\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 2015, alongside the release of his fourth album Cherry Bomb<\/em>, Tyler, the Creator released a limited-edition zine as part of his Golf Media project featuring interviews with people like Seth Rogen, as well as ephemera related to the album, such as a scan of the Moleskine notebook where he jotted down his ideas. He dedicates a few pages in the book to highlight the albums he\u2019d been most influenced by: Clipse\u2019s Hell Hath No Fury, Pharrell\u2019s In My Mind, and, instructively, D\u2019angelo\u2019s 2000 masterpiece Voodoo. In his write-up about the late R&B luminary\u2019s album, Tyler recalls getting $30 from his grandmother for his ninth birthday and buying the CD. \u201cMy favorite videos to see on BET were \u2018Get Up\u2019 by Amel Larrieux and \u2018Left Right\u2019 by D\u2019Angelo,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI bought both albums and I will never regret that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLast week, following D\u2019 Angelo\u2019s tragic passing, Tyler took to Instagram to pay tribute to the artist who had such an impact on his music early on\u2014except, things quickly went haywire.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAfter a heartfelt post in which he reiterated much of what he wrote ten years ago, comments came rushing in, either dismissing the post and clamoring for new music or questioning who D\u2019Angelo was in the first place. As he often does, Tyler took to Twitter and criticized the segment of his fanbase he perjoratively called \u201cSun Seekers,\u201d a.k.a. the white fans who were unaware of D\u2019Angelo\u2019s legacy. A post from the popular hip-hop news aggregator Kurcco pointed out that Tyler himself liked a tweet that stated, \u201cNigga has charlie wilson, erykah badu, dj drama etc. collaborations and they still refuse to engage with black art on any meaningful level. very cannibalistic.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe argument that emerged suggested that Tyler, the Creator, in his early, highly offensive Odd Future work, cultivated a fanbase of white incels who were inherently hostile to Black music. The refrain was that he should have expected these reactions to his D\u2019Angelo tribute and has no one to blame but himself. The evidence for this was Tweets and screenshots from his early career, where Tyler did everything from criticizing George Floyd protests to pulling \u201cedgy\u201d stunts like dressing in a Klan robe, and selling merch featuring a rendering of the offensive Sambo figure. More than provocations from an artist conveying a particular (misguided) form of racialized postmodern angst, these data points have come to serve as proof that Tyler hates himself and his own Blackness. It\u2019s the type of conversation tailor-made for the internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n