Rapper Billie Eilish “would be nothing without”

Billie Eilish, who began making music at just six years old, is eclectic and easily draws on a wide range of influences, from The Beatles to Justin Bieber. Her raw, emotionally succinct ballads often speak to her more overtly emotional muses like Lana Del Rey and Amy Winehouse. But as her ardent fans will appreciate, Eilish’s tastes extend to rap and hip-hop. While this may come as a surprise given her penchant for near-whisper vocals, the young singer has always been quick to share who the key artists in each genre are that inspire her.

“I just felt like I missed the world completely,” she once said after discovering rap. “I really thought, ‘Oh, damn. This is what I was missing. This is what I like.”

Eilish has said in numerous interviews over the years that Childish Gambino and Tyler, the Creator remain two of her favorite artists. As for Tyler, the Creator, she owes her acquaintance with him to the horse camp instructor.

“We were in the middle of class and just messing around, (and) she was like, ‘Have you heard about Tyler?’ I said, “No,” and she said, “Wait, what do you mean?” Your profile picture is literally him,” Eilish recalled during an interview with rolling stone. “It was true, I had a picture of Tyler, the Creator on my profile before I even knew who he was because I just thought it was a cool picture. She played me “Tamale,” which was huge at the time. Still a damn good song. Then we listened to Tamales surrounded by five-year-olds riding horses.”

Likewise, Eilish met Childish Gambino by complete accident after her longtime collaborator and brother Finneas shuffled his iTunes playlist to include one of his biggest hits.

“I just shuffled everything around and found a song called ‘Heartbeat,'” she said. “I immediately stopped what I was doing. I looked at my phone and it said it was an artist named Childish Gambino. I remember just sitting there, looking at my phone and playing a song – and I was just in awe, I felt like I was being introduced to a new world. It was a crazy, crazy moment.”

Praise for these two artists has been a recurring theme throughout her career. Back in 2018, Eilish took to Instagram to reflect on her performance at Tyler’s Camp Flog Gnaw festival and what it meant to her. She seemed almost stunned when he responded to the praise, writing: “I never in a billion years would have thought those words would come out of this man’s mouth,” and then said: “Wow. Without you, Tyler, I would be nothing, everyone knows that.”

She’s never been one to play favorites: Just weeks after her explosive performance at Camp Flog Gnaw, she covered Child Gambino’s “III.” Telegraph Avenue (Lloyd’s Oakland)” showering him with similar praise, saying: Noisy: “Childish Gambino created me. This is God – you can’t even put him on the same list with other people.”