Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you're doing well. Seems that Tyler, The Creator is in a bit of hot water at the moment. Controversy. What else is new?

Actually, this is kind of strange. It's been a while since Tyler or anything that he said has been a hot topic of discussion, or at least it feels like we're in such a different era right now, as opposed to when he originally broke onto the scene with Odd Future, and you really couldn't get away from the guy because there was a new headline about him every second about something he tweeted, something offensive he did, some other wild, crazy thing that happened live.

But as Tyler's music and his personality has changed and shifted over the years, he's matured quite a bit. And while he still remains to be a very eccentric and a very opinionated character, he seems to be a lot more careful these days about what he says and when exactly he says it, so that he ignores some of the more polarizing pitfalls that he used to constantly be in earlier in his career. With the exception of what we are about to talk about today, an appearance that he did in this Mavericks interview series that is hosted by Maverick Carter.

Admittedly, this is the only episode of this interview series I have watched. It's hard to call Maverick, at least in this video, an interviewer per se, because a lot of the time it just seems like he's throwing in a few words or comments in edgewise as Tyler is just on a roll, just like a complete runaway train who just can't be stopped in the midst of the rant that he's on, specifically in the section of the interview where Tyler seems to be really just venting about what he sees as the modern state of the music industry.

There are some things he said in the section of the interview that have rubbed people the wrong way. Personally, I think he gets some of his points right, some of them maybe not so much.

First off, he throws out this big gripe about musicians out there who are getting hot and getting popular and making waves off of what he sees as memes records. According to him, they're not actual musicians.

"There's so many niggas out right now that aren't musicians that are getting treated like musicians because they make meme records or whatever. I'm like, bro, there's niggas out here that's really special, really alien, really talented, really putting in the work."

A lot of people have taken issue with specifically this comment out of the interview, and I could see why, because it does read, at least on the surface, as a bit of hypocrisy on Tyler's part, because anybody who is well familiar with his career knows that he started off things in, I guess you could say, in a reverent fashion.

I mean, part of what made Tyler, The Creator such an interesting and compelling character for a lot of younger listeners as he was beginning to break out, is that he didn't really take himself too seriously. He was always down for a joke or a gag or a spoof or a something. He was ridiculous. He was silly. He was over the top. He was an exciting switch up from the old guard rap hierarchy that was laid out before he came onto the scene.

And now because of him and musicians like him, the landscape has completely changed. I do get the aggravation a little bit because it does feel like Tyler's current day comments in this interview feel almost a rejection of that or almost like he forgot how he got to where he is today. But with that being said, I do still think he has a point because some of this surface level mimetic viral crap that is being shoveled down people's throats now, even Tyler in his worst moments in his catalog, Cherry Bomb, for example, was still more interesting, musical, subversive, and substantive than that. That being the artist that he's railing about at this point.

He's not even necessarily mad, per se, that there are out there making stupid, jokey music. He even goes on to say, 'Do your thing, make your bag. I'm all for that.' He just seems to take issue with the fact that the audience and publications alike are emphasizing this stuff to the degree where it's overshadowing artists who are actually kind of worth a damn, are actually trying to create music and art that has some depth and meaning to it. Losing sight of that in favor of only focusing on people who are just following trends for the money. There's going to be negative consequences to that down the road as younger viewers and listeners are left with the impression that you don't really need to want to be driven by anything else other than money in order to make it in the music industry.

There's another section in the interview where I disagree with Tyler quite a bit. This might be my biggest point of contention in the conversation, where he seems to think that these days everything is so homogenized, everybody's doing and saying the same thing. Back in the day in 2003, everyone sounded different.

"You go to 2003. Jay didn't sound like T.I., who didn't sound like 50. Pharrell didn't sound like Dre, who didn't sound like fucking Quik, who didn't sound like Ye or Just Blaze or Alchemist. Eminem didn't sound like fucking Jill Scott. Jill Scott wasn't trying to sound like Julian from the fucking Strokes. Everyone was them fucking selves."

But the thing is, as somebody who was older than Tyler during that point in time and was an avid music consumer, while it is true, we can look on that time in retrospect and say, 'Hey, look, here are all these great artists who withstood the test of time, who all sound wildly different from each other.' Having actually lived through that era, there was a lot of homogenization going on in the music industry in the 2000s. Maybe not as much across the board because there was more of a filter through the industry in terms of what could be released and what couldn't be. You weren't just directly uploading your music to social media per se or to Spotify in the way that people are today.

