FLOWER BOY: a conversation Tyler, The Creator (Ft. Jerrod Carmichael)

Jerrod: This album, um—like when I, when I first heard it and the more I hear it, I feel like the only, like, appropriate question to ask you after listening to it is, are you okay? Like, is something wrong? Like, like, it's like gut-wrenching. It's both beautiful—it's very beautiful—but it's like, parts that hurt a little bit, you know what I mean?

Tyler: Yeah it's—man I was like... 'Cause for Cherry Bomb I purposely was like, "I don't wanna get personal at all. Like I'mma just make songs. This is all just, this is a song." And in this one I was like, "Alright, let me write down every feeling."

J: Oh, you started with emotions?

T: Just—just, a lot of them was just asking questions. A lot of the songs just have questions, it's just like, "How am I feeling today? Fuck, what if I go poor again? What if it doesn't work?" And then that's how a lot of the songs just happened, just me kind of, just asking these quest—answering these questions, like, so...

J: But it's speaking to, like, a mood you were in. Like—like you recorded this one, when did you...

T: Um, mostly 2016—like I started to the end of 2015. A lot of spring, summer 2016, and then a lot of fall

J: What were you listening to? Like—

T: Um...

J: Like watching and listening to?

T: Pop music. I love—I was, like, listening to pop structure. Uh, kinda just what, like, Max Martin was doing and really getting into what, what Pharrell and Justin was doing—

J: Yeah...

T: And, um, just noticing, just hooks. I uh—hanging out with Travis, Taco. I went to the club with him and just seeing what people, how people reacted to certain—

J: You never go to clubs!