There hasn’t been much homophobic backlash against Tyler, The Creator appearing to come out on Flower Boy – until now. D12’s Bizarre popped up out of nowhere to deliver “Dear Tyler,” an incendiary diss to Tyler. After giving mocking applause to Tyler for admitting his feelings for men on “Garden Shed,” Bizarre quickly flips the script and says Tyler and Frank Ocean can now share a “bottle of lotion” and make “a love potion.” Womp womp.
The vitriol isn’t completely out of the blue, as Tyler tweeted — and deleted — in 2014 that the Shady Records 15th anniversary compilation ShadyXV was “ass,” and that someone who loves Eminem should’ve “told him NO” to releasing it. Ironically though, someone should’ve said the same to Bizarre here.
Bizarre starts off “Dear Tyler” noting he was “in San Francisco stuck on vacation”– for three years? Did it really take that long to come back at Tyler with sophomoric gay jokes and an accusation that Tyler “stole his whole style?” Bizarre had an early 2000s moment in mainstream hip-hop as a member of Eminem’s crew and is a local staple of the Detroit hip-hop scene, but his albums were never widely regarded as classics, not even in the fringe world of irreverent, “alternative rap” that his music rests in.
For him to pretend he has the cheeky, free-thinking rapper market cornered is wack — almost as wack as waiting until Tyler released a cathartic song to have something to actually attempt to diss him about. The delay pretty much exposes that Bizarre didn’t have much ammo for Tyler, and based on him doing shows with Odd Future members, has some respect for their movement. Maybe Bizarre could’ve got some help from his friend, battle rapper Big T, and got some better bars together.
Whatever the case, it’s time for veteran acts to grow up and stop slamming how people choose to live their life. Besides, Bizarre’s partner Eminem is the king of the “I already admitted everything, what can you say to me” angle after his famous 8 Mile scene. Did he really think he was going to hurt Tyler by highlighting something he freely admitted? Meanwhile, it sounds like Tyler’s new direction might make this newest album his most mature yet.
