Tyler, the Creator is no doubt one of the greatest showmen working today in hip-hop. During his headlining set on Saturday night (April 13) at Coachella, the rapper once again proved just that, transforming the main stage into a desert canyon and using lighting and projections to create an ambiance so vivid and entrancing that it could only have sprung from an imaginative mind as his own.
To that, Tyler made the most of his first headlining show at the festival, where he has performed numerous times before. “The first time I played Coachella was 2011,” he told the crowd midway through the set. “I didn’t know what the fuck Coachella was, but me and my friends at the time, we went by Odd Future. And it was great. We were in a house. We rented a crib, went to target n—a, bought some snacks, and performed. The performance was terrible. But it was awesome.”
He’s come a long way since palling around with his OFWGKTA crew, and you could feel his confidence permeating across every moment of the performance. Tyler is a master conceptualizer, and knows how to toy with the various frequencies of his stage, dimming the lights for reflective moments and dancing around shooting flames during more electrified songs. But beyond all the bells and whistles of the production, Tyler controls the spotlight. It’s impossible to take your eyes off of him, and throughout the 80-minute closing set of the day, the energy — of both Tyler and the audience — never waned, even when he took a few moments to pause and collect himself between songs (or, at one point, to eat a sandwich while sitting in front of a green tent midway through “IFHY”).
Tyler began the set by exploding out of a trailer that was placed at the bottom of rock formations, blasting into “Lemonhead.” A string of familiar fan favorites followed, some with new instrumental intros, including “WusYaName,” “Best Interest” and “Dogtooth.” The stage was his playground; the mood shifted as the lights changed colors and intensity, creating a unique ambiance for each track, and Tyler seamlessly toured his discography while propelling the set forward.
Most recently, Tyler became a social media talking point after playing party to a viral clip taken from Jerrod Carmichael’s new Netflix special, in which the comedian shared an uncomfortable interaction where he confronted Tyler about a moment where he confessed his feelings for him. Tyler used the Coachella stage to address the clip, explaining that the situation left him feeling awkward.
“I’m guessing y’all got TikTok and probably seen my homie try to fuck me on camera,” he said. “I looked terrible. I told the n—a no but he said, what about if we filmed it? Terrible.”
But beyond that moment, the show was a spectacular focused on the music, with Tyler inviting out a handful of collaborators. Those hoping for a guest appearance from last year’s headliner, Frank Ocean, were surely disappointed. (It would have been a redemptive moment for Ocean, who was largely criticized for the substandard quality of his show.) But Tyler rolled out the red carpet for a collective of other special guests, spacing surprises throughout the performance.
Childish Gambino (a.k.a. Donald Glover) was the night’s first guest, singing the hook on “Running Out of Time.” “You know what’s sick?” said Tyler after Gambino left the stage. “I used to hate that n—a. Seriously. I don’t know why, I gotta go to therapy to figure it out, but this n—a put this song called ‘Urn’ out. It was so undeniable n—a, I was at conflict with myself, like fuck, how could a n—a I hate so much make something so good?”
He shared that he felt a similar way about ASAP Rocky, who joined him for “Potato Salad” and “Who Dat Boy.” “You know what’s crazy? I used to hate that n—a too,” he said. “OK we thought we had beef. it was the n—s around us and then me and Rock was like, we got love and now we friends.” Elsewhere, Charlie Wilson joined Tyler at a piano for “Earfquake,” while Kali Uchis made a brief cameo to sing her part on “See You Again.” He also took an opportunity to take a trip down memory lane, running through a medley of verses from tracks like “She,” “Tron Cat,” “Yonkers” and “Tamale.”
And while the set was largely centered on the music and spectacle, he took moments to address the audience, sharing anecdotes about the songs at hand and sharing that he was skeptical of the Coachella crowd, unsure if it would rise to the occasion. In the end, his fears were quelled as attendees rapped along word-for-word to every song in the set. For the finale, “New Magic Wand,” he went out with a bang — or, rather, a gust of wind — as he vertically climbed a rock formation on suspension cables and held onto the edge as a dust storm blew in, and took him with it.
