Tyler, the Creator Reflects on ‘Bastard’ Ten Years Later

Tyler, the Creator has gone through a career metamorphosis since the world was first introduced to him. Yet, Tyler would have never been able to become the love-torn Igor without his brash beginnings. As a result, Tyler has decided to pay homage to his debut album, Bastard, on its tenth anniversary. 

On Wednesday, Tyler took to Instagram where he shared the cover art for Bastard as well as photos from that period in his life. In the third picture, Tyler decided to share words of reflection about the album now that it’s a decade old. 

“on christmas 2009 i released my first album BASTARD on zshare to 46 people. i had ideas, an unmeasurable amount of energy and wanted to piss off/get a reaction from anyone with ears… i’d like to say syd and travis opening their home to me and my ideas was my real big break,” Tyler wrote. He went on to thank Odd Future members as well as explain the album’s influences. 

“marshalls RELAPSE album. james pants SEVEN SEALS. nite jewels GOOD EVENING. whatever the COOL KID was doing. grizzly bear VECKATIMEST and clipse HELL HATH NO FURY were the things that melted together to form this album,” he wrote after detailing that BASTARD is still the basis of the music fans hear today. 

“NEW MAGIC WAND is really just a perfected version of FRENCH. 10 years later and still being fixated on the same idea is mental but once perfected that closure allows new ground to be explored with full attention.” 

Bastard, along with his follow up project Goblin, caught the world’s eye. Since then, Tyler has dropped Wolf, Cherry Bomb, and Flower Boy. He’s also become a Grammy-nominated artist.