Tyler The Creator, Rapper, Discusses Why 'Faggot' Isn't Offensive On 'The Arsenio Hall Show'

WATCH: Rapper Tyler The Creator Defends His Use Of 'Faggot'

Tyler The Creator stopped by "The Arsenio Hall Show" last week to offer his perspective on a number of topics -- including straight rappers who use the word "faggot" in their music.

He tells Hall in the above video:

That’s just a word, you can take the power out of that word. The way that I see things, it's you chose to be offended if you care more about stuff like that. And that might sound very ignorant, but if you're a black person and someone calls you the n-word and you get offended, maybe you might be. But if I know that I'm not a n-word... I'm not gonna get offended because I know that I'm not that. Frank [Ocean] is gay and I use that word all the time. He doesn't care because he knows me. He knows when I say that word I'm not thinking of someone's sexual orientation. It's just another word that has no meaning.

Tyler isn't the first straight rapper to defend the use of the word "faggot" in song lyrics. In a "Rolling Stone" article earlier this month, Eminem attempted to make a similar point by claiming that "faggot" isn't an anti-gay slur, but is rather "more like calling someone a bitch or a punk or asshole."

Skip to the 4:30 mark to have a listen to Tyler's explanation above.

(h/t Towleroad)

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