Tyler, the Creator Denies Reports He’s Changing His Name “Are You Stupid?”
After a new interview with Fast Company where he spoke about his name, it was alleged that the rapper wanted to change his moniker as ‘Tyler, the Creator’, but in a series of tweets, he says the rumors are false.
Tyler, the Creator is putting rumors to rest. While speaking with Fast Company about the passing of friend and mentor Virgil Abloh, the rapper briefly spoke about how he got his title as “Tyler, the Creator.” Born Tyler Okonma, he says that his stage name came from his Myspace page the he created when he was 13-years-old, where he gained a following for his creativity through drawings, photography and beat-making.
“I started using that one more and random people from Kentucky would be, like, ‘Cool beats, bro!’ And so I just kept the Tyler, the Creator thing going and, you know, I’m 17 in high school, around LA, the name’s getting around, and I kind of just kept it as my stage name,” he said. “It’s really dumb, but it stuck with me so it just works.”
Starting to use his birth name in the credits of recent music videos, Tyler, the Creator hinted that fans will see more of his Igbo surname.
“But my full name, Tyler Okonma, in all caps just looks really cool. So you might see more of that, I don’t know, I’m getting older and I think when people get older they start to realize shit, you just start changing,”
Readers alleged that the rapper was considering changing his name, but in a series of now-deleted tweets, Tyler, the Creator punched back.
“I NEVER SAID I WAS CHANGING MY NAME, ARE YOU STUPID? YES,” the rapper tweeted in all caps.
“WILL EMBRACE MY LAST NAME MORE, LESS WOLF HALEY, NEVER SAID I WAS GONNA CHANGE MY STAGE NAME, WHAT YO EARS ON BRO?” he continued.
He went on to explain the Fast Company article:
“INTERVIEWER ASKED ABOUT MY STAGE NAME, I EXPLAINED HOW I GOT IT, I JOKED ABOUT IT BEING DUMB BUT KEPT IT. TALKED ABOUT MY AFRICAN LAST NAME HOW I WANT TO EMBRACE IT NOW THAT IM OLDER AND HAVE A NEW VIEW ON IT. SITES SAYS IM CHANGING IT. FALSE. FROM THE SOURCE IN CASE U BELIEVED.”