Tyler The Creator Mugshot

Meaning

What does Tyler The Creator Mugshot mean?

Tyler, the Creator mugshot refers to the mugshot of Tyler Okonma, also known as Tyler the Creator, released by Austin Police Department, following an arrest on Tyler for allegedly trying to incite a riot.

Online, the mugshot became a popular photoshop exploitable meme, especially among fans of Tyler the Creator, as well as hip hop culture, used ironically in a variety of contexts.

Tyler the Creator’s mugshot

Origin

What's the origin of Tyler The Creator Mugshot?

Tyler Gregory Okonma a.k.a. Tyler, the Creator was arrested by the Austin Police Department on March 15th, 2014 at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport for having incited a riot a day earlier.

The “Tyler the Creator mugshot” was created and shared by the police department on the same day.

The rapper was allowed to go free in exchange from a $25 000 bond and a Riot-Class A Misdemeanor charge.

Spread & Usage

How did Tyler The Creator Mugshot spread?

Only one day following the arrest, the original image was posted to Reddit‘s /r/ photoshopbattles sub by u/BryanBeast13, calling for photoshop edits.

A lot of creative interpretations were submitted. These images eventually gave foundations to a number of other memes.

During the next few years the meme made appearances mostly in the  /r/tylerthecreator subreddit.

Eventually in 2019, hip hop and rap communities started utilizing the “Tyler, the Creator mugshot” as an ironic meme template.

The format was also featured in a number of occasions on iFunny and Instagram meme pages.

External resources

More interesting stuff