Tyler, The Creator may have been planning to drop his new album Flower Boy in two weeks, but the internet had other plans as somebody got a hold of the album and leaked it online late Sunday night. A leak is rare in the new streaming era of music where physical copies of albums can’t be snuck away to be ripped and every digital retailer gets the music at the same time, leaving less opportunities for the music to be pirated. But the actual leak wasn’t even the biggest news to come out of Flower Boy surfacing online randomly; it was the content of the album — and one line specifically — that has fans wondering if Tyler announced to the world that he’s gay or bisexual.
“Next line will have ’em like ‘Whoa’ / I been kissing white boys since 2004,” he raps on “I Ain’t Got Time!” a screeching, frenetic track where he shuffles through multiple flows on two different variations of the beat. With Tyler, it’s always hard to know if he’s talking tongue in cheek but there are other clues that have the sleuths on KanyeToThe and Twitter assuming that Tyler did indeed come out of the closet.
On “Garden Shed” featuring Estelle, he also raps about a forbidden love and his friends not knowing something he was keeping inside. “That was real love I was in, Ain’t no reason to pretend” he says on the track before spitting “All my friends was lost / They couldn’t read the signs / I didn’t want to talk / I tell ’em my location and they ain’t want to walk” a few bars later.
All of that, coupled with Tyler’s social media activity going back a few years has fans ready to affirm the notion.
I TRIED TO COME OUT THE DAMN CLOSET LIKE FOUR DAYS AGO AND NO ONE CARED HAHAHHAHAHA
— T (@tylerthecreator) April 13, 2015
As of right now he has yet to hop on social media to comment on either the leak or the notion that he comes out of the closet on the album, but knowing Tyler he should have something to say very soon. As for the album, Flower Boy features guest appearances from Frank Ocean and ASAP Rocky on the first two singles along with Kali Uchis, Estelle, Roy Ayers, Lil Wayne, Jaden Smith and more and is set to hit retailers July 21st.
