THIS is WAY More SCARY Than Not Making MONEY! | Tyler The Creator | Top 10 Rules

I finally got my shit on fricking MTV. Some people might think that's selling out or whatever, but I don't really give a fuck. That's fucking great to me. I'm proud of myself. We've always been a fucking outcast and shit. And it's kind of cool because this is what's going to make us fucking great in the future. I don't know what the word potential means. Because potential, that's a gap. I mean, that's a— you stop. That's a wall. I wanted my own network. I wanted to put— I wanted to do something cool. And it's always about just me doing something that I think is awesome.

He's an American rapper, record producer, and music video director. He rose to prominence as the leader and co-founder of the alternative hip-hop collective Odd Future. He has his own clothing company called Golf Wang and his own streaming company called Golf Media. He's Tyler, The Creator, and here's my take on his top 10 rules for success. Rule number 8 is my personal favorite. And make sure to stick around all the way to the end for some special bonus clips. Also, as he's talking, if he says something that really resonates with you, please leave it in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well.

Enjoy. Greatness is a different definition to different people. Greatness to me is when I land that fakie half cab hill on my skateboard or some shit. Greatness is the fucking song I recorded last week. Somebody might not find that great, but it's great to me. And that's all that matters. What the It's nothing in my head. As long as I like it, that's all that matters. Greatness to me is finally getting my video on MTV. It's on there now, and I'm happy. I finally got my shit on fricking MTV. Some people might think that's selling out or whatever, but I don't really give a fuck. That's fucking great to me. I'm proud of myself. I've been wanting that since I was 7 years old, and I finally got that shit. Hard work pays the fuck off. I was always a class clown. I know it sounds weird and shit, And it's kind of like I've always been an outcast because they never fucked with me. I know we're the outcasts. If you listen to the music or just us in general, like you met me in person, I'm just serious now, but I'm always fucking jumping around. I'm surprised I sat down still this long, but we've always been the fucking outcasts and shit. And it's kind of cool because this is what's going to make us fucking great in the future. At the end of the day, throughout all the jokes or bullshit or whatever, it's always be yourself. That's one thing that I'm like, just do what the fuck you like. That's what I try to I tell people just to do what the fuck they want and fuck impressing others. And that's why at the end of the day, I'm always gonna make the music I wanna make. Like, people get so caught up in fucking, like, making their first album, like, Bassey, like, was pretty successful. And people are like, oh shit, I hope you make something like that. But I can't. It's progression. I'm in a whole different fucking mind state. I'm having a fucking interview right now. I wasn't having that shit a year ago. So I'm gonna make the music that I wanna make now that sounds cool to me. Who knows? I might end up doing fucking coke and being a fucking drug addict 2 years from now making some off-the-wall music. At the end of the day, I'm gonna fricking like it. And I think that's one of the main reasons why people fuck with us, because we do what we want. When you think about catalog, when you going to do Cherry Bomb the album, are you thinking now like, man, I got so much out there that— not that you're in competition with yourself, but is there an expectation? Is there, is there a pressure? And, and what's the process of going into an album? I just try to be better than my— I just try I just try to make the music that I— it's like songs that I'm like, damn, I will never make a song better than that. I will never make a song better than Stevie Wonder's "Where Were You When I Need You." So I always use that like, goddamn, I have to make something good like that. And that's what pushes me. And the fact that I, in my own head, I think I will never make something as good as the songs that I love will always— and that's that thing I said, I can never grasp it. So I always push myself. That's why I don't know what the word potential means. 'Cause potential, that's a gap. I mean, that's a— you stop. That's a wall. I don't know what that means, so I'll always push myself harder. And whether people like it or not, at least for me, I'm trying things and trying to be better, you know? Well, when I was younger, about, let's say, 16, 17, 18, 19, I was more creating worlds and characters and, you know, I would read a lot of, like, just because me liking to learn. I would read about certain people and then just try to get in their head and see how they would write a song. And then now I kind of just write about my life. Like, I have a song called Hair Blows on the new album that's just talking about I like when this girl hair blows in the car. And that's— I wrote that because I was with a female friend of mine and we were in my car and she was hanging out the sunroof and her hair was blowing. And I felt like the man, and I wrote a song about it. And, um, I think a lot of artists kind of mess up because you don't know much about them after a certain point in time. So I try to just— I realized none of my music will sound the same if I just write songs actually about my life, because every 2 years you should not be in the same place you were. But it does take some courage though to be still transparent about your own life. Well, a lot of people aren't honest because they're They're not comfortable with themselves. That's right. So that's why you have a bunch of songs about the same things on the radio, because one, it's comforting to a simple listener, and two, people just aren't comfortable with themselves. They're not easy. They're not— if I was like, hey, I'm depressed, you'll be like, wow. But because a lot of people won't be able to do that or tell you what they like and stand for it and why they won't like it. And that goes again with a lot of people being closed-minded.

