Tyler, the Creator on being banned from the UK: 'I'm being treated like a terrorist'

Last week, while attempting to enter the UK for a string of festival performances, including in Reading and Leeds, Tyler, the Creator was turned away at the border and told he had been banned by the home secretary, Theresa May, from entering Britain for the next three to five years. It wasn’t the first time the rapper has had problems entering a country. In 2014, he was banned from visiting New Zealand for posing “a threat to the public order and the public interest”, and earlier this year he was the subject of a campaign by Australian feminist group Collective Shout, who cited lyrics from his mixtape Bastard and his song Tron Cat, from his debut album Goblin, in their efforts to bar him from the country. Collective Shout’s campaign appeared to slow down the approval of his visa to enter Australia, and led to Tyler curtailing a planned tour there in September. “We would much rather come to Australia when it isn’t surrounded in controversy,” he tweeted.

On 26 August, after being turned away at the UK border, Tyler tweeted: “Based on lyrics from 2009, I am not allowed in the UK for 3-5 years (although I was there 8 weeks ago). That is why the shows were cancelled.” Although the Home Office would not comment on the specific case, it issued a statement saying: “Coming to the UK is a privilege, and we expect those who come here to respect our shared values.”

However, government papers given to Tyler specifically cite lyrics from VCR, Blow, Sarah, Tron Cat and French, and explain that he was rejected under the terms of Home Office policy on “behaviours unacceptable in the UK” – a set of guidelines drawn up in 2005 to try to prevent suspected terrorists entering Britain. “The home secretary has considered whether, in light of this list, you should be excluded from the UK on the grounds that your presence here would not be conducive to the public good,” the letter to the performer stated. “The home secretary has reached this decision because you have brought yourself within the scope of the list of unacceptable behaviour by making statements that may foster hatred, which might lead to intercommunity violence in the UK.”

The letter goes on to state: “Your albums Bastard, in 2009, and Goblin, in 2011, are based on the premise of your adopting a mentally unstable alter ego who describes violent physical abuse, rape and murder in graphic terms which appears to glamourise this behaviour.”

Now, Tyler, the Creator has agreed to speak about being banned from UK entry.

What happened at the border?

Monday was one of the shittiest days I’ve ever had. I was in a detention room; I felt like a criminal. And then [a Border Force officer] showed me lyrics from songs … literally, a paper with five lines of lyrics, and four were from Bastard songs and one was from Tron Cat. I never perform those songs. Thirty minutes later, the guy comes in, he gives me a paper, and he says: “OK, they’re not letting you in the country.” The paper said I couldn’t come at all, saying that I support homophobia and acts of terrorism, and [it said] some other stuff. I’m just like, one, none of that is true, and two, I was here seven weeks ago. I rented out a movie theatre for a show. I did something really awesome, and it was no problem.

All year, I’ve been renting out movie theatres around the world to show my favourite movies. I just did Amsterdam, and we showed Moonrise Kingdom. In London, we rented out a movie theatre and watched Napoleon Dynamite, then we played a show and had a little pop-up shop. It was really cool. Then me reading [why I couldn’t come to the UK], it was like, yo? What the hell?

Now [the UK government] are just followers. Everyone is a follower, just following what other countries are doing. Now I’m getting treated like a terrorist. I’m bummed out because it’s like, dude, I’m not homophobic. I’ve said this since the beginning. The “hating women” thing – it’s so nuts. It’s based on things I made when I was super-young, when no one was listening [to my music]. Like, I wrote Blow when I was reading about different people in American history. One of the people happened to be [the serial killer] Ted Bundy, and I wrote a song from his point of view.

The thing that irks me about it is that the paper saying I am denied entry to the UK clearly states that these songs were written from [the perspective of] an alter ego – which means they obviously did some research on these songs that they’re detaining me for. So the argument is right there! This song is written from an alter ego – I’m not like this! You could watch any interview and see my personality, see the guy I am. I wouldn’t hurt a fly.

When the Australia thing happened, I was like, “Wow, OK.” Then the UK thing happened, and it’s like: ‘OK, this is not funny any more – this is actually wrong, from a moral standpoint. Now [threats against] freedom of art and speech are at hand. And because of this, it’s opening a door for anyone to be banned.

There’s a long history of rap music being censored in the US and elsewhere.

What about the people who will make music in the next five years? Are they gonna get banned? Why don’t they ban authors? Writers who write these mystery books about people getting raped and sabotaged and murdered and brainwashed – why don’t they ban them? There are rallies of neo-Nazis in parts of England. And then you’re telling me I can’t come there because of some bullshit song, but you got motherfuckers with swastikas rallying down the street actually promoting hate?

Do you think the UK ban is directly related to the boycott in Australia?

They’re following! They’re just followers at this point – to me, at least. Personally. I don’t know. It all came out of nowhere; I was [in London] in May, dude. Two months later they’re like: “Hey, uh, yeah, we reviewed music from a long time ago out of nowhere, [and] you can’t come in.” What?

Where does the paperwork state that you can’t return for five years?

It says: “Although there is no statutory right of appeal against the secretary’s decision, the decision is reviewed every three to five years.” On Smuckers, I rap: “They say I’m nutty, I’m picnic basket, one short of a sandwich of peanut butter … I got banned from New Zealand, Whitey had called me a terrorist … and goddammit I couldn’t believe it.” That relates to right now so much. “Ban the kid from the country, I never fall, never timber / but you fucked up as a parent, your child’s idol’s a nigga.”

[I wrote that] lyric because I was starting to think that they did not like the fact that their children were idolising a black man. There were Caucasian parents who were not feeling that, so yes, they’re gonna sign a petition to make sure I don’t come and infiltrate their child’s brain. The fact that I wrote that shit in January and it pertains to right now is so fucking crucial, it’s crazy.

This is only gonna open a door for other people to get banned. And then they’re gonna go after video games, and then they’re gonna go after movies, and we’re gonna live in such a sensitive world. It’s like the world is scared of everything. I feel like everyone is so sensitive to everything, and if they don’t like something it’s like: “Oh my God, I don’t like the colour yellow – let’s get yellow banned from every country, let’s sign a petition – let’s start a hashtag to make sure this colour is never seen, because I don’t like it and I don’t understand it.”