What was surprising about Tyler, The Creator's performance at Minglewood hall Friday July 17, was that he found ample time between songs to cut the music, smile at the audience, and find reasons to make them laugh.
Strangely enough the smiles and laughter of Music-lovin’ Memphians (as well as Tyler’s own distinctly amused face) weren’t the only “cheesin’” going on in the venue.
“This bitch just threw a Big Mac up on stage!” Tyler exclaimed to the audience.
“Wait... does it have cheese on it?” Tyler’s hype-man Jasper asked.
“Oh YES it DOES have cheese on it!” - Tyler visibly peeled the top of the hamburger off.
“EAT IT! EAT IT! EAT IT!”the crowd began to cheer heartily.
He paused for a moment before handing it to some guy in the first row and said..
“Here you eat it….UUUGH YOU NASTY MEMPHIS”
Tyler grabbed the burger back and flung it down the center-crowd.
Tons of strange, silly moments like these in between pulsing basslines and riotous fans screaming their favorite lines collected from 3 studio albums made up the Tyler, The Creator concert experience.
Allow me to go Buzzfeed on your ass and list the other top 5 Tyler moments of the night.
5. “We bawlin’ Y’all”
Tyler made a point to tell us that “The Memphis accent” was awesome. Conversely he asked the crowd if we could tell he was from California and the entirety of Minglewood responded with a resounding “YES.”
4. "Water. Water. Water. Water!"
Anyone who was present at this show could tell you that everyone was drenched in sweat. Maybe it was the sheer number of folk present. Maybe it was the fact that, being Memphis, it was approximately 1,003 degrees outside even with the sun down. No matter the cause, everyone was hot and everyone was sweaty. The literal thirst was real.
When Minglewood started chanting for Tyler and his crew to toss us some water bottles, The Creator started beatboxing and dancing causing the crowd chorus of “Waaaaater. Waaaaater. Waaaaater. Waaaaater!” to all come together on time.
"Throw some 808s on that and some hi hats and black people will love it," Tyler said, "Just like...a lot of unnecessary, fast hi-hats."
The applause from both black and white members of the audience proved that EVERYONE in Memphis would appreciate if Tyler or even a locally based MC would drop “Water” this summer. Sidewayz anyone? ……..Dolph?
3. “My Mom told me never to trust white guy with dreadlocks.”
Self-explanatory.
You know that guy who's always at Music Fest? Always at Music Fest- dancing to Public Enemy with his eyes closed? Yeah, he was there, and Tyler had some fun pointing him out, multiple times. Things got weird when hype-man Jasper decided to make another point, however.
“You know who else you shouldn’t trust,” Jasper said, “People who don’t have Iphones.”
I would say at least 50% of Minglewood that night were droid owners….Awkward….
2. Taco & The Jersey
At one point a fan tossed a basketball jersey at Tyler onstage. "Taco" made it clear that he definitely desired to own the article of clothing and as Tyler turned to hand it to his disc-jockeying accomplice, Tyler yelled "PSYCHE," spun a 360 and threw it back into the crowd. Publicly shaming your friends? Comedic gold.
1. Mr. Tarantula
Throughout the duration of the show Tyler insisted that we, as a crowd "didn't know him" and that "we can't call him by his first name..."
Instead he insisted we called him "Mr.Tarantula" for reasons that are beyond this blogger.
“TYLER. TYLER OVER HERE!”
“I told y’all to call me Mr.Tarantula!” he said, “Stop calling me by my first name!”
The ruse even reached the point to where Tyl-...er, Mr.Tarantula altered the lyrics to his most hype, classic song just to continue the running joke. Sections of “Yonkers” were called and yelled in response... "TURAN- TULLA. TURAN- TULLA" replacing the usual lyrics.
….And that is my top 5 moments from Tyler, “The Comedian” Friday night. Stressing that the man was funny in between songs should not take away from the fact, however, that his artistic performance was excellent.
Though, live, Tyler’s voice often covered the tracks in a distinctly higher pitch than his usual studio bassy murmur, The Creator executed his most difficult bars with precision and enough energetic pizzazz to astound onlookers. His hands affectionately acted out every word of what he was saying and he traveled across the Minglewood stage with a galloping stride that A.) made the crowd crazy and B.) made it difficult for me to take a good picture of him.
The man performed. Multiple times the beat dropped and Tyler continued to spit gold fire. Minglewood went wild every time.
Drama even found it’s way into the venue and early in the set when a front-rower pressed Tyler about Earl Sweatshirt’s recent departure from rap collective, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All.
"I don't know man. I like making music with the guy,” a very genuine Tyler the Creator said, “I wish he would do that with me. I don’t know what to tell you."
A new friend to my right turned to my crew and summed up what the entire crowd was feeling that night at Minglewood.
“That’s ok! We don’t need Earl! -sniffling sounds- We don’t need him,” he said, “I’m all about Tyler anyway!”
