For the unaware, Tyler the Creator (Real name Tyler Okonma) is a rapper and musician. He is known for his weird and occasionally homophobic and misogynistic lyrics on his own songs and the songs he wrote with his old group OFWGKTA (odd future wolf gang kill them all) because of this, he was banned from the UK and Australia. He used homophobic slurs (ie- the F word) in his songs and defended it over the fact that he was okay with individuals calling him the n-word and that many of his LGBTQIA+ fans don't take offence to the lyrics.
What makes this conundrum even more interesting is that Tyler is same-sex attracted. His hit album IGOR is about a relationship between two men. He even speaks openly about his attraction to men on the track I Ain’t Got Time!, from his 2017 album Flower Boy, he rapped: “Next line will have ’em like: ‘Woah’ / I’ve been kissing white boys since 2004.” and on the track SORRY NOT SORRY on his latest album 'Call me if you get lost: The estate sale' he raps "Sorry to the guys I had to hide (ooh)/Sorry to the girls I had to lie to".
Another member from Tyler's old group OFWGKTA, Frank Ocean also came out as gay.
Does all this forgive the lyrics he sang and wrote in the past? Eminem also rapped using the slurs but never got banned from countries, in fact it was commonplace to hear homophobic slurs on raps throughout the 90's and 2000's, but times have definitely changed.
Keep in mind, Tyler has changed as an artist and hopefully as a person. I enjoy his recent music. But his album Goblin contained over 200 anti-gay lyrics, 9 uses of homophobic slurs. Is it okay to brush THAT under the carpet?
Whats your take? Wanna read more? Heres a few articles for you to read if so -
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/05/tyler-the-creator-back-after-uk-ban-funk-reinvention-homophobia-accusations (Guardian Interview)
(Trigger Warning, websites may contain uncensored strong language and slurs)
i think tyler has changed quite a bit in terms of the type of person he is. goblin was him being an insecure young adult who hadn't really understood how to explain himself to the world. a lot of his lyrics in the albums after that-- particularly igor-- are very open in the way he addresses his sexuality. i think tyler is generally a very conscious artist and he takes to every detail when it comes to how he presents himself to the world- and this is definitely more recent, but great nonetheless. obviously it doesn't justify being as aggressive as he was but i think that given that he was dealing with a lot of emotions revolving around being queer (given that he's really open about it), it doesn't mean one needs to pay any heed to what he has done in his past. i'm unsure about whether he has already apologised but imo he doesn't need to. him using those words were not attacking protected attributes of any community (including the queer community), which means that he hasn't necessarily done much wrong. obviously if he acknowledges his behaviour n tries to bring about change (which he is already doing) it's great. tldr tyler is cool stream songs.
1: people within the community can be offensive as well. there’s tons of internalised self hate, the same way women can be misogynistic.
2: i think that slurs in music are way too normalised. obv censorship isn’t in the cards, but creators overuse these slurs, which leads to a lot of listeners using these words as popularised slang.
3: i think if tyler openly apologises for using these slangs, and acknowledges his past errors, there’s no need to stop listening to his music. The only critical element is the cognisance of the history behind these slurs and how inappropriate they are
ALSO- Em dissed Tyler on his song 'Fall' (this was due to Tyler saying that he had fallen off and that he hates em's new songs). Em uses the homophobic f-word in this diss. He received a-lot of backlash for this- which shows how the industry has changed over the years, when seeing in contrast the reaction to him using the word in his past songs.