Rapper and producer Tyler, the Creator lets himself get song ideas down before deciding which ones are good. The revisions that follow can stretch across months, a year or even 2 years, with a song taking many forms along the way.
He described that process during a conversation with New York creatives moderated by Recho Omondi. The discussion had turned to filmmaking: how do you protect creative freedom when other people’s money is riding on the result?
Tyler said collaborators need an honest account of the undertaking and its risks before they commit, while the outcome’s still uncertain.
In the Ask It Anyway recording published June 12, 2025, Tyler explained:
“I have a thing where I’m like create like a child and just edit like a scientist. Like that right there I think has solved so many things for like… when I make songs it’ll be freaking so many versions ’cause I’ll put all the ideas out just all of them. I’m not trying to be good or great or bad.
“I’m just putting it there. And over months, over a year or two years, I edit that song to make it the best version that it could be. And with that comes an awareness.
“I know how humans react to certain low end. I know how humans react to certain vernacular. I got to know the zeitgeist of what’s going on right now.
“And it’s not to emulate. It’s not to be parallel to it. It’s just to know what the hive mind overall is thinking.
“It’s not a bad thing. But the awareness level of creating like a child and also editing like a scientist, which just means like knowing facts, knowing this and that, I think definitely will help a lot of those things.”