Whenever Tyler The Creator and Nardwuar link up, there’s always going to be some gold to mine. In his latest interview with the Canadian host, which they shot at Camp Flog Gnaw recently, Tyler deplores the gimmicky state of music journalism while coining what is possibly the funniest description of the show Hot Ones ever. Sneaker Shopping also catches a stray in the interview, which you can watch in full above.
While talking about how much he loves talking about music, Tyler wonders at fans’ reticence to take in such conversation in comparison to interview shows with wild hooks. Lamenting that so much music journalism is about beef and gossip, he says, “We need to get back to talking about music. We need to stop going sneaker shopping or f*cking deep-throating hot wings for an hour. Talk about your album, talk about music, talk about the 15 songs you guys have spent time and gotten mixed and mastered and put your heart into and produced… when the album comes out and it sells 2 copies, everyone is confused – but they don’t want to talk about the music, they’d rather eat chicken wings and sneaker shop.”
Tyler, The Creator to Nardwuar on the current state of music journalism:
“We need to get back to talking about music. We need to stop going sneaker shopping or f*****g deep-throating hot wings for an hour. Talk about your album, talk about music…when the album comes out and it… pic.twitter.com/QNqWSgVlpI
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 17, 2023
Tyler’s passion comes from a genuine place; he legitimately seems worried that the devaluing of music could lead to a place where the music isn’t worth making or listening to. However, perhaps in an object illustration of just what he was talking about, only the comments above were broken out on social media, prompting him to hit his Instagram Story to clear a few things up.
“In the interview i shared a thought about the lack of journalism in music,” he wrote, “and used ‘hot ones’ as one of two examples.”
it comes off as having so much disdain towards the show which i dont, but really it was to be used as a broader example that popped in my head while trying to make the point. i could’ve said one of the (podcasts/ outlets that really pushes the more negative stuff but in that moment i didn’t. so sean [Evans, the host of Hot Ones] you didn’t really deserve the energy that comes off, wasnt my intention at all although “deep throating chicken” sounds hilarious to me. i am highly opinionated and outspoken so it comes off as my usual “complaining” ( like everyone else does, mines just gets shared more than the regular poster or comment, even if most of the video is me giving praise and showing gratitude to a multitude of things, that’s not what’s gonna get shared or spoken about). this will most likely get lost while the clip continues to get tossed around, but at least a few of you will see this. won’t change much since it’s out but yeah. really wish i used a different example, you seem like a sweet ol lady
a point pic.twitter.com/4YVy2auifl
— T (@tylerthecreator) November 17, 2023
Hey look, I don’t always agree with T, but in this case… He’s absolutely right (and I’m not just saying that because my job is almost entirely dependent on me writing about music and people actually LOOKING at what I wrote). Music fans complain (rightly) about the focus on gossip and poor sourcing in music journalism today, but then click on SayCheeseTV and TheShadeRoom for their music news. Seems counterproductive to me. We (journalists and artists alike) get into this because we love music and we love talking about music. The cynicism and commercialism that is slowly sucking the soul out of everything can be fought, but only if we all care enough (that includes you readers and viewers) to do it.
(He’s also got a point about releasing music on Tuesdays again, but you can watch the interview for that too).