Are you gonna get paid upfront from this from Lloyd? Is Lloyd gonna cut you a check?

Am I getting paid upfront for this? You didn't get your check? I don't know, but it's not about money for me. Like, it's not. I wanted to do— I wanted my own network. I wanted to put— I wanted to do something cool, and it's always about just me doing something that I think is awesome. And the money will come. I'm not worried about that. That'll come when the universe decides for it to come. We live in a society where a lot of people are followers and they can't, you know, make their set opinions. Like, I have friends going to college for stuff that their parents want them to go for, and they're not even happy or anything, but they're just trying to please them. And in the long run, like, I mean, what's— what's gonna be there? Your parents— your parents die and you're just stuck there, like, paying debt, paying debt for something that you didn't even want to learn in the first place. So I just try to tell people to just think for themselves and they'll be way happier in the long run. He's Tyler. I'm DJ Ski. And that was the Carnival. 2000. Carnival was tight. How do you feel? It was the fourth one? Mm-hmm. Do you think that it would grow to be something this massive? No. We was going to cancel it this year, but we didn't. We was literally like, fuck it. And then we did it. And then a lot of people came. Why were you going to cancel it? I don't know, we couldn't find anyone to perform. It was just such like a— because we're like specific on how we like wanted, who we wanted there, like things like that. And we couldn't come up with the perfect thing, and it was just a depressing time. And we was about to say fuck it until we was like, fuck it, what are we doing? Like, where's our spirit? And we just, we ran it back, and this is our biggest We dummy doubled up since last year. It's crazy.

Tyler, for you, you've got a deal on Cartoon Network.

That's Time Warner. You've got a deal with Sony. You've used this apparatus, even though you're only 23, you've used this existing system to build up your profile. Do you think you could start literally without any of this support system and create yourself? Yeah, of course, because that's how I started. The way that I got famous was me going on Tumblr and creating my own website and just putting things out like that with the strategic— it had a strategy to it, but putting out music for free, and that's how it got known. And the next thing I know, Sony's like, "Hey, we'll give you a bunch of money to do X and O, and we just eat a little bit." And I've used them to my advantage in the same way that I've used other things to my advantage.

They didn't make you.

No, not at all. You know, so I know how to, I know how to do this without, you know, those platforms. And, and another thing is the fun thing about this is I'm not— we in our squad, we're not afraid to fail. Like, we're not scared of failing or whatever. So we're learning as we go. So maybe this, maybe this doesn't work out, but it'll be a learning experience and that'll help other people look at the mistakes we made and figure out what they're trying to do. I don't know, I don't give a fuck about trying to make what I think people will like, you know. It— I think because it doesn't sound like one full album from top to bottom, people disregard it because it's all over the place. People think it's messy or chaotic, but I think it's beautiful chaos and it's perfect and it's my favorite album to to date, regardless of what anyone says. And I can understand why people don't like it. It's different. And sometimes different doesn't equal good to some people, but I love it. And, you know, that's great. That's all that matters in the end. If you make something you 100% love and everyone loves it, that's a win-win. That's great. If you have something that you really love and everyone hates it, at least you love it and you just move on. You've been successful for a few years now.

How do you—

have you ever had a regular job? I worked at, uh, I worked at Starbucks and FedEx and— oh my God, horrible. Oh, was it really bad? Uh, Starbucks was cool because I stole cheese danishes every day. FedEx was so It was just the spirit there, just older dudes like just pushing boxes but okay with it. And it scared the living hell out of me. So I quit after a week and 4 days. How long did you work at Starbucks? 2 and a half years.

