 What's up everybody, once again, it's Brandon, man, Shawn, and this video is brought to you by brandmannetwork.com because I signed myself. Now someone asked me to do a video on Tyler the Crater and you know, because of the Earthfake and all that stuff, but I'm like, I don't really want to just talk about this trend and this constant evolution of Tyler and all that kind of stuff. What was interesting to me? It's something that I don't know people might not necessarily like because I'm going to talk about Yonkers in 2019, but why I think it's so symbolic in the way it reflects what he's been able to do in the center of his brand power. So let's get to it. One, if we look at Yonkers first and foremost, it's a first impression. The power of first impressions we cannot forget. So think about the fact that this dude has so many of the things that became consistent in his brand and that one song. One, I mean, from this in Jesus to eating a cockroach with that shock value, even mentioning things like therapy, there's so many elements, right? That all around the way the presentation and packaging was came off as, yo, look, this dude on give a fuck. I mean, he's talking about B.O.B. and Haley, that whole airplanes, brutal Mars, all that stuff. But then on top of that is this whole presentation of I'm all around weird, which at that time definitely was something that stood out. Not just being weird, but him doing that and being weird as a black kid. And then just being up front when you talk about the collective of odd future. So let's just take that packaging there and then continue to move forward. Because a lot of the stuff that they did just right there off that took a lot of courage, right? It takes a lot of courage to be that first one or one of those few to really go to that extreme to not only say, yo, I'm this different thing, but I'm just different thing. And I don't give a fucking as a matter of fact, I'm going to use hyperbole to explain how much I don't give a fuck what you think. But the thing is when we think about his brand power, the center of his brand power going to this extreme can oftentimes be one of the safest things that you actually do. Because a lot of people think about Tyler and they think identity crisis. I've heard that analysis before of, oh, you know, he's talking about this and he's talking about that and he's having all these homophobic slurs and then he ends up being gay. And, you know, he's mentioned in counseling and he has dead issues. All that stuff right there, right? And I'm not going to get into the lyrical breakdown number 10, like I know exactly where buddy is trying to come from. But what I can say is, yes, you might say, yo, this dude has an identity crisis or you can look at it as, you know what, this dude just belligerent shock value. He's immature, all that good stuff. But I really think one part of this really reflects the fact that he's rejecting these boxes and he's constantly rejecting these boxes and the absurdity kind of works as a defense mechanism. The self-deprecation kind of in some ways works as a self-defense mechanism. Even if it's not intentional, that's a part of the result because I'm not talking about a, hey, I'm lashing out at you because I feel this way in terms of self-defense mechanism. I'm talking about, hey, look, if I'm talking about my stuff, obviously you can't talk about me in a certain way. And if I'm going to these extremes and being absurd, you can't really box me in into these basic social norms. So again, I'm not sure if any of that was out of fear or even if it's intentional, but the truth is it gave him space for somebody as an artist to continue to find themselves, to continue to understand other parts of my identity. So no, I'm not having identity crisis. I'm just not willing to pretend to know every part of myself just to have you to force me to commit into this one space and then have to suffer when I realize, oh, I'd like this too, or I want this too, because this dude moves around. If you look at him over the last, I don't know, 10 years, dude moves around like a shark. He does not stay still from one category to another category, artistically fashion, music, movies, TV shows. It's like a whack-a-mole. He might pop up a few places at once. He might be gone and just pop up one time in one category. Either way it goes, you're left wondering what's going to happen next. And after you see enough of this, right, he's going to this extreme and he can say whatever he want because he's saying these extreme things. People are left saying stuff like, you know, that's just Tyler. Tyler's not serious. He's always done things like this. He's always said stuff like this. But then the social question is, does that make it OK that he said an extreme thing just because he's always said extreme things? Either way it goes, it ends up training the fan base and people to expect the unexpected, right? Which is a stupid phrase in my opinion because you literally can't expect something that you do not expect. But the reality is what the true result of that feels like is, OK, I don't know what's going to happen next. So the fan base or the consumers eventually get beat into the submission of just waiting and realizing and accepting that whatever he does next can come from any direction. So it's not about expecting the unexpected. It's accepting the unexpected. And what you get from that is people who pay a lot of attention whenever you come out with something. And now that leaves Tyler in the position of power, right? There's always more meaning behind it. It seems and feels more intentional. There's this methodical chaos, this organized chaos. The people that he turns off will always be turned off from whatever direction he's coming from. But then the people who admire him will always value whatever he comes out with, probably to the point of over analyzing it and deepening thinking that he might even think himself. But that's the power of one of those type of brands, right? That's the value of creating the freedom to come from any direction. You're free to just be an artist versus what people think an artist should be. But that's a whole other conversation right there. But just like to really bring it all in that way that Tyler was introduced, right? That that absurdity, that shock value, that weirdness created a large enough space for him to move in whichever direction and have the freedom that he likes without failing to meet fan expectations because the only expectation is Tyler himself. Whenever he pops up, we just accept him. Kind of like that little kid who has a dad that's gone. So they're happy if the dad comes back with the toys. They're happy if the dad comes back with some milk. They're happy that the dad is just home this time because I barely get to see buddy. And I'll just leave it at that. As always, this video is brought to you by Brain Man Network dot com because I saw myself. If you like this video, go ahead and like button. If you like it, might as well share it. And if you're not subscribed, you know what to do. Hit that subscribe.