Mike Dean has taken issue with a lyric on Tyler, The Creatorās new album Chromakopia that he has accused of being āracist.ā
Prior to the projectās release on Monday (October 28), Tyler shared a snippet of the song āThought I Was Deadā which contains the line: āWhite boys mocking this shit and yāall mad at me? Yāall can suck my dick.ā
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Reacting to the lyrics on social media, the veteran producer and engineer (who himself is white) wrote in an Instagram comment: āRacist shit.ā
Dean, who is best known for his work with Kanye West, Travis Scott and Scarface, later appeared to reveal he was not being serious as he posted the trollface meme on X (formerly Twitter).
The Grammy-winner also expressed a desire to work with Tyler. In response to a fan who asked if he contributed to Chromakopia, Dean wrote: āNa. Love to work with him tho.ā
Mike Dean speaks on Tyler, the Creator's new "white boys" line š
"Racist sh*t" pic.twitter.com/YD5JHSyN3e
ā Kurrco (@Kurrco) October 27, 2024
ā MIKE DEAN! #MWA (@therealmikedean) October 27, 2024
Na. Love to work with him tho.
ā MIKE DEAN! #MWA (@therealmikedean) October 28, 2024
The lyric in question references the backlash to Tyler, The Creatorās recent critique of white rappers for what he sees as āmockingā prominent trap artists.
In an interview with Maverick Carter in August, the Odd Future founder said: āThereās this kid right now, this white kid, regular Caucasian man, and heās like mocking Future and Gucci Mane, like rap music. And people are like, āThis shit hard!ā
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āItās not even like satire, itās like, āIām just joking, Iām just mocking it.ā But Iām like, āNo, no, no, you canāt do [that].ā And I hold rap music so close to my heart ācause this shit changed my life and everyoneās life around me, and Iām a nerd about this shit.ā
He continued: āThis is like weird and Iām looking at it and something about it donāt even sit well with me, in comparison to someone like a Mac Miller or Eminem who didnāt seem like they were mocking it; they had a genuine love for it.ā
While he didnāt name any names, many assumed that Tyler was referring to the viral rapper ian who often dresses like a preppy college student but raps in a similar vein to the aforementioned Southern trap stars.
Bu Thiam, Executive Vice President at Columbia Records and the brother of Akon, was one of those who thought Tyler was speaking about his artist and hit back online.
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He wrote on his Instagram Stories: āYo @feliciathegoat, i signed lan & im from Atlanta. He sounds nothing like Gucci or future lol. Itās called influence. But i never thought Iād see the day where you become old & hate on the youth lol.ā
ian himself has yet to respond to Tylerās comments.