Fan Perspective: 10 Years Of Camp Flog Gnaw

“This is all Tyler’s idea. I’m just being real!” exclaimed Jasper Dolphin, one of the founders of Odd Future backstage at the 10th Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in Los Angeles last month. “And I think the ni**a’s doing an amazing, good, f**king job with it. And congrats to the bro for his show.”

While performing their respective sets, Earl Sweatshirt, Daniel Caesar, and more championed the rapper’s creative genius and thanked him for his collaborative spirit. This was the consensus from the musicians who took the stage at the sold-out event. 

Similar sentiments were also shared by Laila! and Jean Dawson after their performances at the annual event. Launched in 2012, Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival has taken over Los Angeles since its start, excluding 2020-2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If in 12 years, Tyler, The Creator could have that impact on his peers, what does the evolution mean to fans who have also joined the rapper in this journey? 

“That was my first ever music festival at all,” reflected attendee Shayna “Esther” Cooper, 28, who attended Flog Gnaw for the third time. Esther, like many fans, showed their appreciation for the space by dressing as Tyler, The Creator. Cooper turned heads in the Grammy-winner’s greyscale aesthetic from his latest CHROMAKOPIA drop.

“I came in with, like, no expectations. And that was when they were still in a really small parking lot, so just one stage, everything in one spot. I was just like, wow. The community there was just really amazing because everybody was just really nice. Everybody was really accepting, and I had never been in an environment like that before.”

The inaugural Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival brought the Odd Future collective to Los Angeles with 2,300 guests at Club Nokia. In the off-kilter, one-day affair, Lil Wayne, Action Bronson, and Trash Talk filled the lineup, and according to a review from The Hollywood Reporter, the show was a rambunctious yet triumphant event perfectly matching the energy of the California rapper.

Over the years it has evolved into an anticipated festival with revelers traveling from across the globe to sit comfortably in their eccentricities, specifically Black attendees.

“Something I’ve always admired, he’s never taken no for an answer,” continued Esther who has been making her outfits for the event since 2016. “Even when people have told him no, he’s made it happen. And I’m someone who’s, like, always been considered weird or made fun of. And I felt seen… Just seeing him be himself  helped me feel comfortable being myself and not being able to — like not paying attention to the negative things that people have to say.”

She added, “Because even — I’ve never really talked about this openly. Me, doing creative looks for Camp Flog Gnaw, people were so mean. People were sending me death threats over just me being creative, and it’s crazy. And it’s like, well, I mean I’m just evolving with him. I’m doing looks that match where he’s at right now. So, just the way that he’s never taken no for an answer and just continued to grow and grow and grow, despite doubters and how he’s been treated throughout his career.”

From his debut solo album Bastard to the chart-topping CHROMAKOPIA, Tyler, the Creator has always put his true thoughts and opinions on wax, for better or for worse. In all of its shock value, some of the aforementioned treatment in earlier stages of his career was due to his horrorcore approach to alternative Hip-Hop and seemingly offensive lyrics including rhymes about rape and murder. 

Since his 2013 Wolf album, Tyler, The Creator took a different approach and began to experiment with R&B, Jazz, and soul influence. Without losing the brashness of his lyrical content, the rapper’s pen embraced an intimate fluidity with personal narratives, storytelling, and braggadocio. This honesty has resonated with fans who look to Tyler, the Creator as a model of transparency. 

“In the past 10 years, especially, with the album before his newest one, with him talking about his life and how far he’s come and about all the stuff that he’s achieved and everything, it’s like I want to be able to say that about my life once I become that age,” shared 21-year-old Malik from Las Vegas.” “I want to be able to say stuff like that and he’s inspired me to do that. ‘Take Your Mask Off’ or ‘St. Chroma.’ Those are my favorite ones.”

Esther also shared a similar sentiment about Chromakopia, “It’s so personal, and I feel like he’s talking about things, as a Black fan, that I’ve never heard him talk about before. Like, [his] relationship with his father, which — that’s something he’s talked about, but we got to hear a different side of it. Talking about hair and just his experience being black in the industry. It’s just — it was really refreshing. It was really, really nice.”

In this past 12 years, the culmination of Tyler, The Creator’s life and career erupted with a deafening silence ahead of his headlining set on the first night of the 2024 Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival. An audience of thousands in their Golf Wang Converse sneakers, IGOR costumes, and festival merch rushed the stage as a warning message notifying the crowd of pending pyrotechnics and strobe lights flashed across the screen. 

“I don’t even have any heartfelt message. Thank every one of y’all motherf**kers, on God,” the lauded leader exclaimed to endless cheers. He continued to perform tracks CHROMAKOPIA joined by Sexyy Red, Doechii, ScHoolboy Q, and Daniel Caesar, as well as “Yonkers,” “Tamale,” and “EARFQUAKE. He ultimately closed his set with “See You Again” before the sold-out crowd, symbolizing that the 10th carnival is only the beginning.