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Showing posts with label Tyler The Creator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tyler The Creator. Show all posts
Tyler, the Creator is back with new music in 2025. I always feel bad reviewing his albums too early because there's so much nuance in everything he drops, and I never catch everything the first play-through. The cover of the album features red leather pants (questioning his acceptance), a Maga inspired hat with "glass" written across it (questioning his acceptance), and big hands (which question his culture's perception). Igor was the last Tyler album that tried to be universally sanctioned. "Don't Tap The Glass", "Chromakopia", and "Call Me If You Get Lost" were his attempts to assimilate with a more hip hop friendly audience. That's not a bad move in a world where many audiences are not encouraged and sometimes not even allowed to support other culture's content. The problem is Tyler's appeal is his track record of consistently breaking those barriers. There's a bar where Tyler says, "They say I can't relate to regular people, but I was never regular". It's funny, but it is extremely true.
Tyler, The Creator... Arguably the pioneer of indie rap/hipster rap/alternative rap; His career is gargantuan compared to the hipster bands beside him at the time of his rise to fame. He's a blend of intelligence and radical perspective that mixes German and African culture in a way that has a social value only limited by its inability to be faked by other rappers.
Tyler began as the Marilyn Manson of hip hop. Although it's nice that he has gathered a younger content-sensitive audience for his newer music, disowning his previous music like he often does is just a waste of a lot of momentum.
Chromakopia may not blow you away the first listen, but that's not what his music does. He meticulously designs his music to combine his visuals, messages, and audience representation, into a unified experience that makes more sense each time you listen. His songs are also created to be performed.
The best song of the album is a collab with School Boy Q, which is a good matchup because Tyler doesn't always have imaginative flows or clever punchlines, and Schoolboy Q doesn't have a brand as strong as Tyler to generate listeners.
Belittling Odd Future is a little dismissive of their contributions to his career, and the raps themselves are probably the least impressive aspect of the release. All in all, Tyler is working hard and it's paying off.
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