Tyler, the Creator is having a career year, with IGOR becoming his first album to debut atop the charts. It was pleasant surprise, beating out DJ Khaled's factory of hits, and in a wide-ranging interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1, he talked about being stunned himself:
I didn't think people would like this album based on everyone hating "Cherry Bomb" so fucking much. Everyone hated it. It was a small sector of people that liked it, and because I put the instrumentals out, people were coming across to it and starting to appreciate it. When that shit came out, everyone fucking hated it, bro. Everyone didn't understand it. 'This is fake N-E-R-D shit.' Actually, no, because your fucking music taste is so fucking surface level-You wouldn't even know where this is actually from, because that's the only fucking gage of anything that's black and weird that you could get this from.
...So when I put this out and it beat first week, and again, I don't make shit to beat first week or be radio or whatever, but for uh, for this work of art and that album cover and these videos and me doing this suit wig thing and having these progressions and this distorted this and that, and these melodies and this stuff like that, beat ...and this is no disrespect to Khaled or anyone, but this n***a had every person in the industry, everyone on that fucking album. Everyone. Everyone. Cardi B. 21 Savage. Travis Scott. Post Malone. Beyonce. Jay. Everyone who sells billions of records and the fact that I beat him with this that isn't parallel to all the popping music right now was fucking crazy, bro. It ... Are you serious? Like, that was insane to me.
Tyler also went back to Flower Boy and explained his decision to include so many guests. He says his voice ruins songs and he wants to solely produce for other artists in the next two years.
Honestly, I think I ruin songs. I hate my voice. I think I'm a fucking ridiculously talented producer and have really, really, really good ideas. When you want to write singing songs like Stevie Wonder, and you can't because your voice is holding you back and you sound like a monster all the fucking time. And because of that, people only want to hear you rap. But it's like, I'm not even that good at that, but I'm ridiculously good at that. ...So because of that, I decided on Flower Boy just try to shut the fuck up and only speak when I need to speak.
...I'm gonna spend the next two years, probably working on clothes and just producing for others.I want to go, "You want pop sh--? You want rap? I don't know, I just have an ear for stuff. And whether it's good or not, it's something, it's an idea and I just try to execute the shit.
The whole interview is full of gems, so we highly suggest watching the full interview above.
