On October 28th, 2024, rapper Tyler Okonma, best known as Tyler the Creator, released his eighth studio album Chromakopia. Many fans went crazy on social media about the album, debating if it would live up to the standards of his past music.
Thirty-three-year-old Tyler the Creator has been making music since the late 2000s, releasing his first studio album Bastard in 2009. Along with eight albums, he has released one EP and 32 singles. Before gaining popularity as a solo artist, he was the leader of a music group called Odd Future based out of Los Angeles. This group consisted of many different rappers, producers, filmmakers, skateboarders, and clothing designers. Odd Future even had a TV show that appeared on Adult Swim until it was canceled in 2014 after three years.
Though Tyler was still part of Odd Future, in 2009 he started making solo music. His first album shows a very clear difference from his most recent. According to Sheldon Pearce in his NPR article, “Bless this mess: Tyler, the Creator and the chaos of adulting,” his first album and his most recent album differ due to his abandonment of the rebellious attitude he presented in his first album Bastard. While his last few albums have been described as Alt hip-hop with R&B and jazz influences, his first couple of albums are said to be more “horrorcore,” which is a subgenre of rap that includes themes similar to a horror movie. For example, horrorcore music will include many forms of violence and gore. It wasn’t until his fifth studio album that Tyler began to show elements of rock, neo-soul, and contemporary.
All to say, while he might be put in the genre of rap, he continues to prove that he’s a lot more than that, which is just what he wants for his career. “I hate rapping,” he said in an interview with XXLMag in 2014. “Only because it puts you in a box.”
When Tyler released Chromakopia, the big debate was whether or not it sounded like him. To some, he strayed too far away from what his music used to be.
To me, it didn’t matter whether or not it sounded like his other albums, what mattered was if I enjoyed it as much, if not more. I can definitely say that Chromakopia was more than I expected from him.
I had just hoped to hear good songs but was met with deep lyrics that allowed me to imagine the stories Tyler intended to tell. The album consists of 14 strong tracks through which Tyler tells a story of powerful lyricism. The album features many talking moments from his own mother. In the beginning of the first song “St. Chroma,” she tells him not to dim his light for anyone, basically saying to never stop being himself. The rest of the song contains backing vocals helping to convey the story of the song.
One of the next songs is “Hey Jane.” During this song, Tyler makes a shift and moves into a more slow and serious tone. The song contains two points of view – Tyler and a girl named Jane. Jane is finding out she’s pregnant while Tyler is learning that he has to take on the responsibility, yet Jane is telling him that he doesn’t have to be there and that she understands if he doesn’t want to be.
While “Hey Jane” might sound like it would be the most emotional song on the album, it’s actually not. To me, his hardest-hitting is “Like Him.” The song starts off with his mother telling him all the things that remind him of Tyler’s father, who had supposedly abandoned him and his mother. Tyler talks of chasing a ghost, longing to know the feeling of what he never had. He pours his heart out while asking, “Do I look like him?” To end the song we hear a deeply personal message from his mother where she reveals that she pushed away his father and that he always wanted to be there for Tyler but she stopped him.
Although Tyler’s album does get emotional at points, he includes tracks like “Sticky” and “Balloon,” which are more uptempo and take you back to the previous roller coaster feeling of Tyler’s other albums. Personally, my favorite songs on the album are “Sticky” and “Like Him,” which are two very contrasting songs. “Sticky” is not a song that made me focus on the words. The repetition and aggressive beat are what made me instantly fall in love with the song. “Like Him,” as I mentioned, is one of his most captivating songs. Tyler’s emotional storytelling allowed me to imagine what he went through constantly longing for a father figure as a kid.
Tyler’s ability to change how the listener feels within just three minutes shows why he truly is a creator. Whether it’s rap, hip-hop, or producing, he has shown that he can do it all.
