Tyler, The Creator opened up to DJ Drama about the bidding war that was going on in the industry for him and his Odd Future group members.
During the sit-down, Tyler revealed, "[Jay-Z] invited us to one of his L.A. homes & we just ate tacos. We ate some tacos & he wanted to sign us. I was like 'Man you're cool, but no.' Him, Puff… a lot of people were interested… I don't know, I just want creative control & I do everything."
Turning down the offer didn't sour his relationship with Jay, as Tyler and Jay-Z have publicly supported and cheered one another on over the years. While speaking to Hot 97 in 2021 about putting together Call Me If You Get Lost, Tyler spoke about Jay being one of his influences on the DJ Drama-produced project.
Tyler explained, "One, I like, I grew up listening to that so that’s so ingrained in how I approach rap music, how I approach the genre, how I approach my skill set,” Tyler started off. “Like in 2006 I was 14, turning 15-years-old, so from all of the Lil Wayne’s all the Young Dro’s and all the Pharrell mixtapes. ll the, ‘We Got It For Cheaps,’ all the ‘Fahrenheits’ that Lupe was putting out, all those after JAY-Z retired around the ‘Kingdom Come’ time.
"All of his [JAY-Z] feature runs, all of the Andre 3000 feature runs. The idea of approaching rap music like that is so ingrained in how I approach it that the DJ Drama thing wasn’t like out of the blue or anything like that, it’s how we approached the early Odd Future stuff. I wanted a Gangster Grillz mixtape since I can remember but it just wasn’t time. I just didn’t have this big ass ring and wasn’t talking about boats and sh*t yet. “
