Tyler the Creator is a well-known American rapper, music video director and record producer. He is one of the founders of the hip hop collective, Odd Future. Tyler first rose to fame by uploading songs on Tumblr. The tracks went viral and earned the rapper immense recognition. Ever since, there has been no looking back for the young and talented music artist.
In the year 2011, Tyler bagged three prestigious awards; the first was the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist followed by two MTV2 Sucker Free Awards in categories including Rookie of the Year and Must Follow Artist. In 2013, the rapper received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, while the following year he earned an MTV Video Music Award nomination in the category of Best Art Direction.
In 2015, Tyler, the Creator got yet another MTV Video Music Award nomination in the Best Visual Effects category for his single Fucking Young/Death Camp. Now you can watch him perform this single and many other hits live with these Tyler the Creator tickets in hand.
Early Years
Tyler Gregory Okonma was born at Ladera Heights in California on March, 1991. He was interested in music since an early age. As a child he would take off the covers of old albums and replace with those of his own imaginary music albums. These covers would feature the name of the title track and the track-list along with the length of the songs. He did all this out of fascination and excitement, although at that point in time he had not composed any material of his own.
Passionate about music, Tyler learnt to play the piano at the age of fourteen. During his twelve years of schooling, he went to almost a dozen different schools in the Sacramento and Los Angeles areas. The rapper had a MySpace page where he used to post his creative experiments by the name of Tyler the Creator. This is from where he took this stage name.
The Beginning
In December of 2009, Tyler self-released his debut mixtape, Bastard. Although it was not promoted under any banner, the record was quite a success. It ranked 32 on the Top Albums list by Pitchfork Media in 2010.
The mixtape featured Tyler speaking to a character called Dr. TC who is acting as Tyler’s counselor and therapist. The title song features Dr TC hinting that the musician will be releasing an album called Goblin which would be an additional session between him and his patient.
After the album Bastard came out, Tyler signed a one music album contract with XL Recordings. Shortly after, he announced that he was working on an album with the brand. In February 2011, the rapper released the music video for the song Yonkers. It was the first single of his debut studio album Goblin. It received much attention from online media outlets. The record itself came out in May of the same year. It debuted at the fifth spot on the Billboard 200 and sold 45,000 in its opening week in the US alone. Following the critical acclaim and commercial success of Goblin, the musician was invited to perform at various shows.
His first television appearance was in 2011 on the famed Late Night with Jimmy Fallon where he performed the song Sandwitches. Besides, he also performed at Jimmy Kimmel Live and the MTV Awards.
Contributions
Having earned much recognition with his debut studio effort, Tyler began working in collaboration with other rappers and made a number of appearances on their records and songs. He also co-produced singles of other music artists.
Tyler’s second studio album, Wolf continued the sessions with his fictional therapist Dr TC. Prior to the release of the album, Tyler had stated that his forthcoming studio effort would focus more on beats and less on rapping. Wolf came out in April of 2013 and consists of instrumentals that the musician had been making since he was fifteen years old. Except for the final track, the album was produced by Tyler himself. It includes a number of guest appearances by music artists such as Pharrell, Erykah Badu, Hodgy Beats, Left Brain, Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis and Mike G.
Wolf debuted at the third spot on the Billboard 200 and sold 89,000 copies within its first week of release in the US. The following week, it sold another 18,000 copies in the country. The response of the critics towards the album was largely positive. American hip hop magazine XXL ranked the album 18th on its list of the best albums of 2013.
In April of 2015, Okonma released a new single Fucking Young on the official OFWGKTA YouTube page along with a preview of the single Deathcamp. The same day, he announced that both the tracks will feature on his third studio record, Cherry Bomb. He also tweeted that the album features appearances by artists such as Chaz Bundick and Charlie Wilson. Just after a couple of days, at the famous Coachella music festival, the rapper performed both these songs live. The response was overwhelming although Tyler did attract some controversy for criticizing the VIP celebrity members in the audience for their lack of enthusiasm.
On April 13, 2015, Cherry Bomb was released via Odd Future Records and Columbia Records. It reached the fourth spot on the US Billboard 200 and sold over 50,000 copies in its first week in the US.
Tyler the Creator’s most recent album Flower Boy was released by Columbia Records in July, 2017. It features guest vocals from a number of artists. These include Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean, Anna of the North, ASAP Rocky, Red Orange Country and Steve Lacy.
With singles such as Boredom, See You Again, I Ain’t Got Time and Who Dat Boy, the record received widespread acclaim from music critics. It charted at number two on the US Billboard 200 and also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album.
Tyler the Creator Tour Tickets
Besides his solo music contributions, Tyler the Creator has worked in association with the hip hop collective Odd Future. It currently includes members such as Frank Ocean, Hodgy and a number of other artists. His collaborative albums with Odd Future include The Odd Future Tape, Radical and The OF Tape Vol. 2 released in 2008, 2009 and 2012 respectively.
Tyler the Creator is currently on tour with Vince Staples following which he will make some festival appearances as well. If you want to catch the multi-talented performer live in action, grab your Tyler the Creator tour tickets before they run out.
