Tyler, the Creator took home his firstGrammy Awardon Sunday night.
During his acceptance speech, Tyler said that he had “never fully felt accepted” in the rap music community.
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Tyler (né Tyler Gregory Okonma) has previously said he had a boyfriend when he was a teenager and alluded to coming out of the closet on Twitter. In 2015,he wrote, “I TRIED TO COME OUT THE DAMN CLOSET LIKE FOUR DAYS AGO AND NO ONE CARED HAHAHHAHAHA.”
A line on one of the tracks on his 2017 albumFlower Boyalso said: “Next line will have ’em like ‘whoa’ / I’ve been kissing white boys since 2004.”
However, the rapper has not explicitly labeled his sexuality.
In the press room after his speech, Tyler said he was “very grateful” for his win, but also criticized the Grammys for consistently placing “guys that look like me” in the rap and urban categories.
“I’m half and half on it,” he said. “On one side, I’m very grateful that what I made can just be acknowledged in a world like this, but also it sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that’s genre-bending or that’s anything, they always put it in a rapper, urban category.”
The musician continued: “So half of me feels like the rap nomination is a backhanded compliment. Like, ‘Oh, my little cousin wants to play the game, let’s give him the unplugged controller so he can shut up and go play.’ So that’s what it felt like in some ways. But another half of me is very grateful that the art that I made can be acknowledged on a level like this because I don’t do the radio stuff, I’m not played in Target. I’m in a whole different world that a lot of people can listen to so I’m grateful and I’m like, ‘Eh.’”
Tyler also paid tribute tobasketball legend Kobe Bryant, who tragically died earlieron Sunday.
“That news was heavy, especially being in L.A. and just being here at the Staples Center are within a short period of time between him andNipsey [Hussle], and if you’re from Los Angeles, depending on the sector you’re in, that s— is really, really heavy, so we took an L tonight,” he said.
Before winning his first Grammy, Tyler also performed at Sunday night’s awards show, joining other star-studded performers including the Jonas Brothers, Lizzo,Ariana Grandeand Aerosmith.
Tune into the 62nd annualGrammy Awardsat 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS.
source: people.com