Also on top of it, hip hip hop was not quite the cash cow back then that it is now. So there wasn't quite as much trend-chasing in hip hop across the board, but it still very much was there. This time period is referred to as the "Bling Era" for a reason. I mean, 50 Cent, while we can say, like in Tyler's interview, yeah, he sounded wildly different from all these other massive rappers who also have transcended the era that they came out of. That is true, but around that time, there were tons of lesser way more mediocre rappers who were just chasing after the same thing that 50 was because that was the trend and that was the meta at the moment.

Back in the day, you had Jay-Z copycats, you had 50 copycats, you had Soulja Boy copycats. And a lot of this was made worse by the fact that radio stations at the time were being bought up left and right and thrown into the same programming schedules by Clear Channel, by Viacom, so there wasn't as much variety variety as there used to be musically. Look, my point is, ultimately, there was most definitely musical and cultural homogenization going on around that time to a degree. Was it as bad as it is today? I guess we could argue that, but it did exist.

Then finally, to close things out in this video, there is a section of this conversation where seemingly Tyler is talking about, without mentioning him by name, that up and coming rapper who I have discussed on my main channel in a Not Good video ian, who personally I just see as a very boring, mediocre artist who is essentially ripping off the likes of Lil Baby, of Playboi Cardi, a little bit of Future in there, too.

Tyler seems to take issue with Ian and what he does, calling it like some mockery of the music of Gucci Mane and of Future.

"This a white kid, regular caucasian man, and he's like, mocking Future and Gucci Mane rap music, and people are like, 'This shit hard.' This is weird. I'm looking at it and something about it don't even sit well with me in comparison to someone like a Mac Miller or Eminem."

Apparently, ian's manager, Bu, took to social media to tear Tyler down over these comments, saying that he's essentially just hating on the youth and the stuff the kids are into these days. And there have been lots of comments as well across social media and on Reddit, essentially painting Tyler as out of touch, and once again, hypocritical because it's not exactly like Tyler took his own career super seriously out of the gate.

Now look, personally, I do think there is some validity to the criticisms Tyler is facing in reaction to his comments that are seemingly about ian. I just think he's going about making his points in a ineffective way. Because ultimately, ian, as much as he may be a little 'he he ha ha' at points, we don't necessarily have proof of the fact that he's mocking or has any irreverence for Gucci Mane or Future in the way that Tyler had quite a bit of irreverence for some of the greats that came before him early on, be it in his public comments after he blew up or even on message boards before he got popular. I'm not really a huge fan of his obsession with the seriousness with which ian or anybody else approaches their music, because I don't think the level of seriousness that you portray in your art or your public persona is necessarily a reflection of the artistic merits of your work, per se.

With that being said, though, I do think there is reason to point at ian as an example of how viral music marketing in the current-day music industry can go wrong because it sometimes fast-tracks some of the most worthless and mediocre music that mankind has ever generated. ian is a prime example of that because repeatedly, when it comes to his production choices, his flows, his lyrical content, and even his song structures, he really truly brings nothing to the table that we aren't already getting but better from at least several dozen other artists.

And look, hate on Tyler for his comments all you want and call him out as like, 'Hey, you used to be funny. You used to be childish. You used to be this. You used to be that.' Also, remember, during that time when Tyler was dicking around, and look, I was a very big Odd Future and early Tyler, The Creator critic myself. Remember that During that time, Tyler also freaking made "Yonkers", and I would put money on Ian over the course of his entire career. Yeah, he's never going to make a track that is as good or is as impactful as "Yonkers".

I guaran-fucking-tee, ian's entire career will come and go without a single song that is as good or as important as "Yonkers" because he's not bringing the musicality, the substance, or the artistry that he's going to need to do that, even as he's bringing other people into the fold. Because let's remember, Tyler, The Creator, was very much a self-starter at the beginning of his career, having written and performed and conceptualized Bastard on his own. Meanwhile, Ian is just basically doing the same crap that a bunch of other rappers that are also not that interesting are doing, but he's just a white guy doing it?

Again, I think Tyler could have put his words better, but I can understand why he would see that and just be like, 'What the fuck is this shit? Why is anyone excited about this?' Because it really is that mediocre and uninteresting. So yeah, while I do think he may have left himself exposed or rhetorically at a few points there, I don't think there's anything wrong with Tyler pointing out the fact that there's no reason ian should be as big of a deal as he is right now, because he really is doing nothing special whatsoever.

And while, sure, he and his manager and everyone around him is allowed to get their bag, let's not pretend that they're doing anything else other than that. So, yeah, I'm going to leave it there. Let me know your thoughts on all of this in the comments down below.

Anthony Fantano, Tyler, The Creator, ian, Forever.