Each week Queerty picks one blowhard, hypocrite, airhead, sanctimonious prick or other enemy of all that is queer to be the Douche of the Week.
Have a nominee for DOTW? E-mail it to us at [email protected].
When rising hip-hop star Frank Ocean revealed to the world that he had been in a relationship with another man, one of the first to voice his support was Ocean’s Odd Future band mate Tyler, the Creator, who tweeted on Wednesday, “My Big Brother Finally Fucking Did That… Proud Of That Nigga Cause I Know That Shit Is Difficult Or Whatever. Anyway. I’m A Toilet.”
Oh, wow, jeez, Tyler. Your words are so… heartfelt?
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
But let’s not forget that the Creator has spewed more homophobic doggerel at age 21 than most MCs drop in a whole career. His album Goblin had 213 anti-gay slurs in it, according to NME, including nearly a dozen “fags” and “faggots.” (GLAAD called the scale of Goblin’s anti-gay rhetoric “frankly staggering.”)
Here’s a sampling of Tyler’s pretty poetry:
* “Come take a stab at it faggot, I pre-ordered your casket”
* “Deep down, I’m an emo-fuckin’ faggot that’s depressed”
* “You silly rabbit faggot tricks are for kids so we go, Abracadabra”
The Creator just can’t stop dropping F-bombs—not just in his lyrics, but in interviews and on Twitter. And when lesbian singers Tegan and Sara called him out on his homophobia, he tweeted, “If Tegan and Sara need some hard dick, hit me up!”
It’d be bad enough if Tyler was just lazily reinforcing homophobic stereotypes about hip-hop and African-American men. But he knew he had (at least) two LGBT collaborators in Odd Future—Ocean and lesbian beatmaker Syd tha Kid—and didn’t care how his words might hurt them.
In a Formspring post this week, Tyler elaborated:
“ive know for a while, he told me a long time ago. it was just funny cause i was getting bashed as a homophobe or whatever and i kept saying dude how am i one? i have gay friends like what the fuck leave me alone haha. yeah thats my nigga tho, shit is hard for him but he did that.”
We almost want to take Ocean to task for working with such a douche, but we’re not gonna go that far. (It’d be nice if someone did, though.)
Maybe we’re getting too worked up. After all, as Tyler told NME last year, “I’m not homophobic. I just think ‘faggot’ hits and hurts people. It hits. And ‘gay’ just means you’re stupid. I don’t know, we don’t think about it, we’re just kids.”
Oh okay, that makes it better: Someone who makes millions from their words doesn’t think about those words.
Trent
He is young and its all about the money when you are young. He will change his game soon enough. Look at Jay Z…
deshawn
Anyone who knows his music knows he’s not a bad guy infact his show doesn’t potray him badly either. As he said to MTV those words are just words and he uses them freely just as he does the nigga so his words are just words. And so he didn’t give a long planned speech that doesn’t make him a bad guy. I’m so sick of watching people trying to tear the guy apart for lyrics as he’s said before they’re just words and aparantly frank ocean isn’t offended.
deshawn
And let it be said no matter what you shoudln’t be offended by a song and if you don’t like then don’t listen he’s stil more underground anyway and if anything his use of word faggot is the same as the word nigga it’s just a word to young people and by know if you’re offended knowing that’s how they talk you’re weak.
KV
Sometimes it takes knowing someone personally to understand and sympathize with their struggle. I’m way more sensitive towards obesity (jokes and issues) since befriending someone who was a former fatty. I used to be the one cracking the jokes sometimes. So I think I’m going to look at the positive side of this guy’s change of heart instead of complaining about what he used to do.
Lou
what? his tweet wasnt “heartfelt” enough for you. the idea that just because frank came out tyler has to give him a goddamn hug is ridiculous. part of assimilation is making coming out casual, not the most important moment of your life. and seriously, someone using the word faggot doesnt by default make them a homophobe. its about INTENT. tylers intent is not to bash gay people, but to piss off whoever the subject of his songs are. that is all.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
And racists don’t think they’re racists because they know black people, or Mexicans, or whatever haha.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
And bigots don’t think they’re bigots because they know black people, or Mexicans, or whatever haha.
Noah
Hey, thanks for this! His defense was always that he knew gay people — Odd Future’s DJ is supposedly a lesbian. However, his only reaction to the outcry against him was to say “faggot” every twelve seconds instead of every three.
mattsy
Ive never heard any of Tyler Perry (or whatever his name is) but I like some stuff by other rappers, but theres is waaaaaaaay to much use of the n-word(especially YOU Miss Banks) and I would not wont to hear the F bomb dropped a record number of times of some CD either. Its gross.
