Tyler, the Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale (R.I. Review)

Tyler, the Creator has re-released his critically acclaimed "Call Me If You Get Lost" album while adding new songs. On this release, Tyler seems to have left his humbling-intelligence angle in favor of ethnically-proud classism. Although he does have an elevated position in society, it's more about his intelligence than his flaunted wealth. He's not connecting to the rich proportionally to how much he seems to be trying to. Lyrically, Tyler's using a lot of really strong concepts with a standard rapper aesthetic which is problematic because a lot of his audience isn't alerted by his former aesthetic to cue in on how deep his multi-layered lyricism is. This release is the most universal, "casual listener appealing" he's ever dropped, but he doesn't seem to have the same cult-like endorsement from his skater market or from his new affluent market. There's an element of ethnic pride which is very new for Tyler and seems a bit rough because privilege and intelligence are not common in the black community. As always, Tyler is a little ahead of his time, but his brand's respect makes everything he drops extremely significant socially.

Tyler, The Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost (R.I. Review)

Tyler, the Creator is arguably the inventor of the indie rap scene. "Call Me If You Get Lost" is by far his most universal album. There's less swearing, there's no abstract singing or random noises included for the sake of being different. He embraces his ethnicity. And on top of everything else he introduces some interesting new rap flows. His yellow identification picture is symbolic of his new self-actualization. His concept albums where he incorporated multiple personalities or horror aesthetic were abandoned for a suburban rapper archetype (which was a little bland) and now he's creating a high-class preppy successful rapper archetype. I have mixed feelings about his cultural embrace. The fact that he waited this long to accept being black seems a little like a reluctant status drop than an empowering ownership of his culture but black culture needs to listen to this to make their culture appeal to mainstream America like he does. This is by far one of the best albums of this year.