After a recent interview with Tyler, the Creator made the rounds, fans and some media outlets began speculating whether the rapper might be considering changing his stage name. Now, Tyler is setting the record straight.
In a string of since-deleted tweets, Tyler roasted those who thought he would change his stage name to Tyler Okonma, his birth name. “I NEVER SAID I WAS CHANGING MY NAME, ARE YOU STUPID? YES,” he wrote early in the morning on Thursday (Dec. 30). “WILL EMBRACE MY LAST NAME MORE, LESS WOLF HALEY [referring to his alter ego], NEVER SAID I WAS GONNA CHANGE MY STAGE NAME, WHAT YO EARS ON BRO?”
The confusion came after a recent interview Okonma did with Fast Company, in which the rapper spoke about the MySpace origin story of his stage name. During the interview, Tyler called his stage name “dumb,” and spoke about the aesthetics of using his birth name for creative projects. “My full name, Tyler Okonma, in all caps just looks really cool,” he said. “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 s–t, you just start changing.”
When a fan asked Tyler for context surrounding his tweets, the rapper responded, filling him in on what he was seeing. “INTERVIEWER ASKED ABOUT MY STAGE NAME, I EXPLAINED HOW I GOT IT, I JOKED ABOUT IT BEING DUMB BUT KEPT IT,” he wrote. “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.”
Before eventually deleting his tweets, Tyler noted that he wasn’t actually angry about the confusion, despite the all-caps text. “ALL CAPS MAKES YOU THINK THE PERSON IS MAD OR SOMETHING HA, WILD IT GIVES OFF THAT EMOTION JUST BEING UPPERCASE.”
After releasing his critically acclaimed album Call Me If You Get Lost in 2021, which topped the Billboard 200 in July, Tyler, the Creator is currently preparing for his upcoming 2022 North American tour. The shows kick off in San Diego on Feb. 10, and the tour conclude its 34-date run on April 8 in Seattle.
