'When I Was 17' | Preview of Tyler The Creator and Biography

This week is new episode of "When I Was 17" (August 27) at 11 a.m., is all about three outspoken rising stars in the hip-hop and rap communities who also happen to be 2011 VMA Best New Artist nominees. The most outspoken and unpredictable of the three is Odd Future standout Tyler, the Creator, who revealed that his 17th year featured two career-making moments, the release of his album and his first-ever "concert" performance.


Tyler The Creator Biography
Tyler Okonma (born May 6, 1991)[1], better known by his stage name Tyler, The Creator, is an American rapper, record producer and music video director from Los Angeles. He is the leader of the alternative hip hop collective OFWGKTA


At the age of 7, Tyler would take the covers out of an albums case and create covers for his own imaginary albums including a tracklist with song times before he could even make music. At the age of 14, Tyler taught himself how to play piano. Tyler attended thirteen different schools during his twelve years of education, including schools in Sacramento and the Los Angeles areas.

"When I was 17, I released The Odd Future Tape. That was my first album as a collective," Tyler said, adding that the release led to the group's first-ever performance.

"My first performance was a talent show. I didn't set us up for it, Hodgy did," he recalled. "I was really excited because I'd never performed before."

Evidently, Tyler went all out during the show and at one point ended up dropping his pants for a not-so-receptive crowd.

Tyler isn't looking back with any regrets, of course. He's got two huge VMA nominations to think about, Best New Artist and Video of the Year.
"I'm really excited," Tyler told MTV News of his Video of the Year nod. "Shout out to Ron Artest. If I lose to any of those wackass videos, I'm gonna be mad because they all suck — except for Adele's."

"The Best New Artist thing, that's cool," he said. "Wiz [Khalifa] is a really good dude and I've been a fan of his music, so if he wins I'll be pretty excited. I wanna win that for sure, but Wiz is awesome, I've been listening to him since '08," he said. "Even Kreayshawn, she's cool. So if she wins that too, I'll be pretty stoked. But you know, I wanna win, I'm just gonna keep it 100."

"When I Was 17" — this week featuring VMA nominees Big Sean, Tyler, the Creator and Kreayshawn — airs Saturday at 11 a.m. on MTV.

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live Sunday, August 28, from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following the Selena Gomez-hosted pre-show at 8. See the list of nominees, revisit last year's highlights and vote for Best New Artist by visiting VMA.MTV.com.