Tyler, the Creator Blasts ‘Meme’ Musicians: ‘You Taking Up Space’

If Tyler, the Creator has had some harsh words on rap and media lately, it’s not for lack of respect for the genre and its ecosystem, he claimed in a new interview.

In his latest critique, Tyler calls out artists he believes have ulterior motives. His quick quip is part of a teaser for a new episode of the web series, Mavericks with Mav Carter. (Maverick Carter is LeBron James’ business partner at SpringHill, a video production company.)

In the clip, Tyler tells Carter, “There’s so many niggas out right now that aren’t musicians that are getting treated like musicians because they make meme records — publicly will be like, ‘I don’t give a fuck about music. I just do this shit for money.'”

He compares the prevalence of this to the famous triple Spider-Man meme, and says, “When every publication is like, ‘Hell yeah, let’s put that out,’ you taking up space for niggas like me.” Tyler prefaces his observation by saying: “I don’t want to see like a hater. Sometimes I have hater energy because I just think I’m that good.” 

“Is your frustration because you care about this art form?” Carter asks him in response.

“I love this art form so much, bro,” Tyler replies. The full interview will premiere on YouTube on Aug. 14. 

In a post on X sharing the clip, rapper Russ agreed with Tyler’s assessment. “Spot on,” he wrote. “Making music solely to get rich is why the majority of the music sucks ass.”

Last year, Tyler was thought to have thrown shade at Complex’s interview shows Hot Ones and Sneaker Shopping as examples of music media getting away from actual music. “We need to stop fucking going sneaker shopping or fucking deep-throating hot wings for an hour,” he said when speaking to Nardwuar at his Camp Flog Gnaw festival last year. “Talk about your album. Talk about music. Talk about the 15 songs that you guys have spent time to get mixed and mastered and put your heart into and produced and did all these things.”

He later clarified that his beef wasn’t with Hot Ones in particular, but a broader trend of artist interviews becoming more gimmicky. “I could’ve said one of the podcast/outlets that really pushes the more negative stuff, but in the moment I didn’t,” he wrote in an Instagram story. Tyler added, “So Sean [Evans] you didn’t really deserve the energy that comes off, wasn’t my intention at all. Although, ‘deep throating chicken’ sounds hilarious to me.”