Listen closely to the skit at the end of 2SEATER and you'll hear a pitched down early version "When Gloves Come Off." This means that the crew for the Grinch movie reached out YEARS before the movie going as far back as 2015, or he had a track demo/instrumental he made that he used as a soundtrack similar to his Golf le Fluer fashion shows or live performances. This is a cool Easter egg!
I also have a 808s and Heartbreak CD that came with the 808s and Heartbreak vinyl. It's not in the picture because it's a single CD inside a vinyl gatefold of course and I didn't wanna take it out and potentially scratch it on the rug. The CD with Chur Bum on it with the black color border is a custom made bootleg of the instrumentals from the 2020 RSD Cherry Bomb Instrumentals vinyl btw.
This is a thinkpiece. Feel free to discuss this or add your own ideas in the comments.
For individual mental health purposes, etc. (Disclaimer/Trigger Warning: Politics)
Goblin and Bastard are top 3 Tyler for me, but I feel like old Tyler requires proper context and understanding of the culture of the music scene at the time as well as the ability to look deeper within that OF era beyond the controversial shit to see the artistic craft and complexity of those young teen/adults at the time which I feel like a lot of fans already do since there are plenty of fans of and Tyler and OF so this isn't the main point of this discussion I guess.
The thing about music and rap is that as time goes on the culture shifts and we get new people involved in these spaces whether that's newer generations of youth or already existing folks whom have grown up and adapted alongside these cultural shifts. Back then during the 2000s-early 2010s, the world, or specifically America still had a lack of education and media representation regarding sexuality and acceptance of queerness and racial ethnicities, and if they weren't actually queerphobic/racist the media and entertainment industries still pushed offensive or outright harmful stereotypes and visuals disguised as a "joke." You can see it in the media from that time whether a rapper mockingly questioned a man's sexuality with the intent to diminish their image because gayness was weakness to them, or a movie and tv episode where a character uses the "fa***t" slur, or a racist representation of a person of color via sterotypes or the use of token characters(having a single person of color to meet diversity quotas and to appeal as non-racist). Awareness of the culture, history, heritage, media, etc of America wasn't discussed openly in a mature manner like it probably should've been in some mainstream spaces, but it wasn't THAT bad admittedly because they really were just jokes and theatrics and a lot lf these people didn't intend their art to come across that way. This topic is very subjective as you can tell.
The latter half of Tyler's music career and his lyrical content and image/brand happened during an era where Gen Z and younger millennials were taking over the culture as we knew it. There was more activism and awareness than ever before and the idea of "wokeness" had grown in popularity by 2016-18 at least according to what I witness in my childhood. New gens who engaged in art and media decided to not take any more of the industry's bullshit and started getting LOUD loud whenever there was even a TINY racist micro-agression or queerphobic rhetoric because people learned that these inaccurate or exaggerated images of minorities have helped uphold white supremacy and the ignorance of bigoted Americans by labeling harmful visuals/themes as comedy or fiction to stay comfortable and avoid open-minded thinking. Also, we live in an era where EVERYTHING is recorded and EVERYONE is torn apart online for shit which created a social environment digitally AND irl that puts major pressure on the youth to grow up and mature and be politically and morally correct more than ever, especially within these modern political times where most people are very emotionally affected and sensitive towards the nasty shit happening in the world. Gen Z used to be children or teenagers a decade ago, but now we've grown up and we are now the future and a lot of us are suffering from the American government's bullshit firsthand so of course since we're the most politically and socially aware generation yet combined with an increase in rage and upset over our current lives, Trump's presidency, and ICE attacks, we take ignorant harmful views and commentary regarding overseas conflict and presidential scandals PERSONALLY.
With all this context you can imagine how these people reacted to the Odd Future era, and you can see some truth within the backlash like how racist and ignorant some fans of Tyler can be due to their behaviors because to them, they basically feel like they were greenlit by a black man they idolize to act that way rather than using their brain to diffrenciate between Tyler's individual character/creative expression and the bahviors they probably shouldn't copy themselves. We unfortunately don't live in a world anymore where niggas can just joke and fuck around and be REAL reckless immature flawed children/adults. If you even BREATHE wrong people will call you corny, weird, washed, chopped, etc AND with today's politics, the industry has become more dangerous and cautionary so celebrities, artists, and fans alike are taking a more serious, analytical, judgemental, and politically active approach to stay relevant to the current times and to avoid being puppeteered by corrupt organizations which could lead to more destruction of marginalized communities or just the end of their careers.
Just because I'm saying all of this doesn't mean I hate old Tyler, OFWGKTA, the culture and humor of the time, and I don't even think about politics and all this stuff I takked about really when engaging with Tyler. I fucking LOVE old Tyler, but it is important to acknowledge some things about the world we are currently living in, appreciate but acknowledge the past, and be mindful of how we want to move forward, or not. As long as you're not being harmful I guess. I don't judge.