"Yonkers" is a song written, produced, and performed by American rapper and producer

Tyler, the Creator Tyler Gregory Okonma (born March 6, 1991), known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has been cited as an influential figure in alternative hip-hop during the 2010s. Tyler beca ...

, released digitally as the second single from his second album, ''

Goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearan ...

'' on February 14, 2011. It received controversy due to its violent lyrics and numerous disses, although it was critically acclaimed and landed on numerous year-end lists. Tyler also directed a music video for the single, which was also met with positive critical reception and earned him the

MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist The MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist has been given out since the first annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. Until 2006, the award was named Best New Artist in a Video. In 2007 its name was changed to Best New Artist, as the category un ...

at the

2011 MTV Video Music Awards The 2011 MTV Video Music Awards took place on August 28, at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, honoring the best music videos from the previous year. On July 20, the nominees were announced. Katy Perry received the most nominations this year at ten, ...

. Numerous publications have considered "Yonkers" to be Tyler's breakout song.

Background

The song is named after

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...

. Tyler claimed to have created the beat in eight minutes as a parody of stereotypical 1990s New York hip hop:

Content and controversy

Tyler disses numerous musicians in the song, most notably

Hayley Williams Hayley Nichole Williams (born December 27, 1988) is an American singer and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist and only constant member of the rock band Paramore, which she co-founded in 2004. Williams was born and raised in Meridian, Miss ...

, B.o.B, and

Bruno Mars Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is known for his three-octave tenor vocal range, live performances, R ...

. He also dissed Mars in the Game's song " Martians vs. Goblins". In response, B.o.B released a

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (an abbreviation of ''disrespect'' or ''disparage'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feu ...

titled "No Future" in reference to Tyler's rap group

Odd Future Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, better known as Odd Future and often abbreviated as OF or OFWGKTA, was an American alternative hip-hop Musical collective, music collective formed in Los Angeles, California in 2007. The group consisted of rap ...

. Tyler praised the song and claimed that he did not initially think it was a diss track. In response to the line "stab Bruno Mars in his goddamn esophagus", Mars said, " Tyler has to wait in line if he wants to stab me... he's definitely not the first guy that's said something like that to me and he's not going to be the last." Rapper

Capital Steez Courtney Everald Dewar Jr. (July 7, 1993 – December 23, 2012), better known by his stage name Capital Steez (stylized as Capital STEEZ), was an American rapper from Brooklyn, New York. He was a founder of the Brooklyn-based rap collective Pr ...

sampled the song in his song "Negus", using the same opening line, "I'm a fucking walking paradox."

Music video

The music video for "Yonkers", directed by Tyler, was released via Odd Future's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel on February 10, 2011. Shot in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

using a

perspective control lens Perspective may refer to: Vision and mathematics * Perspectivity, the formation of an image in a picture plane of a scene viewed from a fixed point, and its modeling in geometry ** Perspective (graphical), representing the effects of visual persp ...

, the video features Tyler performing the song on a chair in a blank room while handling and later eating a cockroach, which causes him to vomit. The word "kill" is seen on his hand, along with a St. Peter's cross. The video concludes with Tyler taking off his shirt, realizing that his nose has started bleeding, and hanging himself. The video excludes the third and final verse as the version with this verse was not released until four days after the video. The full song was, however, included on the album. The music video went viral. On February 23, 2011, rapper

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

stated on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that he thought the "Yonkers" video was the best of 2011. The video earned Tyler the

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960 (except in 1967) "for a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that ar ...

award at the

, as well as a nomination for Video of the Year.

Critical reception

"Yonkers" received critical acclaim. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' awarded it with the "Best New Music" award, stating that it is "not only the best thing any

affiliate has produced to date, it's also the perfect distillation of what they do well". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' named it the third best song of 2011. Claire Suddath of ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' named "Yonkers" the eighth best song of 2011, describing it as "minimalistic rap" and "a piece of performance art", concluding that it "creates a thrilling sense of uneasiness that the music world hadn't seen since the early days of

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

". ''Pigeons and Planes'' named the single the 21st best song of 2011. '' XXL'' named it the 22nd best song of 2011, noting that the song, video, and Tyler's performance of "Sandwitches" on ''

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of the '' Late Night'' franchise. Hosted by Jimmy Fallon,

'' propelled him to stardom. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' named the song the 23rd best song of 2011, stating that Tyler "stabs Bruno Mars and disses Jesus ..somehow, all the bad vibes are mesmerizing".

In other media

The song was featured in the soundtrack to the video game '' Saints Row: The Third''.

Track listing

Yonkers was written and produced by

(T. Okonma).

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2011 singles 2011 songs Tyler, the Creator songs Songs written by Tyler, the Creator Songs about suicide Songs critical of religion Diss tracks Odd Future Obscenity controversies in music XL Recordings singles Black-and-white music videos Horrorcore songs Musical parodies