Tyler, The Creator dropped his new album Cherry Bomb on Sunday night, and we reviewed it on Music Times today. Last night, the Odd Future honcho spoke to PBS about the project. In an interview with host Tavis Smiley, Tyler spoke about his school years, working with Roy Ayers, idolizing Pharrell Williams, being inspired by Pleasantville and Dead Poet Society, and more. Here's some of what we learned:

On how Roy Ayers ended up on the album:

"I got him on my album, big, deep fan. I sent him the song I wanted him on, and he called me and was just like, 'Aw, young man - Tyler these changes, they cold man, these chords are cold.' And to hear someone like him, who has been doing this since forever, to acknowledge someone like me was awesome."

On how he sees himself and how he wants others to perceive him:

"I'm very bright. I'm smart. I'm annoying and obnoxious. I'm very creative and borderline genius, and I think other people see that, too, or are starting to see the other good points. Like, 'He's not actually stupid.' I'm curious enough to explore, whether it's music or clothes or whatever. I'm not afraid to ask questions either."

On where his curiosity comes from:

"I was just born like that. I guess people are scared to ask questions and learn more. For example, I hated school but that's because I wasn't learning what I wanted to learn. Me and my friend Lionel, we love talking about ether and space and planets and gravity and weird stuff. In school we hated science, but now we love going to Barnes And Noble and just going through books and looking on the Internet and Googling articles on all this stuff that they were trying to teach us. Maybe because I'm defiant, it was probably the structure being pushed down my throat that made me say, 'Woah, I don't want to learn this.' But now I'm curious."

On how was he treated in school:

"I was a class clown, but I switched schools a lot, so I was a new kid everywhere. Me and my mom moved a lot. The kids, they were cool, they thought I was weird, especially the inner city black kids just cause it sucks, just our community as black people, we're kind of close-minded. So back then, they would just consider a guitar white-boy music. So me listening to different types of music, they would easily regard that as white-boy music and just shun you regardless even if you like rap and things like that. So the way that I was cool with the black kids was the fact I knew how to rap. So I would battle other kids and things, so that's kind of how I didn't get fully shunned out.

"As a young kid I loved pink and yellow, I'm pretty toned down today, but I love pinks and yellows and blues and exploring, and they all love just black. And not even just with colors, just personality. They would always tell me to calm down and chill and things like that. But no, that's just my personality and how I am. I always try to tell people, 'Don't try to change for other people. Don't let them turn your color into black and white.'"

On what inspires him when he's writing:

"When I was younger - about let's say 16,17,18,19 - I was more creating worlds and characters, and I would read a lot, just because me liking to learn, I would read about certain people and then just try to get in their head and see how they would write a song. And now I just kind of write about my life. Like I have a song on the new album that's just talking about I like when this girl's hair blows in the car. I wrote that because I was with a female friend of mine, and we were in my car, and she was hanging out the sunroof, and her hair was blowing, and I felt like the man, and I wrote a song about it.

"I think a lot of artists kind of mess up because you don't know a lot about them after a certain point in time. So I just realized that none of my music will sound the same if I just write songs about my life. Every two years, you should not be in the same place you were.

"A lot of people aren't honest [in their music] because they're not comfortable with themselves. So that's why you have a bunch of songs about the same things on the radio because, one it's comforting to a simple listener, and two, people just aren't comfortable with themselves. If I was like, 'Hey, I'm depressed,' you'd be like, 'Wow,' because a lot of people won't' be able to do that or tell you what they like and stand for it. And that goes again with a lot of people being close-minded."

Watch the full interview below, and let us know what you think in the comments section!

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