Tyler, The Creator has never been shy to cite Pharrell as his biggest influence, and even without his constant praise of the superproducer, the DNA of both the Neptunes and N*E*R*D is transparently present in his work.
One of his less obvious influences is Kanye West, someone he's gotten to know well over the last few years, to the point he's one of the first people 'Ye turns to when it comes to feedback on his new material.
With that being said, it wasn't all that surprising that Tyler posted a photo of the two icons on Instagram with the caption "dads". While it seemed self-explanatory, Breaks Magazine decided to ask the Tyler about the caption in their recent interview with the OF rapper, and now that he's elaborated on it, we're glad they did.
"I mean seeing those two in a photo together, that really meant a lot to me and there’s not that many photos of those two," he told the magazine. 'There’s one photo in Japan at the Ice cream store opening, a couple of other photos of them floating round too but seeing that photo in 2015 it’s like they’re still chewing it and they’re still friends, it meant something to me."
Tyler, went on to give his idols the ultimate praise. "It’s like no matter what I’ll be I guess I’ll always be creating and I’ll always try to do that at an awesome level, so seeing those two try to do that. I mean I look up to them so much and they know that they’re fucking gods. I love that photo that’s cool!"
Read the full interview with Tyler over at Breaks.