The song Tyler, The Creator wrote for a One Direction member: “That bitch flaked”
Tyler, The Creator‘s progression as an artist from his Odd Future days has been a joy to watch. The Los Angeles rapper/producer has gone from strength to strength over the years, constantly elevating his vocals and production throughout albums such as Cherry Bomb, Flower Boy and IGOR.
One of the singles from Flower Boy, ‘See You Again’, wasn’t meant to be a Tyler song at all. The track features Kali Uchis and finds Tyler singing to an ideal lover in his fantasy and dream state. But before taking it on himself, he initially wrote it for One Direction member Zayn Malik.
Tyler revealed the fact in a post on X, claiming they were supposed to have a couple of studio sessions, but Malik left him hanging. “fun fact: i wrote ‘see you again’ for zayn but that bitch flaked on studio time twice, so i kept the ref for myself, worked out actually,” he told his followers in 2017. “see you again is getting played on a few stations, awesome, hope i catch it at some point.”
As luck would have it, the song went viral on TikTok in April 2023, leading it to enter several charts worldwide. It climbed as high as number five on the UK Singles Chart and 28 in Australia.
In the first verse of the song, Tyler sings, “You live in my dream state/ Relocate my fantasy I stay in reality/ You live in my dream state/ Any time I count sheep/ That’s the only time we make up, make up/ You exist behind my eyelids, my eyelids/ Now, I don’t wanna wake up.”
That wasn’t the first time Tyler had spoken about Malik. In 2015, he sent a public request to the singer to collaborate. However, he didn’t want any involvement in songs chasing chart success. “HI @zaynmalik I HAVE BEAUTIFUL INSTRUMENTALS AND YOU HAVE A VOICE LETS FIGURE THIS OUT MY GUY. EPIC ALBUM CUTS THO NO RADIO SINGLES,” he wrote.
The following year, Tyler released a remix of Malik’s ‘Pillow Talk’ on Odd Future’s YouTube channel. He danced in the video and wrote in the description, “I HAD NO ART TO GO ALONG WITH THIS SO I RECORDED MYSELF DANCING TO IT. THEY MIGHT TAKE THIS DOWN. MADE IN FEB.”
‘Pillow Talk’ was Malik’s first solo single after leaving One Direction. The song, produced by Levi Lennox, was an immediate success, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. Malik eventually acknowledged Tyler in 2019, posting a link to his version of his song. “@tylerthecreator bit late! But this is hefty ha big love,” he wrote.
Malik released his debut album, Mind of Mine, in 2016. It was primarily produced by Frank Ocean collaborator Malay, who won Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards for being behind most of Channel Orange. Considering Ocean was a member of Odd Future, a collaboration between Tyler and Malik would have been the perfect crossover of the two worlds.