In several of his latest creative pursuits outside of music, Tyler The Creator has chosen to use his government name, Tyler Okonma. Tyler revealed in a piece dedicated to the late Virgil Abloh that Virgil motivated him to utilize his government name. “I began utilizing more of my African last name OKONMA a few years ago because of how regal Virgils felt,” he added. “Everything he did felt like he was saying ‘hey over here, coast is clear’ whenever I questioned things,” Tyler stated. Tyler recently admitted that he’s considering changing his stage name.
Tyler revealed in an interview with Fast Company, “My stage name was from, I built a MySpace page when I was 13.” “I had three of them,” he explained, “one for regular friends, another for something else, and the third one was just ideas, where I would put drawings and photos I took and upload beats.” He continued, “I started using that one more, and random people from Kentucky would be, like, ‘Cool beats, bro!’ ‘So I just kept the Tyler, The Creator thing going because, you know, I’m 17 in high school, the name’s getting around, and I just kept it as my stage name.”
After that, he stated that the name no longer appeals to him. “It’s incredibly stupid,” he said, “but it stuck with me so it just works.” “However, my entire name, Tyler Okonma, looks incredibly great in all caps.” So, I don’t know, you might see more of that, I’m growing older, and I think as people get older, they start to realize shit, and they just start changing.”
