Who is Tyler, The Creator? We list some interesting things you need to know about the rapper. Since bursting onto the scene in the late 2000s with hip-hop collective Odd Future, Tyler, The Creator has become known as much for his bombastic lyrics as well as his renegade personal style.
9 Facts About The Odd Future Rapper
1. His real name is Tyler Gregory Okonma
Tyler, the Creator’s real name is Tyler Gregory Okonma (born March 6, 1991). The rapper and record producer from Hawthorne, California started to gain recognition when he released his debut mixtape Bastard in 2009. During an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Tyler also revealed the origin of his stage name, and said that it came from his days on MySpace when he had three pages, with one labeled as Tyler, the Creator, and that one ended up being the most popular when he blew up.
2. He’s one of the founding members of the music collective Odd Future
Tyler, the Creator co-founded the alternative hip hop collective Odd Future in 2007, alongside Hodgy, Left Brain, and Casey Veggies. They often go by the acronym OFWGKTA – Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. By 2011, they had churned out 12 full-length albums.
Caroline Ryder of Daze described the collective saying: “Odd Future was too weird for the rap underground to get its head around, and certain key blogs flat out refused to support their music. Beyond a few online “fuck you’s” the kids in Odd Future didn’t sweat the rejection too much – they carried on skating Fairfax and making beats and videos for themselves and their friends, and self-releasing solo albums, EPs, and mixtapes on their Tumblr blog… all of it available for free.”
3. He worked at FedEx and Starbucks
Prior to hitting it big, Tyler, The Creator was just Tyler Okonma – a regular teenage kid from Ladera Heights, California – whose rap aspirations were fueled by jobs like a brief stint working at FedEx in addition to a two-year stay at Starbucks as a barista.
“Starbucks was cool because I stole cheese danishes every day,” he told Jimmy Kimmel in 2015 of his time with the company. “I was nice, I was cool with people, I liked talking to people.” He mentioned that he also often helped himself to cheese danishes from the bakery case. But the Odd Future rapper got caught. “This lady named Cindy, she was a new manager, she hated on me. And she fired me, and I hope she’s watching because I still hate her,” Tyler smirked.
4. Tyler, the Creator’s most famous song is “Yonkers”
“Yonkers” is the first single off Tyler, The Creator’s debut album, Goblin and is widely considered as his breakout song. The song’s title is named after the city of Yonkers, New York. Tyler said that the song was made as a joke to mimic New York hip-hop beats: “Dude, niggas don’t know that that beat was made as a joke. I was trying to make a shitty New York beat and we was just rapping like we was from New York like we were retarded. And then, I just had some random verses and I was just like ‘I’ll just record it to this beat, this beat is kinda cool.’ And then niggas really liked it.”
Despite its controversial, violent lyrics and numerous disses, the song became critically acclaimed on release. Its music video earned Tyler the Best New Artist award at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. It was also nominated for Video of the Year but lost to Katy Perry’s “Firework.”
5. He’s had beef with Eminem over homophobic statements
Most hip hop fans remember when Eminem dissed everyone from Lil Pump to Joe Budden on the album Kamikaze, but the Detroit rapper drew widespread criticism when he threw a homophobic slur at Tyler, the Creator on the single “The Fall.”
Both the rappers aren’t on good terms, ever since Tyler made fun of Eminem’s compilation album “SHADY XV” in 2014. But still, Tyler never misses a chance to praise Eminem’s old work, as he named The Marshall Mathers LP one of his favorites albums of all time. “This album man. very important in my putting words together. I learned how to rap because of this,” wrote Tyler on Genius’ 21st Anniversary post for the Eminem album.
However, in an interview with Sway, Eminem expressed regret for using the homophobic slur in the song (At the 8:55 mark). “I think the word that I called him on that song was one of the things where I felt like this might be too far,” he said. “Because in my quest to hurt him, I realize that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it. … It was one of the things that I kept going back to and going ‘I don’t feel right with this.’”
