Whenever Tyler The Creator bumps into Nardwuar, the results are always spectacular. While Nardwuar’s interviews with rappers are often revealing — or at least, exciting — the Canadian radio personality has developed a special rapport with the Los Angeles-based star over the course of several wild interviews. In their last meetup, Tyler talked about his musical growth and Justin Bieber’s armpit hair. This time, though, there are new matters to discuss along with Tyler’s Grammy-winning new album, Call Me If You Get Lost.
Nardwuar presents T with a couple of copies of DJ Drama‘s Gangsta Grillz mixtapes (on CD!) as a reference to the rapper’s new album. CMIYGL, while not bearing the Gangsta Grillz title, is presented as a pseudo entry into the series canon, with Drama providing his usual ad-libs and catchphrases throughout. In turn, Tyler breaks down the importance of the mixtape series, which was most recently expanded by Dreamville’s D-Day.
“Rap music used to be super regional, so back in like 2005/2006, if you came across it, it was because of the internet,” Tyler elaborates. “During that time, it was so much Wayne and Tip… Mixtapes at that time were so important… So many important pieces of music that were put out because of the weird label politics and DJ Drama was the head of one of the most important mixtape series of all time that really helped shape how a lot of people make music — including me.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Tyler gives his take on furry hats, makes Jasper Dolphin do one of his signature on-stage dances, and explains how he stays in shape to perform for two hours at his incredible live shows.