Belize
Ok. Fine. He’s not homophobic. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s still an imbecile.
“And ‘gay’ just means you’re stupid.”
Based on a homophobic logic that gayness is a form of stupidity, idiot. If we are to follow that logic, then Tyler the Creator is GAY.
It’s sad. The boy has good musical instinct. He would’ve been a good producer if his songs didn’t involve words.
Tyler
This writer is retarded, and so are a couple of the people commenting. Tyler is obviously joking about this shit, but you all are so sensitive that you don’t realize it. Grow up and realize that the world isn’t going to be your gay land that’s free of the word ‘faggot’. I make jokes about myself because I know they’re jokes. Calm the fuck down.
Chuck
“* “Deep down, I’m an emo-fuckin’ faggot that’s depressed”
This just sounds more like a confession than anything else.
UsualPlayers
The reality of most people- Black, White, gay, or other- is that they bring a lot of baggage and need to conform to the table. Everyone does this. That’s why the fight for gay rights is so hard. We are not fighting against a vast bulk of people who are passionate. We are fighting against the uphill battle of conformity and indifference. Passionate people will listen to your arguments. Indifferent people are harder because they aren’t listening in the first place to anything other than whatever their social circle says.
Jack
As gay people become more accepted, anti-gay terms will be seen as “not a big deal” by the younger crowd. Same thing has already happened with the N-word. I think his comment to the lesbians is far more of an issue than his use of the F-word in those contexts. Not agreeing with any of his word choices, but I get why he doesn’t think it’s a big deal.
Bee
If you really get down with the Odd Future music then you know that its satirical in nature Tyler is an outspoken atheist and uses demonic imagery in his music videos and music because he hates religion and uses it to satirize as well as the fact that he says bitch, nigga, and faggot like every other word…its a satire. He’s not talking about any gay person like oh this guy right here who likes guys is a faggot no he’s not you don’t see women getting offended when a guy calls another guy a bitch…words are words and as long as he’s not directly attacking someone they should be left as such the sooner we can take back faggot and fag the the sooner we can continue to move forward and learn how to stop being victims nd sitting down with our legs crossed waiting all politely and sweetly
Kev C
Gays don’t listen to rap music anyway. It’s worse than Polka music. Nobody cares if an Oom-pah player is gay or homophobic. It’s all gar-bagé.
UsualPlayers
@Jack: I walk around in my neighborhood listening to people say “My nigger” all the time and its frustrating because I am not from that generation. I have to ignore it because I realize they don’t have my experience with that being a term of racism. The really strange part is when I hear Whites and Latinos also saying things like that to their Black buddies and vice versa.
UsualPlayers
@Jack: Agree. I had wrote something longer but the site doesn’t like phrase like “my n@@@@r” Its difficult for me to hear people saying things like that, but I have had to come to accept they are a different generation from me, I still feel uncomfortable but I try not to say anything
CakeCakeCake
Even gays use anti-gay terms now, don’t single out Tyler. He’s not a homophobe and never has been. I remember my friend (lol a flamboyant to the extreme gay guy), his boyfriend, and I went to the OF shop and he was cool. Tyler told my friend that he looked cool af and when my bestie introduced his boyfriend Tyler was awesome and they started joking together. Stop being so sensitive and understand the world is changing. The F word for gays is now what the n word for blacks is, and yes – I can use that analogy.
Willy
Did you just copy and paste half that from your last artical on Tyler?
You just attributed a line from Assmilk to Tyler that was actually Earl Sweatshirt. Not a big deal? Maybe not to you (it still has your scary word in) but it leads me to question just how much research you have done.
Willy
@Mr. Enemabag Jones:
Is there not a difference between having black neighbors and touring, writing and performing with someone that Tyler often refers to as his “big brother”?
Smartguy
Um… The guy’s song lyrics even mention he has no beef against gays. After using the aforementioned words(always in an ironic context–see:hip hop), he wittily nods toward the ignorance of today’s media in its support of today’s gay right movement… You know, in which lazy ppl are empowered to pretend to change the world online, sans research.
