A year after his one-time Odd Future collaborator Frank Ocean headlined Coachella's main stage on the first weekend (much to the general confusion of the audience), Tyler, the Creator took a crack at the festival's Saturday headlining slot with a wild, visually stunning rendition of some of his most beloved tracks.
Throughout the rapper's roughly 80-minute performance, he held the assembled crowd in the palm of his hand thanks to a powerful combination of down-to-earth real talk, a liberal strain of (usually racist) humor, impassioned performance intensity, charging rap flow, stunning visuals and a number of special surprise guests.
For the show, which rivaled Lana Del Rey's Friday set in terms of theatrics, the main stage was transformed into a desert vista, centered on a wrecked trailer flanked by two rocky slopes — one topped by a green tent and an adjacent sign ironically read, “NO CAMPING.” The projection behind the physical set was a thing of ever-changing beauty, hosting such compelling images as a desert storm, a giant silver moon in a purple sky, a fiery hellscape and a sci-fi tableau with a flying saucer.
“Thank you for staying. I know you are all tired [after] i've been here all day so thanks for sticking around to watch my tired ass up here,” Tyler said at the start of his set. But the excited crowd was anything but jaded, enthralled by the rapper's impassioned performances of songs like 'See You Again', 'EARFQUAKE', 'NEW MAGIC WAND', 'WUSYANAME' and 'RUNNING OUT OF TIME'.
The impassioned performance was punctuated by fireworks both literally and figuratively, as sparks flew not only from the literal stage, but between Tyler and his fiercely loyal fans, many of whom could be heard belting out the clever rapper's intricate lyrics. with him.
Check out some of the highlights from Tyler's set below.
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An explosive entrance
After an intro video in which Tyler donned a park ranger outfit and explained how he'd given up his life as a music star to live inside a camper, the rapped rapper materialized on stage by “punching” a wall of the trailer that was parked in the center, wearing the same ranger uniform seen in the video. It was an attention-grabbing entrance that set the barometer nicely for the rest of the no-holds-barred show.
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Childish Gambino hits the stage
The “This Is America” singer (aka Donald Glover) became the first special guest of the night when he came out for a duet with Tyler on “Running Out of Time,” a track from the latter's 2019 album. Igor. At one point, the two dipped and swayed around each other as they harmonized, with Tyler later explaining, “I used to hate that n—a. Seriously. I don't know why, I have to go to therapy to figure it out.” He added, “but this n—a put out this song called 'Urn'… I was conflicted with myself, like… how could a — I hate it so much do something so good?” Clearly, this particular beef has been squashed.
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A$AP Rocky comes out to play
The rapper joined Tyler for a performance of two tracks — “Potato Salad” and “Who Dat Boy” — after which Tyler admitted that once upon a time, like Glover, he also considered A$AP an enemy: ” I used to hate that. n—a too…we thought we had beef,” he began. But, he went on to explain, “it was the n—as around us” that caused the problem—”and then me and Rock were like, we got love and now we are friends”.
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A nod to how far he's come
In one of many candid moments during Saturday's set, Tyler reminisced about his first appearance at Coachella in 2011 as part of the Odd Future collective. “It was terrible,” he described of the set – after which he and his cohorts were famously kicked out of the festival by security for shooting super-wets at other guests. Clearly, Coachella has forgiven him: In addition to Saturday's show, Tyler was invited back as a performer in 2015 and 2018.
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Charlie Wilson Helps Start a Silent 'Earthquake'
The night's lesser-known special guest, 71-year-old singer-songwriter Charlie Wilson, is also one of the most lauded, with 13 total Grammy nominations and a BET Lifetime Achievement Award, among other honors. For his cameo, Wilson joined Tyler at the piano (perched atop one of the “mountains” on the set) for a charmingly low-key version of “Earfquake.” Even in his brief appearance, the music veteran's onstage chemistry with his much younger duet partner was palpable.
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Kali Uchis makes a brief cameo
The up-and-coming singer took the stage for a brief appearance during Tyler's performance of “See You Again,” a single from his 2017 album Flower boy, which was released long before Uchis became a star in her own right. While it was an up and down moment, it was another welcome outpouring of support from Tyler's long list of friends and collaborators.
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A windy exit
After warning he had just four minutes to perform before Coachella's 1am curfew on Saturday – a bit of news that caused the crowd to erupt in a round of boos (“B—- don't boo me …boo [Coachella founder] Paul [Tollett], put it together,” he said) — Tyler donned a clutch once again for the grand finale, a gravity-defying performance of “NEW MAGIC WAND” that saw him caught in a “windstorm” (an upcoming storm hints at earlier in the set) while holding on desperately to some boulders. In one final bit of drama, the rapper was quickly thrown from the stage just a minute before midnight – a great bit of stagecraft and a fittingly epic end to the brilliantly cinematic set.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/lists/coachella-2024-tyler-the-creator-performance-recap/
