Tyler, the Creator shocks and awes at Grammys

Tyler, the Creator pulled a single of the harshest bait-and-switches the Grammys phase has at any time noticed.

Just hours following arriving to the ceremony dressed, sardonically, as the in-dwelling bellhop, “The Each day Show’s” Trevor Noah introduced him alongside common R&B guests Boyz II Guys and Charlie Wilson. Tyler, nominated for rap album for his chart-topping “Igor,” in truth joined those people functions for a short, sweet introduction to “Earfquake,” the relatively tender funk centerpiece of the LP.

But seconds later, Tyler took the reins and drove the exhibit straight into suburban hell.

He took this Grammy spotlight, his 1st dwell functionality there, to alternatively perform “New Magic Wand,” a single of the most brutal sounds tracks from “Igor,” delivered in front of a strobe-flashed road strewn with dancers in matching, eerie blonde wigs.

Tyler is a single of the most physically incendiary dwell performers in hip-hop, and whether or not by itself in front of a shaking digicam or surrounded by doppelgangers, he remaining it all on the ground as he screamed and howled and just about burst his eyes out of his skull. Not since Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 functionality of “The Blacker the Berry” and “Alright” has an artist lit up a Grammy phase with this a great deal pure adrenaline and fury.

Tyler experienced a reputation as a gleeful provocateur in his Odd Upcoming a long time, but since pared it back into thoughtful, genre-obliterating funk and rock and experimental songs. If you’d appear to “Igor” by way of the experienced, introspective adore music, or have been curious about its Billboard two hundred ascent, this set was a shock to see on music’s most distinguished phase – it would have gotten him arrested if he’d attempted it at a Fairfax sneaker shop.

It all ended with Tyler throwing himself into a pit of fireplace and disappearing from the wreckage of the phase. If everyone has their occupation enhanced by this mournful Grammys, it’s fitting that it should really be him, a single of pop’s terrific antagonists and, as of tonight, its plain Grammy breakout performer.