Thejordans
So much (justifiable) vitriole for Tyler the Creator using f@ggot in his art, but how many of those same critics would hesitate to take aim at Sharon Needles for using the word n!gger in her art? Probably the same gays who would back Lisa Lampanelli’s use of biggoted slurs.
jayld
ditto @Smartguy. this post is rather stupid, if you’ve ever listened to tyler’s very progressive music!
dvlaries
>>Kev C
Gays don’t listen to rap music anyway. It’s worse than Polka music. Nobody cares if an Oom-pah player is gay or homophobic. It’s all gar-bagé.<<
*
I must largely agree. And for those who can remember when black popular music was really worth your disposable income, may I recommend Motown Junkies, wherein the webhost is methodically and scholastically reviewing every Motown single, as guided by The Complete Motown Singles, retailed by Hippo-Select.
*
Next in line as of this writing, Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is.” If you have some favorite Motown oldies, you will love this site.
http://motownjunkies.co.uk/
TylerFan
I agree with the last couple posts. It’s easy to sit here and read that he used the “F” word in his album 213 times and assume he hates gays, etc.. But if you think so, you really haven’t been listening to the music or know much about him. And like someone mentioned before, just because someone uses the “N” word in a rap song or with friends, it wouldn’t make sense to automatically label them as racist in this day and age. I’m not saying that using these words is right, but they have to be understood in context.
Honey
by his logoc that means since my old housekeeper was black so now i can say nigger whenever i want
Brian~
Tyler, the Creator, is young and stupid. Whats your excuse, Queerty? When you try to rip “straight” guys from the closet, are you concerned about their feelings? Grow up and get consistent, a$$holes!
Honey
And to the people who say that odd future is progressive: please be informed that their lyrics are mysoginist homophobic and promote rape all while having a female and a gay man in their group which ‘obviously’ makes is okay
Aiden
@Kev C: Really? You speak for all gay people now?
Dan
You forgot this quote from ‘Oldie,’ off his most recent mix tape. A song which also features Frank Ocean rapping “I’m high and I’m bi”…
“This is for the niggers in the suburbs
And the white kids with nigger friends who say the n-word
And the ones that got called weird, fag, bitch, nerd
Cause you was into jazz, kitty cats, and Steven Spielberg
They say we ain’t actin’ right
Always try to turn our fuckin’ color into black and white
But they’ll never change ’em, never understand ’em
Radical’s my anthem, turn my fucking amps up
So instead of critiquing and bitchin’, bein’ mad as fuck
Just admit, not only are we talented, we’re rad as fuck, bitches”
-Tyler the Creator
If Queerty truly thinks Tyler is 1 of the 52 ‘douche-iest’ individuals towards the LGBT community this year, then several fact checkers should seriously be hired over there immediately…
Kev C
@Aiden: A few gays have vulgar taste, limited vocabularies and are uneducated, all of which are prerequisites for liking rap. Anyway you look at it, it’s low-brow music for low-brow people. Written by dopers and thugs for dopers and thugs.
SEXXYJAMAICAN
@Kev C: You are such a piece of shit..
Kev C
Rap music is, and always has been, very homophobic. I know this is true. Many popular rap artists have advocated violence towards gays, and violence has been committed as a result or conjunction. Attacks have occurred while the attackers played rap, or recited homophobic lyrics. I’ve witnesed this, and experienced it.
Maybe a few self-hating gays enjoy being punished by listening to rap. Gays who listen to rap should be condemned as sick masochists.
LadyL
@dvlaries: Definitely worth checking out–thanks for the link! 🙂
LadyL
@Kev C: I know how you feel, Kev C. I do like hip-hop (well, some), but hardcore or gangsta rap has never had any appeal for me.
Hardcore rap has its champions as a legitimate form of social protest, at least in its beginnings. Even as I understood its emergence as an expression of rage and frustraton by a forgotten people–appearances notwithstanding, rap has always been more about class than about race–I’ve always been repelled by its glamorization of thug culture, heedless misogyny, mindless homophobia–and epic hypocrisy.
*
All those closet cases spewing F-bombs were/are to me as disgusting and pathetic as the Washington politicos who’ve used anti-gay legislation to hide themselves from their religious right constituents. And the commercialization of rap–whose biggest audience seems to be white suburban kids–calls into question just what this music is really about and who it is really for. Confronted with the reality that black rappers were selling to white audiences racial stereotypes they supposedly resented, rap music responded with a business-is-business shrug.
*
Personally, I’m glad Tyler The Creator is being called out. Yeah, he’s young, but he can’t hide behind that excuse forever. I think his bravado tweets and idiotic self-justifications will eventually give way to a realization that words do matter–especially if his friend Ocean stands up to him, even if only privately. Let us hope.
Aquarelle
Yuck, Tyler is not cute at all. If here hot, maybe then he’d get away with using the word Fa&&ot. But he’s not cute enough for that.
