Music Journalists Called Out for Excusing Sociopathic "Tyler, the Creator"

The rap group Odd Future has quickly risen to fame, receiving headlines and acclaim throughout the indie music world for their idiosyncratic, abrasive music sans any official album releases. However, after the release of frontman Tyler, the Creator’s first major label solo album Goblin, Sara Quin of the Canadian indie rock group Tegan and Sara published a brief open letter excoriating the album’s offensive lyrics and music writers’ hypocritical silence:

As journalists and colleagues defend, excuse and congratulate ‘Tyler, the Creator,’ I find it impossible not to comment. In any other industry would I be expected to tolerate, overlook and find deeper meaning in this kid’s sickening rhetoric? Why should I care about this music or its “brilliance” when the message is so repulsive and irresponsible?There is much that upsets me in this world, and this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve drafted an open letter or complaint, but in the past I’ve found an opinion – some like-minded commentary – that let me rest assured that my outrage, my voice, had been accounted for. Not this time.

If any of the bands whose records are held in similar esteem as Goblin had lyrics littered with rape fantasies and slurs, would they be labeled hate mongers? I realize I could ask that question of DOZENS of other artists, but is Tyler exempt because people are afraid of the backlash?The inevitable claim that detractors are being racist, or the brush-off that not “getting it” would indicate that you’re “old” (or a faggot)? Because, the more I think about it, the more I think people don’t actually want to go up against this particular bully because he’s popular.

On Twitter, Tyler responded, “If Tegan and Sara need some hard dick, hit me up!” Classy.

Personal behavior aside, the music on Tyler’s Goblin ranks far below genuine minimalist rap or taking a hand drill to your own temple. Above a nightmarish collage of lazy beats, menacing synth drones, and atonal piano tinkling lie lyrics chock full of soul-crushing nihilism and simmering hatred, with pervasive misogyny (complete with Dexter villain-esque violent rape fantasies) covered by the tiniest fig leaf of self-deprecation and suicide threats. The furthest I’ll go in fretting about these loathsome lyrics is saying that if a young girl goes missing and Tyler is a suspect, Goblin will ultimately be better known as “Exhibit A” from the prosecution. But I’d hate to grant him the self-satisfaction of calling it disturbing or offensive; it’s sophomoric shock-mongering by an “artist” who’s scraping the bottom of the barrel on the first bar of the record.

Quin hits on an important point in her blog. Writers in the indie music world, despite their image of detached, nonchalant hipness, actually possess a very strong herd mentality (and yes, I understand it takes one to know one). All the progressive smears that we’d hear if someone whispering a fraction of this bile were a country singer, rock singer, or even a dreaded Republican are simply nowhere to be found in coverage of Tyler or Odd Future. These guys’ coolness and edginess has ontologically altered them; because of who they are and what they represent (a hot new trend, of whom the writers can be in-the-know early adopters) they get a pass on what the journalistic community often refers to as hate speech. The real issue here isn’t Tyler; he’s only twenty years old and spouting childish inanities. The real issue is that empowering journalists have embraced those inanities to show off how they “get it,” lending credence to an ugly and destructive worldview. Kudos to Ms. Quin for sticking her neck out, because this did need to be said. I believe free speech includes the freedom to reproach, and if there’s anything in need of reproach, it’s the Odd Future hype bandwagon.