Tyler The Creator may have somewhat escaped his sketchy lyrical past, but it’s come back to haunt a University Of South Alabama student who has been charged with making terroristic threats after writing a quote from one of Tyler’s old songs on school property. According to the Associated Press, 21-year-old Jack Aaron Christensen wrote lyrics from Tyler’s 2011 Goblin track “Radicals” on a large flip chart in the school library.
Fans of Tyler will likely recognize the song as containing the infamous lyrics “Kill people, b*rn shit, f*ck school,” and apparently, that was the quote used, according to Pitchfork, which also notes that the song begins with a disclaimer from Tyler to not do the things exhorted in the song. Apparently, the school’s administrators are not fans either way. The message was written on or around the anniversary of September 11, and Christensen was arrested at that time.
Back when Tyler The Creator and his rebellious Odd Future collective first arrived on the scene, such worries were rampant, with the group getting banned from performing at a festival in New Zealand and Tyler himself being banned from performing in the UK. Both bans have since been lifted, to Tyler’s usual mischievous glee. It looks like Tyler’s musical legacy will continue to include those early, parent-scaring lyrics, even as Tyler and most of his old associates have for the most part grown up and mended their ways.