Oh.

And this lady named Cindy, she was a new manager. She hated on me and she fired me. And I hope she's watching 'cause I still hate her. Thank you so much. I hate you, Cindy. Is Cindy aware of your success? I hope. And I hope her firing me was the greatest moment of my life. Was it really? Oh, my change was free. Wow. How did she do it? She sit you down and say, it's time to go? No, dude. Somebody, one of the shift managers warned me like 10 minutes before she fired me. So I had 9 minutes to call my mom asking her what I should do. Oh. Yeah, it was tight. I didn't even— like, somebody was like, yo, you're getting fired in 9 minutes, boy. And what did your mom tell you to do? First, she was going to sue Starbucks. Then we figured out they did nothing wrong. So— That's no reason not to sue. So, OK, that was good. It was 9 minutes, so I had about 4 minutes left to figure out what to do. So I manned up and said, "All right, I'll get fired." And I ate like 3 cheese Danish.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because 365 Days asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of the top 10 rules What was the biggest impact on you and why? What are you gonna change in your business or your life after watching this video? Leave it in the comments, I'm gonna join in the discussion. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to @BestGutePro. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book and tweeting that awesome picture. I hope you enjoy the book, enjoy reading it, and have a great time with it. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

Music's all feeling, and I think a lot of people are forgetting that. A lot of people, especially in rap, it's either like, for the most part, people are like, where's the deep lyrics? What does he mean? I want it. I need substance. But a lot of things are feeling. That's why even though I'm not a fan of like a lot of like the popular maybe trap music or whatever, it's all feeling. It feels good. So fuck what they saying, it's just a good feeling. And at least on my album, every song is like a photo for me. Every song is like a moment. It's a mood, you know. It's— Blow My Load is 2 minutes of just, yeah, and eating. That's what it sounds like. That's the score for that. Every song for me is a score for moments, and it's visual to you. Yeah, I'm very— So, 2-seater That's what it sounds like driving from Hollywood to where I live during the sunset in LA. That's actually my car noise. I recorded on my phone. That's, that's what it— everything I'm talking about on that song is real life. Doing 100 on the street, but it's okay because my car isn't stuck, my brakes are good. Like Cherry Bomb, the song, the crazy one. That's what it sounds like when I'm in mosh pits, and it sounds like You know, Death Camp sounds like that. Oh, Okaga, the last song, sounds like that moment when you're with someone that you really like and time doesn't matter and you're just enjoying company and you just like, we should just leave this place and just come back. Smucker sounds like God, and like God, like I'm the man. Like, Keep the O's sounds like this. This is Keep the O's. This is that right there, this shit right here, but skating down the street with— that's what Keep the O sounds like. And my verse on there is about knowing I could lose all of this and I need to make sure I'm focused and shit. That's always in the back of my mind. Fucking Young sounds like being in a fucking sunflower field. That's why it's in the video.

Yeah, it does.

It does. Brown Stains with Q sounds like a sherm. That's what PCP sounds like when the nigga flips. Like, that's why it's just chilling and shit, and then out of nowhere it's boom boom. That's the feeling of it, and a lot of people are forgetting what feeling is. They only want deep lyrics or some bullshit, and fuck that. It's feeling. Every song I make is a movie, you know. People don't— some people just like think I'm talking about rape all the time, but they don't really listen that every song Like, I have like the song Blow. I just said in another interview, like, that's from the mind of Ted Bundy. Like, the way he got females with his charm and the way that the smooth way that he got it, like, he was so slick with it. And I wrote that song from his mind state. And if you listen, every song that I make is exactly like a fucking movie. So hopefully when you go home and you listen to Bastard or anything, just envision it as a movie and a storyline in your head, and you'll get how cool cool it is, and it's not just me talking about random shit, even though it is just me talking about random shit. A few things that have inspired you lately? I know you guys don't have just like one genre, one form of inspiration. To be better than everyone, because I hate everyone and I want to be better than them, and I want them to know that. So I'm coming for Kanye West's head because he's my competition.