Tyler, The Creator is an enigmatic figure who now transcends the world of hip-hop and is undoubtedly one of the purest artists that the planet has to offer. However, rap will always be his first love, as his favourite album of all time confirms.
Every stage of his career has constantly seen Tyler tweak his sound and his persona. This attitude has won the rapper and producer plaudits as he stands out from the crowd as he evolves with every single project. However, this year he returned to his roots with Call Me If You Get Lost.
The most seismic shift in his career came in 2019 when he released Igor, when he slipped into his funk and soul phase. As expected, the genre switch wasn’t permanent, and Tyler explained why at the BET Awards. “I just love rap so goddamn much. Listening to [2005’s] The Dedication with Lil Wayne, and We Got It For Cheap with Clipse, they really shaped me into who I am.”
Adding: “I think a lot of people forget that I’m a rapper because I’m so multifaceted. I just had to remind everyone, ‘Don’t let the wig get it twisted, y’all n***as can’t fuck with me.'”
Despite Tyler naming those two records as pivotal in his musical awakening, neither are his favourite album of all time. At the Adobe MAX 2020 Creativity Conference, Tyler revealed Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP sits at number one. Meanwhile, he also has love for Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun, and N.E.R.D.’s In Search Of… and Pharrell’s In My Mind.
Eminem is a surprising inclusion considering ‘Slim Shady’ dissed him with a homophobic slur on his 2018 track, ‘Fall’. Although, he did later apologise for his remark both in an interview and in a later song.
Mathers told Sway, “The word that I called him on that song was one of the things where I felt like this might be too far; because in my quest to hurt him, I realise that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it.”
Meanwhile, in his 2020 song ‘No Regrets,’ he rapped, “Misplacin’ my anger enough to give Earl and Tyler, The Creator the brunt, Shoulda never made a response shoulda just aimed for the fake ones”.
Tyler never took the slur personally and understood that what people say while spitting bars doesn’t necessarily correspond with the real world. The Odd Future rapper told The Guardian, “Did you ever hear me publicly say anything about that? Because I knew what the intent was. He felt pressured because people got offended for me. Don’t get offended for me.”
Listen to The Marshall Mathers LP below.