6. He won two Grammy awards for his albums Igor and Call Me If You Get Lost
Tyler, the Creator’s LGBTQ-Themed IGOR made history by winning a Grammy in 2020 for the Best Rap Album category. Rolling Stone gave the album a favorable review as Danny Schwartz said: “Igor is a heartfelt album that finds Tyler lowering his guard and revealing himself to be a shape-shifting artist who is still growing, and who has fully shed his skin as a vulgar internet cowboy”.
Tyler, The Creator also won his second Grammy award in 2022 for CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST in the Best Rap Album category to beat out Kanye West‘s Donda, J. Cole‘s The Off-Season and Nas‘ King’s Disease II. After thanking those who helped the album come to life, Tyler couldn’t help but rub his latest achievement in DJ Khaled‘s face.
“First off, I’m hyped,” he began. “Thank you to DJ Drama, you are fucking so important to rap music. Thank you to all of my friends for being my cheerleaders. Thank you to my whole team, the whole squad … where I can make an album where I just flex all goddamn day.”
Tyler then referenced DJ Khaled’s past comments about his music while humbly bragging about the success of his acclaimed CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST Tour.
“And thank you to [DJ Khaled],” he continued. “I know you’re seething and angry. ‘Ugh, no one listens to that album!’ These arena tours that are selling out says different. And if you put that much energy into something, maybe everyone would be proud of you, too.”
7. He founded the streetwear brand Golf Wang
The brand’s name Golf Wang is a play on Wolf Gang, as in Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, his notorious hip-hop collective. His clothes feature a colorful array of pastel and fluorescent-colored hats, T-shirts, and pants. The streetwear-inflected label debuted in 2013. He admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that he doesn’t work on a schedule, and sketches out all his designs with colors and fabrics beforehand. “Mostly everyone kind of hates my clothes, but it’s cool,” he says. “My clothes are for someone going to Taco Bell or making an illegal deal that they should not be doing. Those are the people buying it. I f—ing love that.”
8. He started the ‘Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival’ music festival
In 2012 Tyler, the Creator held his first Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in Los Angeles, California. Back then, it was a small one-day festival held at Club Nokia, an intimate indoor venue in Downtown Los Angeles that holds a little more than 2,000 people. Tyler and Odd Future headlined the event, and audience members were treated to performances by his good friends and long-time collaborators The Internet and Trash Talk.
Tyler and members from Odd Future garnered attention as a rambunctious group performing concerts complete with mosh pits and stage diving. He has definitely grown from that kind of eccentric performance, but he’s still the odd man out from a crowd of rap artists. Camp Flog Gnaw has now developed into a proper two-day music festival, as well as California’s most recognized and star-studded one. It has featured artists such as SZA, Lauryn Hill, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Post Malone, and even Jorja Smith.
9. He was banned from visiting the UK because of his offensive lyrics
Back in 2015, Tyler, the Creator was banned from entering the United Kingdom for three to five years by the Home Office, with officials citing offensive lyrics from his albums Bastard and Goblin as the reasons for his ban. He was due to perform at a number of festivals, including Reading and Leeds. When Tyler was refused at the border, he was held in a detention room where he claims the Border Force Officer quoted lyrics from two of his albums released in 2009 and 2011, and informed him he was supporting homophobia and acts of terrorism.
Tyler was also barred twice from performing in New Zealand. Odd Future was prevented from performing at the Auckland leg of the Big Day Out festival in 2012 due to their lyrical content, but they were able to play a separate solo headlining show instead. In 2014, the rap collective was set to join Eminem at Rapture Festival, but they were blocked from entering the country because Immigration New Zealand deemed them “a potential threat to public order.”
The bans have since been lifted following the release of Tyler’s album IGOR. Notably, the album was the rapper’s redemption story as it chronicled Tyler’s love affair with a man.
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