Kev C
@LadyL: Whatever Tyler’s excuses are, there is no denying he’s using homophobia to benefit himself, to gain an audience that responds to it. And it’s the same as Eminem, with the excuse of artistic pretension, shock value, being ironic, or whatever. Just because Hate sells isn’t an excuse to indulge it.
Lou
@Kev C: wow. you sound fun.
Lou
@LadyL: its only offensive if you take EVERY SINGLE LINE he says literally. as you shouldnt. ever. but whatever. enjoy listening to barry manilow.
LadyL
@Kev C: Well, I agree; it wasn’t my intention to be an apologist for the genre. I think it’s worth trying to understand it even if you deplore it.
But you’re right– it is important for people to realize that for both Tyler and Eminem (to name just two of many) homophobia and misogyny isn’t about artistic expression but expediency. By the time Tyler arrived on the scene (by the time Eminem had arrived earlier) there was a template in place, a formula. And each new artist quickly gets with that program if they want to be a star, which has clearly been Tyler’s game plan. It’s a little like negative campaign ads–it’s ugly and exploitative but unfortunately it works.
*
So my thoughts keep turning from Tyler to Frank Ocean, who might be the Great Rap Hope. If he survives. If he’s not buried alive by an industry that doesn’t know what to do with him, and a media that doesn’t know how to cover him, and audiences who aren’t sure how to respond. As an out black artist, will Ocean be allowed to survive? And if he does succeed what will his influence be?
LadyL
@Lou: But the trouble there is that you can’t dictate to people how to perceive the message, whether it’s musical or whatever. Human beings are not wired that way.
*
And… Manilow? Seriously? You’re saying that these are the only choices? Please.
Danny
You forgot this quote from ‘Oldie,’ off his most recent mix tape. A song which also features Frank Ocean rapping “I’m high and I’m bi”…
“This is for the n1gg3rs in the suburbs
And the white kids with n1gg3r friends who say the n-word
And the ones that got called weird, ffag, b1tch, nerd
Cause you was into jazz, kitty cats, and Steven Spielberg
They say we ain’t actin’ right
Always try to turn our’ color into black and white
But they’ll never change ‘em, never understand ‘em”
-Tyler the Creator
If Queerty truly thinks Tyler is 1 of the 52 ‘douche-iest’ individuals towards the LGBT community this year, then several new fact checkers should seriously be hired over there immediately… Someone in the overly homophobic rap industry, who has created the first ever rap collective, ofwgkta, with both an out, lesbian singer and producer (Syd tha Kid) and gay rapper (Frank Ocean), should be given way more credit than this. If Tyler was a homophobe, why would he be constantly collaborating with them, as well as clearly defending his use of the f-word as a connotation solely for a stupid individual, not a person sleeping with someone of the same sex… Its shock value, plain and simple, which has been a tactic for musicians for decades, whether it be songs involving drug use, anti-establishment, anarchism, atheism, or graphic sex talk. It when we put too much meaning behind a word, that the word itself become more destructive.
Kev C
@LadyL: Gays have their own culture and rap/hiphop is not part of it. Rap is music for homophobes. Enemies of gays. Gays shouldn’t listen to rap because it’s unhealthy for them. The gays I’ve met who listen to rap, are hostile, homophobic, self-hating. Maybe females are different, but gay men who enjoy rap are usually one step from jail. And the rate of gays headed to prison has increased in the last few years.
Real men refuse rap. It’s not part of gay culture.
Sohobod
I’m more interested to know why there’s a little owl looking at Tyler in the picture.
dvd-junkie
@Lou: Well, Lou, what’s your non-literal interpretation of Tyler’s lyrics about “taking a stab at it” and “preordering the casket”? Got a catchy euphemism to justify his crap?
Dionte
I thought gay meant you were happy.
opnionated
tyler doesn’t mean it when he says shit like that. he throws around the word ‘fag’ in front of Syd the whole time and she even knows that he isn’t really homophobic like that. (Syd being a gay member of OF). If you guys paid close attention in one of his interviews he basically stated [people give words meaning, its up to them to give it value]. Also its “goblin” not “golbin”
Aaron
Maybe the gay members of OddFuture don’t let their sexuality define them, LIKE YOU ARE TELLING THE WORLD TO DO? If you don’t want the world to judge you on you sexual preferences, don’t make it an issue. If you do, just like a straight person constantly bragging about sexual conquests, people will judge you. If sex is the most defining part of your personality and it dictates ALL of your life choices, no one will like you, straight or gay.
pete
@kev C’s ignorance baffles me