Overview

An in-depth exploration of Tyler, The Creator’s evolution as an artist and cultural force, positioning his audiovisual productions as a watershed in American hip hop. Through close analysis of his music videos, lyrics, and performances—as rapper, producer and director—it examines how Tyler redefines race, gender and identity in contemporary Black expression. Engaging postcolonial theory and critical race studies, the book draws on the work of Frantz Fanon to unpack music videos like “Yonkers,” “Buffalo,” “Find Your Wings” and “Sorry, Not Sorry” alongside original ethnographic research in Los Angeles. Featuring a conversation with Luis “Panch” Perez, director of photography for many of Tyler’s videos, Tyler, The Creator’s Hip Hop Revolution illuminates one of the most visionary and subversive figures in the current music landscape.

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9798765124130

Table of Contents

Reviews

In this, the first major study of Tyler, the Creator, Gustavo Souza Marques analyzes this game-changing artist in all his complexity—as post-gangsta provocateur, first-gen digital native, shapeshifting iconoclast, anti-racist activist, and self-proclaimed “walking paradox.” Far from avoiding Tyler’s contradictions, Souza Marques places them at the center of his masterful theorization. Moving effortlessly between musicology, media analysis, ethnography, critical race and gender theory, and postcolonial studies, Souza Marques offers rich and provocative insights into a figure that is central to understanding contemporary music and media in the Twenty-First century. * J. Griffith Rollefson, author of Critical Excess: Watch the Throne and the New Gilded Age (2021) * In Tyler, The Creator's Hip Hop Revolution, Gustavo Souza Marques helps readers understand one of the most popular and enigmatic hip hop artists of the twenty-first century. Analyzing the music videos and social media frames through which his work is disseminated, this book argues that Tyler, The Creator consistently rejects dominant forms of music industry blackness, calls attention to the way that blackness has been constructed in relation to whiteness and dramatizes the psychological costs of race. In doing so, Marques makes a valuable contribution to hip hop studies by demonstrating how ongoing tensions surrounding race and racial representation are worked out through beats, rhymes and imagery. * Loren Kajikawa, Professor of Musicology, The George Washington University, USA * Marques unpacks Tyler, the Creator's multimedia work with a sharp eye and keen ear. His analysis draws the reader's attention to the smallest details of Tyler's music while also allowing ample space for the complexity that animates the rapper's oeuvre. * Justin D. Burton, Professor of Music, Rider University, USA *

Author Information

Gustavo Souza Marques (aka Gusmão) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Musicology at the University of Michigan, USA. An ethnomusicologist, drummer and beatmaker, he combines academic research with artistic practice. Previously a Postdoctoral Fellow with the international CIPHER project, Dr. Marques combined scholarship and hip hop music production through collaborations across the Americas, including with iconic Mexican rapper MC Luka. He is now expanding this research further throughout the region.

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