Tyler, the Creator has had yet another landmark year for himself.
His latest album Call Me If You Get Lost not only topped the charts upon its release, but found itself atop a plethora of end of the year lists (including ours), earning him a nomination for the Grammy’s Rap Album of the Year.
🔰 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦 🔰
— Our Generation Music (@OGMusicCo) December 14, 2021
Our first-ever end of year editorial series starts with our BEST albums of 2021. Let us know what your album of the year is below! 💿 #OGM
+ READ MORE ✍️: https://t.co/heCfaANXIq pic.twitter.com/CrB0vsGFE3
To commemorate all this, he sat down with Fast Company‘s Mark Wilson to talk fashion, the Grammys and most importantly, Tyler’s artistry. Wilson spoke with Tyler on top of a mountain where Tyler was debuting his latest fashion line and fragrance, La Fleur and French Waltz. The high-end line is a continuation of his Golf fashionwear as he mentions in the interview how, during the inception of the new line, Virgil Abloh was one of the people who fully supported the idea.
“In 2019, it was when I decided, ‘Oh, dude. I think I’m going to do this Le Fleur thing. And who really pushed me to do it was my boy Dev Hynes, Solange, and Virgil,” the multifaceted artist said. From that point on, Virgil connected him with dozens of people in the industry and was an integral part of getting this expansion off the ground.
After his passing, Tyler simply wished that he could have been there to see how it all panned out during the launch.
“This was the week that I was going to say, ‘Hey, Virgil, what you helped me with, what you got me started with, what your helping hand did, I finally get to show you what you did,” he said. He went on to explain just how badly he wanted to show what his help allowed him to do.
Tyler also battled rumors of him changing his stage name after a slew of reports pointed to the 30-year-old mogul looking to use his surname instead. Tyler Okonma, his birth name, has been scattered throughout many production and video credits in his work in recent years, as “The Creator” shot down these claims in a series of fiery, now-deleted tweets Dec. 30.
“I NEVER SAID I WAS CHANGING MY NAME, ARE YOU STUPID? YES.”
“WILL EMBRACE MY LAST NAME MORE, LESS WOLF HALEY, NEVER SAID I WAS GONNA CHANGE MY STAGE NAME, WHAT YO EARS ON BRO?”
“INTERVIEWER ASKED ABOUT MY STAGE NAME, I EXPLAINED HOW I GOT IT, I JOKED ABOUT IT BEING DUMB BUT KEPT IT. TALKED ABOUT MY AFRICAN LAST NAME HOW I WANT TO EMBRACE IT NOW THAT IM OLDER AND HAVE A NEW VIEW ON IT. SITES SAYS IM CHANGING IT. FALSE. FROM THE SOURCE IN CASE U BELIEVED.”
Tyler said this during the interview to spark these rumors.
“My full name, Tyler Okonma, in all caps just looks really cool,” he said. “So you might see more of that, I don’t know, I’m getting older and I think when people get older, they start to realize shit and liking things they didn’t like. You just start changing, so I think my version of that is looking at my name and saying, ‘Oh, this is actually cool.’”
Tyler also talked about the Grammys once again and discussed how getting nominated for his latest album was different than his nomination for IGOR. “It’s just cool to be thought of for accolades like that when I’m just doing what I’m doing,” he said near the halfway mark of the interview.
He mentioned that, since he did actually make a rap album this time, the rap nomination made sense, unlike his previous nomination: “It’s fine. I made a rap album like, now I make a fuckin rap album.”
He also mentioned the widening scope of his performances and how he decides on what songs to perform even if they are not singles or if they are the most accessible tracks.
The nearly 30-minute interview also dove into Tyler’s creative process, his thoughts on his surname and Sir Baudelaire, cars, and several other topics. Through it all, Tyler gladly shared everything he could and showed just how proud he was of all of his accomplishments.
Watch the full interview below!
