On Monday (Dec. 27), Fast Company published an interview alleging that Tyler, the Creator wanted to change his stage name. Born Tyler Okonma, he briefly spoke on the inception of his beloved moniker, which stems from his 13-year-old self’s Myspace page where he made a name for himself through his beat creations, drawings, and photography.
He explained, “I started using that one more and random people from Kentucky would be, like, ‘Cool beats, bro!’ And so I just kept the Tyler, the Creator thing going and, you know, I’m 17 in high school, around LA, the name’s getting around, and I kind of just kept it as my stage name. It’s really dumb, but it stuck with me so it just works.”
However, he did share that he’s been more active in using his Igbo surname as seen in recent music video credits. “My full name, Tyler Okonma, in all caps just looks really cool. So you might see more of that, I don’t know, I’m getting older and I think when people get older they start to realize s**t, you just start changing,” shared the 30-year-old.
Yet, in a series of now-deleted tweets, he refuted the false narrative that he’s changing his stage name and declared that his stage name will forever be present.
“I NEVER SAID I WAS CHANGING MY NAME, ARE YOU STUPID? YES. [I] WILL EMBRACE MY LAST NAME MORE, LESS WOLF HALEY, NEVER SAID I WAS GONNA CHANGE MY STAGE NAME, WHAT YO EARS ON BRO?” said the Flower Boy artist.
Later, he mentioned, “INTERVIEWER ASKED ABOUT MY STAGE NAME, I EXPLAINED HOW I GOT IT, I JOKED ABOUT IT BEING DUMB BUT KEPT IT. TALKED ABOUT MY AFRICAN LAST NAME HOW I WANT TO EMBRACE IT NOW THAT IM OLDER AND HAVE A NEW VIEW ON IT. SITES SAYS IM CHANGING IT. FALSE. FROM THE SOURCE IN CASE U BELIEVED.”