After Crushing on Tyler, the Creator, Jerrod Carmichael Is Uncertain About Their Friendship

During the first episode of Jerrod Carmichael‘s self-titled reality show, he let HBO audiences in on a secret: He had a crush on Tyler, the Creator. Since the two sat down for a filmed discussion about Carmichael’s feelings for the rapper on the Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, it’s uncertain whether the two have remained friends, he told Esquire in a new interview.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Carmichael said. “I think we’re OK. I’m in New York now, so I don’t see him that often, but still admire him and love him, and his friendship meant so much to me, and he inspired me so much.” 

In the episode, Carmichael reflects on a time when he told Tyler that he had romantic feelings over text. After pressing send in 2021, Tyler laughed off the heartfelt message, calling the comedian a “stupid bitch” in a six second voice memo.

“One, it’s embarrassing, a little bit, and obviously [there’s] the fear of it being so totally unrequited,” Carmichael said of the rapper’s response in the docuseries.

Following Carmichael’s Emmy nomination for his writing in HBO’s Rothaniel, Carmichael invited Tyler to join him at the 2022 awards ceremony. (Carmichael later won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Variety Special.) After he declined, Carmichael set up an on-camera conversation with the rapper, which is featured at the end of the first episode.

“I think that conversation is so wild and important,” Carmichael told Esquire. “And I mostly have gratitude to him for doing it. It’s a conversation that’s never happened before on TV, and he knows that I’m insane, I guess, so he was down for something chaotic.” 

Ultimately, Carmichael remained optimistic and said in the interview that every conversation he held during his eight-part docuseries made the relationships more genuine. In the Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, Carmichael documents the uncomfortable, awkward, and intimate parts of his life such as admitting to his infidelity to his boyfriend and searching for acceptance from his Christian mother. New episodes drop Friday nights on HBO.

“I think every conversation in the show has made the relationship better, at least more honest,” Carmichael told the outlet. “But I think we’re good.”