Last night, Tyler, the Creator gave the performance of a lifetime with a quick rendition of "Earfquake", featuring an electric performance Boyz II Men and Charlie Wilson, and then following it up with a crazy, fiery performance of "New Magic Wand." Soon after, the California artist won the Grammy for Rap Album of the Year, his first Grammy ever, which he shared with his mom. A well deserved reward for Tyler for his 2019 album Igor, defying genres and captivating audiences around the globe.
In an interview following his win, Tyler expressed some discontent with his win.
Has any of that affected the way that you're looking at winning this award today?" one reporter asked.
"I'm half and half on it." Tyler expressed gratitude towards recognition of his album by fans and the Grammys alike, but gave some criticisms about how the Grammy's put artists like him in the same sorts of categories. "It sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that's genre-bending, they put it in a rap or urban category." It seems ideally, Tyler would have liked to have been nominated for other genres, as a lot of the debate on his most recent album is that it really isn't a rap album or like any albums of the past.
He later comments that he doesn't like the urban category, that the word is "a politically correct way of saying the n-word.Half of me feels like the Rap nomination was a back-handed compliment. Oh my little cousin wants to play the game, let's give him the unplugged controller so he can shit up and feel good about it." He clarifies though that he is incredibly grateful about being able to be awarded on such a grand scale. "I'm grateful and like eh," he finished with.
In the same interview, Tyler talks about the death of Kobe Bryant. "Man, that news was heavy, especially being in LA...That shit is really heavy. We took an L tonight." You can watch Tyler's whole interview with ET below ⬇️