In his interview to The Guardian Tyler the Creator talks about being dissed by Eminem and intentions behind homophobic slurs.
Tyler the Creator was allowed to enter the UK for the first time since 2014 when he was banned from the country on the grounds that his work “encourages violence and intolerance of homosexuality” and “fosters hatred with views that seek to provoke others to terrorist acts”. Those were extraordinary measures aimed at someone who is not even very controversial as far as rappers go.
Also, that was quite an interesting choice of accusation for a rapper who shocked his audience with the line “I’ve been kissing white boys since 2004” and became a target of a homophobic diss himself from no one else but Eminem, the rapper he adored as a kid.
Tyler the Creator invoked Eminem’s wrath by tweeting about his Beyoncé collaboration “Walk on Water” that “this fucking song is horrible”. As Eminem admitted later in his interview to Sway, he felt that he had to react: “I was like alright, ‘I need to say something now. Because this is fucking stupid. I’m not going to let everybody just… I’m not gonna be America’s punching bag”.
And Eminem came up with the line on the track “Fall”: “Tyler create nothing, I see why you call yourself a faggot, bitch”. It provoked a public discussion about Eminem’s homophobia and homophobia in the hip-hop culture in general, and later Eminem apologised, stating that “In my quest to hurt [Tyler the Creator], I realise that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it”.
Tyler himself did not participate in this discussion and opened up about this incident only recently in his interview to The Guardian when he was asked how it had felt when he had been called a faggot?
“OK,” said Tyler, looking the journalist dead in the eye. “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. We were playing Grand Theft Auto when we heard that. We rewound it and were like: ‘Oh.’ And then kept playing.”
Being accused of homophobic speech himself and hearing insults not for the first time in his life, he recognises them for what they are. “That tree over there could be a faggot! Who hasn’t played Call Of Duty online and heard some 11-year-old call you that because you killed him? You knew the intent behind it and then people were faking, like, he’s homophobic?”
Watch Eminem’s interview to Sway below:
