Tyler, The Creator played a series of secret shows throughout the United States last week.
The pop-up shows took place in L.A., Dallas and Brooklyn. The venues, much smaller than the artist usually plays, were the musician’s first stops after not performing for two years following the onset of COVID-19.
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The artist put out a sign-up a few days prior to the events, and the location was revealed the day before each respective concert. “Sign up, just trust me,” the artist wrote in a cryptic tweet. The first show was held June 30, just three days after his stellar performance of “LUMBERJACK” on the 2021 BET Awards.
SIGN UP, TRUST ME https://t.co/eHUtZkopib
— Tyler, The Creator (@tylerthecreator) June 28, 2021
Small venues, such as West Hollywood’s historic Roxy Theater, had hundreds of fans lined up outside of them in preparation for a show announced only hours before.
The Brooklyn performance video shows the groundbreaking artist being upfront about his intentions. “Listen, listen,” he says. “This [album] came out, what, six days ago? I’m honestly doing these small little things because I just miss being around fucking humans.”
After the applause died down, the artist detailed how his return to the stage has been. “I wanted to just practice and see what the fuck y’all react to. I don’t know what y’all like off this, so it’s really just practice. It’ll be fun, I hope. I ain’t gonna lie, though, I did Dallas last night, and [there’s] a few old songs that I do not remember. I did ‘Who Dat Boy,’ and I did not remember shit.”
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“I ain’t gonna be up here for long,” he says before jumping into “CORSO,” “but can we just fuck around for a bit? Let’s see what songs you like.”
The rest of the concert featured Tyler, The Creator playing most of his new songs. As the captivating performance continued, the audience was met with the loose stage presence the songwriter has become known for. In addition to playing in a theater half the size of what he’s typically accustomed to, the artist also explained some of his inspiration behind his latest songs.
“For this next one, I was just at home in deep thought,” Tyler, The Creator says. “It was like 6 a.m. I was like ‘Damn dude, I used to rap crazy shit. They tried to cancel me and all that shit, and now I’m here. Whoa, how did that happen?’”
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The musician seemed to be reflective of his Wolf and Goblin eras. “A lot of people go through they ugly phase at like 14 and shit. I went through mine as a grown-ass man,” Tyler, The Creator says.
After some self-reflection mixed with a little self-depreciating humor, the groundbreaking artist jumped into an intimate, crowd-involved rendition of “MASSA.”
After performing for over an hour, the show came to a close with “RUNITUP.” Right after, Tyler took to Twitter to share some of his thoughts on the performance.
that was nice wow good to be in a room again very happy yall enjoy the songs yup
— Tyler, The Creator (@tylerthecreator) July 2, 2021
“Hope the livestream was good for you guys at home!” the artist said in a tweet. “Thanks to Amazon music for allowing me to do this in the first place for real.”
The Brooklyn show took place July 1, only six days after the release of his sixth full-length, Call Me If You Get Lost. July 4 marked the new album’s ascension to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, the second work from the artist to do so.
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In addition to the secret shows, Tyler is also scheduled to perform at three major music festivals this year—Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Outside Lands.
You can get tickets to the events here and watch Tyler, The Creator’s Brooklyn performance below.
What do you think of Tyler, The Creator’s secret shows? Let us know in the comments below!
Call Me If You Get Lost tracklist:
- “SIR BAUDELAIRE” (feat. DJ Drama)
- “CORSO”
- “LEMONHEAD” (feat. 42 Dugg)
- “WUSYANAME” (feat. Ty Dolla $ign and YoungBoy Never Broke Again)
- “LUMBERJACK”
- “HOT WIND BLOWS” (feat. Lil Wayne)
- “MASSA”
- “RUNITUP” (feat. Teezo Touchdown)
- “MANIFESTO” (feat. Domo Genesis)
- “SWEET / I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE” (feat. Brent Faiyaz and Fana Hues)
- “MOMMA TALK”
- “RISE!” (feat. Daisy World)
- “BLESSED”
- “JUGGERNAUT” (feat. Lil Uzi Vert and Pharrell Williams)
- “WILSHIRE”
- “SAFARI”