Tyler, The Creator Used His Grammy Win To Slam The Awards For Racism

This past weekend, Tyler, The Creator won a Grammy. You might have heard something about that, on account of the fact that he was an utter legend while he did so.

First, Tyler rocked up to the red carpet wearing one of the most outrageous and wonderful outfits of the night, a pink bellhop costume that looked like something torn directly out of a Wes Anderson film.

he’s celebrating grand budapest criterion release https://t.co/N3OmYtZiMl

— xan 🎬 (@madebyxan) January 27, 2020

Then, he used his Grammy win as an opportunity to dunk on a random Twitter troll who once insulted him almost an entire decade ago. And, finally, he used his opportunity in the post-Grammys interview to call out the institution for the way that it pigeonholes and reduces black artists.

Standing in front of a backdrop patterned with pictures of the award that he’d just picked up, Tyler, The Creator called on the industry to better understand black musicians, rather than relegating their work to the broad umbrella term of ‘rap.’

“It sucks that whenever we — and I mean guys that look like me — do anything that’s genre-bending .. they always put it in the rap or urban category. I don’t like that ‘urban’ word. It’s just a politically correct way to say the N-word to me.

“So, when I hear that, I’m just like, why can’t we just be in pop? You know what I mean? Half of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment. Like, ‘Oh, my little cousin wants to play the game. Let’s give him the unplugged controller so he can shut up and feel good about it.’ That’s what it felt like a bit.

“But another half of me is very grateful that the art that I make could be acknowledged on a level like this. When I don’t do the radio stuff. I’m not played in Target. I’m in a whole different world to what a lot of people here listen to.”

You can watch the entire speech below:

"It sucks that whenever we … guys that look like me, do anything that is genre-bending … they always put it in a rap or urban category."@tylerthecreator had a couple of criticisms for the institution, after winning Best Rap Album at the #GRAMMYs. pic.twitter.com/XWIgrnwa9f

— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 27, 2020