For almost as long as rap has been at the height of popular culture, fans and professionals have carried on the tradition of ranking the top rappers, from “top five, dead or alive” lists to Mount Rushmores of rap. But there’s one practitioner you won’t find participating: Tyler The Creator, who not only explained why he has no patience for such things but also declared “I f*cking hate Rap Twitter” in a preview of his upcoming interview with Rap Radar Podcast.
When prompted by co-host Elliott Wilson, Tyler launched into an all-out tirade, rejecting the idea of an “objective” top rapper and denouncing the nonstop debates that take place on social media — especially “Rap Twitter,” the collective name for accounts that generate such discussion with provocative prompts and hot takes on the bird app.
“Bro, who gives a f*ck?” Tyler demanded. “You know what annoys me? When people are like, ‘This is my top five,’ and people argue it. You got 17-year-olds like, ‘Yeah, dude, Ready To Die and Enter The Wu-Tang is my top ten albums ever.’” After expressing his incredulity with one helluva metaphor he continued, “It’s performative. Again, some people might be right, but … you got YoungBoys and [Lil] Baby’s out here and that’s your favorite album?”
“I don’t care about people’s ‘objective’ top nothing,” he asserted. “Tell me what is your favorite sh*t. Because you learn so much from people. You get context. I wanna know why you think Pookie Dookie’s second album is your favorite… I wanna hear that.”
This isn’t the first time Tyler has discredited a hot topic. Early last year, he slammed the NFT craze (he was right) and earlier this year, he did the same with posthumous albums, revealing his ill expressly bans releasing any posthumous work of his (he’s right again, but whoever ends up in charge of his unreleased music may not see it that way).