic slurs. He said that he is not homophobic and he just uses the word gay as another way of saying “stupid sh*t.” Tyler wouldn’t let the hate stop him or get to him so in 2012 he said he would be releasing his 3rd solo album, titled “Wolf.” He also said it would contain instrumentals that he had made since he was 15. It wasn’t until 2013 (the next year), that they actually started recording. He released “Wolf” on April 2, 2013 and it featured artists such as Frank Ocean, Pharrell Williams, Erykah Badu and others. This album landed at No. 3 on Billboard 200 after it sold 90,000 copies in the first week after its release.
In 2014, he spent most of his time on the road doing shows all around North America. On March 15, 2014, Tyler was arrested for provoking a riot after he told his fans to push their way through security at one of his shows. His 4th solo album was called “Cherry Bomb.” It was released digitally first on April 13, 2015, but the physical copies didn’t arrive until later on April 28 and it had 5 different album covers. In this album, he collaborated with huge artists such as Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and ScHoolboy Q. He promoted this album by doing a worldwide tour visiting America, Europe, and Asia. He was forced to cancel many tour dates because he was banned from the UK for 3-5 years. They insisted it was because of Tyler’s controversial lyrics in his album “Bastard.” Tyler claimed he had felt like he had been treated like “a terrorist” and implied that the reason they banned him was because they didn’t like their children “idolizing a black man.”
Almost 2 years after he dropped his album “Cherry Bomb,” he dropped a song titled “Who Dat Boy'' with his best friend A$AP Rocky in June of 2017. He announced that his 4th studio album called “Scum F*ck Flower Boy” would be released on July 21, 2017.
Before he could drop that album, 3 songs were leaked online. These songs were “Forward,” “Garden Shed,” and “I Ain’t Got Time.” These songs also led people to believe that Tyler would be coming out as gay. People thought this because in the song “I Ain’t Got Time” he said “I’ve been kissing white boys since 2004.” Many people thought it was strange for him to be gay when he is very well known for his usage of homophobic slurs in his music. Other people were not surprised.
“Flower boy” was released on July 21 as scheduled. This album peaked at No. 2 on Billboard 200, but Kendrick Lamar’s album “Damn” beat him to 1st place. The next year, Tyler released 2 new singles called “Okra” and “435.” He also announced that he would be collaborating with A$AP Rocky on a song called “WANG$AP.” After that, he released a music video for a remix of Monica’s song “Knock Knock” and the remix was called “Potato Salad.” (that remix was also made with A$AP Rocky.) In 2018, Tyler released an album called “Music Inspired By Illumination & Dr. Suess’ The Grinch.” His album didn’t get big, mostly because of the fact that it wasn’t as hype or exciting as his other music because it was Christmas themed and consisted of mostly jazz type music.
He teased his fans about him dropping new music after releasing 2 short videos of him dancing and wearing a blond wig, sunglasses, a brightly colored suit and wearing grills. “IGOR,” (his 5th studio album) dropped on May 17, 2019. You might know this album because one of his most popular songs “Earfquake” was in this album. It was placed at No. 1 on Billboard 200. This was his first time ever hitting the top of the chart.
Tyler has not dropped any more music since then, however he has featured on a few songs such as “Gravity” by Brent Faiyaz and “TD” by Lil Yachty and Tierra Wack. Hopefully he will come out with some new music this year!
great work!
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