And unlike Lil Nas X, the 20-year-old rapper who came out just as his Grammy-contender single “Old Town Road” was topping charts around the world, there’s no dismissing him as a novelty act. Eminem may poke fun at him in anger (“Tyler create nothing / I can see why you call yourself a f-ot, bitch,” Eminem rapped on his 2018 single “Fall” after Tyler criticized his Beyoncé collaboration “Walk on Water” on Twitter), but Tyler is no punchline or punching bag. Is he or isn’t he? Tyler hasn’t confirmed either way, though Jaden Smith, Will and Jada’s 21-year-old son, has jokingly (or not) publicly tagged him as his “boyfriend.”ĭespite playing both sides, Tyler has somehow managed to maintain his standing in the hetero-centric hip-hop community. He’s been teasing fans with references to his sexual orientation since a 2017 interview with XXL magazine in which he talked about a boyfriend he had as a teenager and a lyric that same year in his song “I Ain’t Got Time” (“I been kissing white boys since 2004”). If anyone can inspire listening without prejudice, it’s got to be Tyler. Will the important and unconventional subject matter of “Igor” counterbalance any hesitation about it being as much an alternative R&B album as it is a rap one? He highlighted performing styles outside of rap on his 2017 opus “Flower Boy” and still scored a best rap album nomination.
That actually would be a first for Tyler. Awarding “Igor” with the ultimate hip-hop honor would be a powerful statement of changing times and changing minds. The album’s success and acceptance there is revolutionary enough - possibly a sign that hip-hop at last might be evolving when it comes to sexual orientation. That Tyler raps from the point of view of a man watching the man he loves slip away flagrantly defies all that is sacred to a rap community that usually celebrates machismo and in the past has looked the other way from, or even reveled in, homophobic tropes. It’s a you-me-and-she scenario that one might expect to hear on a Cardi B track. Sporting a pink cover, “Igor” is a song cycle about a love triangle: It’s all about what happens when a man loves another man who is gravitating back toward his ex , a woman. Here the subject is love, but not any ordinary love. Therein lies its history-making potential: With “Igor,” Tyler doesn’t just revisit tried-and-true, socially and politically conscious rap staples like racism, economics, police brutality and disenfranchisement. “Igor” also has the distinction of being an important album in a genre oversaturated with bang-and-bling rhymes. His ongoing feud with category darling Eminem certainly has done more for his profile than it has for Slim Shady’s. Like the majority of best rap album Grammy winners from the last decade or so (Lil Wayne, Eminem, Kanye West, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper and Cardi B), he’s a major hip-hop crossover star who nonetheless oozes street cred. “Igor” ticks many of the same boxes as previous best rap album Grammy winners, and then some: It was a critically lauded release that also enjoyed considerable commercial success, becoming Tyler’s first No. Tyler, the Creator’s “Igor” feels like a shoo-in for a nomination in the category and a major threat to win. Cardi B made history this past February as the first female solo artist to cross the finish line to the grand prize, for her 2018 debut “Invasion of Privacy.” (Lauryn Hill previously won as a member of Fugees, whose “The Score” scored in 1997.) Next year’s best rap album might be history in the making once again. Since the Recording Academy introduced the best rap album Grammy category in 1996, male stars - especially six-time winner Eminem - have dominated the rap race.
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