After releasing Igor last week, Tyler, the Creator performed it in full for a Los Angeles crowd this week (22 May).
The LA show marked the first time the rapper had performed the LP in full. Between songs, Tyler dropped some anecdotes on how the tracks came together. I Think, Tyler reveals, was inspired by Nigerian music and a trip to Italy with Frank Ocean and Solange.
“So my dad’s Nigerian, supposedly, and Nigerian music, it’s good,” he said. “You have Sade, you have so much Nigerian rock… in the 70s they made a lot of funk, a lot of dance, disco… they used to take photos of all the young kids who would go to these disco parties and dance and dress up and shit.”
“And I wanted to live in that moment for a day… So me, Solange, and Frank [Ocean], we flew to Lake Como, Italy… I wanted to check out a lot of the dance clubs out there and shit, but I didn’t.”
Furthermore, the Odd Future rapper admitted that Earfquake was originally written for Justin Bieber, who refused the track. He later pitched it to Rihanna, wanting her vocals on the hook, but she, too, refused the song.
“I made [Earfquake] like May of 2017 and I wrote it for Bieber,” Tyler explained. “He didn’t take it, so I hit Rihanna’s people up. I was like ‘Hey, I have this song, I would love for her to sing the hook, I think it will be big.’ I just wanna write pop songs, honestly. I didn’t hear back from them.”
Tyler also added that he had a conversation with Kendrick Lamar on the LP, during which he described Igor as being about “a feeling”.
The 40-minute intimate show was live-streamed by Apple Music. Subscribers can watch it here.