Ah, Amsterdam, muses Tyler, the Creator, sitting on the stage of the sold-out Afas Live. He has been performing there for about eleven years now. It all started with Paradiso, he remembers.
His rap group Odd Future at the time resembled a kindergarten class on a school trip. Tyler sometimes came on stage on a bicycle. Or on roller skates. They were brimming with talent, but the chaotic concerts also felt a bit like an evening of restless zapping.
We’ve watched him grow up on stage, now 31-year-old Tyler Okonma from Los Angeles. Tonight in the ecstatic Afas Live, the conclusion can therefore be worded old-fashioned: it has dried up nicely.
Not that his playfulness is completely gone, fortunately not. Look at that setting: a grassy green hill has been raised on stage, hiked by Tyler (with backpack!) as the Von Trapp family in The Sound of Musictowards neutral Switzerland. Beyond: forests, lakes and mountain peaks in neon colors, a fairytale planet.
His music is just as imaginative and colorful: from a wailing banger like lemon head to an R&B-like pop song like earfquake† Or 911in which he recites as the hip-hop equivalent of a crooner.
Almost all songs have something crazy: a stumbling rhythm, a twist, there is always something ticking or ringing. Difference from the past: Tyler delivers it all fiery and concentrated, with that sometimes somewhat growling voice, as if MTV animation figure Butt-Head has started rapping.
At the end, Tyler gives the audience fifteen seconds to safely store everything of value and prepare for one more bang: New Magic Wand† To jump. Shout. crazy. Delicious.
Tyler, the Creator is able to keep a large audience and himself on track these days. We hadn’t expected the latter in particular in 2011.
Tyler, the Creator
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Afas Live, Amsterdam, 7/6