Iggy Pop Labels Tyler, the Creator ‘A Genuine Old-School Talent’

Having recently wrapped up a successful year with the release of his critically-acclaimed Chromakopia album in late October, Tyler, The Creator now has more praise coming his way, this time from proto-punk veteran Iggy Pop.

77-year-old Pop took the time to heap praise upon Tyler on his Iggy Confidential radio show for BBC Radio 6 Music. In his raspy voice, Pop recalled how he and Tyler had previously worked together on an ad campaign for Gucci alongside A$AP Rocky.

“I’ve always liked Tyler,” Pop began. “I did a day’s work with him once, and he would do what it takes to get attention. He’s also a genuine all-around song, dance, writer talent — a genuine old-school talent with a new-school approach.”

The pair’s previous collaboration came about in February 2020, with Gucci seeing them team up with A$AP Rocky to promote their menswear collection which served as an ode to the archetypical rockstar.

“Male elegance can be unpredictable and strange,” Gucci’s Creative Director Alessandro Michele told Forbes of the campaign’s idea. “The result is a group campaign with three men who I believe had fun too.

“There is always this image of eccentricity, because they are in fact eccentric themselves,” he continued. “A certain type of fun is also portrayed and the idea of how one’s obsession with appearances can create a kind of common ground that can become a sort of brotherhood. It was beautiful to see these three men together, seemingly different but very similar.”

Pop’s description of Tyler – “a genuine old-school talent with a new-school approach” – seems to be apt, with the younger musician recently seeing some of his biggest successes to date with the release of the soul, jazz, and hip-hop blending Chromakopia.

Tyler’s eighth album, it became his third consecutive record to top the Billboard 200, while opening track “St. Chroma” became his first to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart.

Previously, his top-performing songs on Streaming Songs, which began in 2013, had been “Earfquake” and “Wusyaname” (the latter featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Ty Dolla $ign), both of which peaked at No. 3 in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Notably, this latest success was accompanied by the single “Noid” being found in the No. 2 position.