Tyler, the Creator has stirred up some interesting dialogue about Ian, a new popular rapper in the genre, and why his presence bothers him.
During an interview with Maverick Carter, the “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST” artist shared his frustrations with a particular “white kid,” saying, “There’s this kid right now, this white kid, regular Caucasian man, and he’s like mocking Future and Gucci Mane, like rap music. And people are like, ‘This shit hard!’”
He continues, “It’s not even like satire, it’s like, ‘I’m just joking, I’m just mocking it.’ But I’m like, ‘No, no, no, you can’t do [that].’ And I hold rap music so close to my heart ’cause this shit changed my life and everyone’s life around me, and I’m a nerd about this shit.”
“This is like weird and 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 who didn’t seem like they were mocking it; they had a genuine love for it.”
To no surprise, the clip has since received a lot of attention on social media, to the point where Ian’s manager responded to it on his Instagram Story, writing, “Yo @feliciathegoat, i signed Ian & im from Atlanta. He sounds nothing like Gucci or future lol. It’s called influence.”
If you’re unaware of how this “white kid” sounds, listen to the track that helped him go viral.
While Tyler never specified that he was talking about Ian, he’s the most popular young white rapper out right now trying to emulate a popular sound that is likely not true to who he is.
While his manager was quick to defend him, many people on social media were not.
Hip-hop is so far removed from its anti-status-quo status of yore that it’s gotten to the point where people who started rapping aren’t necessarily doing it for the love or enjoyment of it. They’re simply doing to chase a bag.
While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it leads to music that is “artistically bankrupt.” So while young hip-hop fans can enjoy Ian, nobody can argue that he’s pushing the culture with original sound, lyrics, or style.