Now one of alternative rap’s most influential auteurs, Tyler, The Creator has come a long way since the early, outrage-baiting days of Odd Future – his sprawling, LA-based collective of creatives that also included names such as Earl Sweatshirt, Frank Ocean, and The Internet founders Syd and Matt Martians. When the group first appeared on Jimmy Fallon in their sharpie-scrawled balaclavas back in 2011, the performance felt like a cultural reset; chaotic, transgressive, and gleefully dragging experimental rap out of the dark corners of Tumblr, and straight into the mainstream.
And Tyler, with his warped, perverse alter-egos who spouted homophobic slurs with a smirk, and drolly threatened to stab Bruno Mars in the oesophagus atop the janky, juddering beat of his break-out track Yonkers, quickly became the most notorious of the lot. Back when she was Prime Minister, Theresa May infamously banned him from the UK on account of his heavily fictionalised, satirical lyrics that allegedly “encourage violence” – he eventually returned to play here again in 2019, and the current Chromakopia tour is his first UK tour in six years. Though that album features a string of guest names, ranging from Doechii to Lola Young, last night was exclusively a one-man show.
