Do we like Tyler, the Creator?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Real good in how he treats fans and crew, set against years of anti-gay slurs in early lyrics and old posts that resurfaced in 2025.
Tyler Okonma came up in the Odd Future crew, a gang of LA kids who built a name on shock-value rap around 2011. He has since grown into a festival headliner and designer with his own clothing labels and a festival of his own. The early persona is the baggage that follows him around.
That baggage once cost him a tour. In August 2015 he said he'd been told he couldn't enter the UK for 3 to 5 years, and Belfast, Dublin, Reading and Leeds were cancelled. His manager said the UK letter claimed his work encouraged violence and intolerance of homosexuality, citing lyrics from the Bastard and Goblin albums.
The recent wobble came in October 2025, when old material resurfaced after his D’Angelo tribute. Complex reported an alleged photo in Ku Klux Klan attire (his face isn't visible), a picture likened to a Nazi salute, and old posts about George Zimmerman and Black History Month. Complex said he hadn't addressed it. Nothing newer turned up.
On the legal side there isn't much. He was arrested at Austin airport in 2014 over a show at the Scoot Inn, and the charge of inciting a riot was dropped. He pleaded to disorderly conduct and was fined $100, with the case dismissed on condition he stayed out of trouble for three months.
The good stuff is real. When a storm flooded Los Angeles in 2025, he moved Camp Flog Gnaw back a week rather than cancel, and said cancelling “didn't feel right with my spirit.” He bowed to fans, artists and stagehands from the stage. So he passes on nice, and on harm it's a close call: fine lately, unsettled on the past. Whether the old lyrics bother you is your call.