Tyler, the Creator’s eighth studio album, Chromakopia, was released on Oct. 28 and has already topped the Billboard Top 200 in albums. Chromakopia sheds new light on a more personal side of Tyler’s life. The songs explore a more troubling part of his life, including relationships and issues with the current world around him. Most people have received the album as a one-time listen, favorite the popular songs, and move on. Although the album explores the experimental category, it still lives in the hip-hop and R&B sections of music. I believe this album is the cumulative work from past personas. The work as a whole is a top five for his discography.
Lyrics:9/10
The lyrics for this album are truly incredible once you dig below the surface. The best example of how meaningful the lyrics get is on “Like Him”. The song starts with Tyler’s mom talking about his features. She is saying everything from his feet, his long arms, and even his fingers reminisce qualities about his father. The context for this is that much of his fame comes from songs in his early works discussing how his father left. This almost villain-like character Tyler creates is what led to some of his most popular songs. Now that he is much older he finally starts to question who his father is and where he has been. Throughout this song, he echoes “like him” and “Mama, I’m chasing a ghost”. This echo throughout the song shows that feeling of abandonment and loneliness growing up without a father figure. At the end of the song we get another snippet from his mom saying, “It was my fault. Not him, ’cause he always wanted to be there for you.” This lyric holds so much value to Tyler’s personal life and coming up. Without the disappearance of his father, he wouldn’t have made music. His whole career would have been altered if his mom let him stay. Another great song for lyrical value is “Take Your Mask Off”. Based just off of “Like Him”, the lyrics for the album are a 9.
Features:7.5/10
The features of the album aren’t very lengthy. The features chosen for this album are done very well and everyone has a unique sound. Of the 14 songs only 6 of them have actual features, of those we get Daniel Caesar, Teezo Touchdown, Childish Gambino, GloRilla, Lil Wayne, Sexyy Red, ScHoolboy Q, and Doechii. Although we didn’t get Frank Ocean, Daniel Caesar was used perfectly to harmonize with some of the background vocals. The reason it’s 7.5 and not higher is also because of that. The features were used more for background harmonization with a few exceptions like GloRilla, Lil Wayne, Doechii, and Sexyy Red who all had independent bars. I still think the use of these features was amazing. Still, the goal for this album was to show people his versatility including younger artists rather than older established rappers/singers.
Beats:9/10
Tyler is no stranger to being experimental with his beats. Something that sets him apart from most people is that of his beats. All are composed and made by himself. The switches and overall storytelling done with just the beats are truly incredible. We get very upbeat southern college football drumlines in “Sticky”. Then we get more meaningful and slower jazzy style sounds with “Darling, I”. He also manages to sample older songs and does it so effortlessly. In “Darling, I”, he uses Pharrell Williams’s iconic clicking sound from “Drop It Like It’s Hot”. The beats used help convey the emotions he is feeling through the album.
Overall:9.5/10
The album sits on a higher shelf from the rest of his works. Tyler digs below the surface and really gets into the dirty details of his coming up and life situation. Although it’s on the experimental side of both Hip-hop and R&B, the album gives a new light to what those genres could lead to. The work as a whole was very memorable and not off par for Tyler, the Creators music. The track list of 14 songs wasn’t too long and with song lengths being a little bit longer it was nice. I recommend if you are new to his music to start with the songs I talked about, then slowly explore at your own pace.
