The reason why Tyler, The Creator ignored a phone call from Rick Ross
Tyler, The Creator has always been a singular sort of artist, marking himself as a unique force of the contemporary rap scene from his very earliest days. He always had a clear vision for his art, and he was never going to be convinced to abandon it for anybody.
In a Complex feature published in 2019, an anecdote was shared by Nick Diamond that painted a picture of how committed to his own way of doing things Tyler always was, even from a young age. Diamond is the head of Diamond Supply Co, a streetwear brand associated with Tyler’s Odd Future collective.
Diamond claims that, in 2011, he received a call from Rick Ross, who was interested in the young Tyler. “Rick Ross called me out of nowhere and was like, ‘Yo, what’s up with Odd Future? I wanna talk to that Tyler kid. I want to sign him,’” Diamond explained.
This could potentially have been a big deal for the young Tyler, but he wasn’t interested. “It was funny,” said Diamond, “’cause when he called me, Tyler was actually in the store, standing next to me. So I was like, ‘Rick Ross wants to talk to you.’ Tyler goes, ‘I don’t want to talk to Rick Ross.’”
Diamond was taken aback by that. “I was like, ‘Dude, just fucking talk to him,’” he recalled saying to Tyler. “He was like, ‘Nah. I can’t talk right now.’ So I didn’t put him on the phone.”
Diamond went on to claim that “so many people I knew from the music industry started calling me about Tyler,” but, clearly, Tyler wasn’t too interested in making deals that might have compromised his creative control over his own work. He didn’t want to operate under anyone who might interfere with what he wanted to do.
Given his young age at the time—Tyler would have only turned 20 in 2011—one might have expected him to snap at the opportunity to work with someone more established than himself, like Ross. But he never rushed into such things.
Tyler’s first album, Bastard, was self-released in 2009, while his second one, Goblin, was attached to the British label XL. Even here, though, he didn’t make any long-term commitments, because he was only contracted to make one album for XL. His third and fourth albums, Wolf and Cherry Bomb, were released on his own Odd Future Records in 2013 and 2015 respectively.
After that, Tyler finally started releasing music through a major label, Columbia Records. He had taken his time to get to this point, having never rushed into deals that may have forced a compromise in his approach.