A culmination and a refinement all in one. ‘Chromakopia’ centers on Tyler The Creator facing the paranoia of his past and present, doused with some of his riveting production, fantastic compositions, and emotionally sincere writing to date.
It’s important to take this from the very beginning.
The notable presence of the Odd Future group has spurred a lot of attention for their set of mixtapes from 2008 to 2010, an attention that only gave some of their members their spotlight - from Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, and most importantly, Tyler The Creator. Shifting the focus on Tyler, he has perhaps gotten enough discussion that grew and grew as he developed more of what he’ll put together later down the line, but the start of his solo records was rather shaky and conflicting at the time. Starting things off with the Wolf Haley trilogy sure has given him much discourse not just for Tyler The Creator’s ability as a rapper and a producer, but also the set of lyrical subject matter that has boiled a lot of discourse therein - the sort of content that might be labeled under the “horrorcore” trappings, yet the emotional throughlines of a teenager grappling with his own identity, romantic longings, and lost father figure is ruminating underneath the surface. The sort of narrative depth that might justify Tyler’s young adult feelings, but not enough to not miss out on just how a lot of those records have dated rather oddly, with pacing and writing issues that only make that graphic presentation evoke less.
Yet past that trilogy, it is where Tyler The Creator does start to change things up for the better, where his creative spirits allowed him to leap more, yet needling some of those thematic throughlines from that Wolf Haley trilogy along on those subsequent records, with ‘Cherry Bomb’ bridging those gaps as despite the shift mixing, it has picked up the qualities of bombast and soul that he will eventually grow into overtime. The creative evolution of ‘Flower Boy’ where that queer revelations and lonesome introspection have flourished due to the summery textures and lilting progressions that Tyler The Creator has stepped into, the conceptual experiment of ‘Igor’ where that romantic exploration of both yearning and heartbreak is doused with synthetic warbling that works to various degrees of success, and eventually coming through with the aristocratic mixtape feel of ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’ where amidst the rumbling production and the punchy flexing, the introspection of Tyler The Creator’s past is starting to shape in form, especially with the fame and success that he might carry, but still makes him rather lonely and doesn’t give him that romance that he has wanted for a while.
This overall context soon takes hold within his recent record, ‘Chromakopia’, the sort of album that feels like it is where Tyler The Creator has felt a bit more shaken, with the introspection becoming more in the forefront and lessening any sort of conceptual deflection that will interject with that introspection. While the overall sound itself might be a divisive aspect as there are not as many interesting shifts as in previous records, that shifty nature that’s reminiscent of ‘Cherry Bomb’ paired with the textural edges of ‘Igor’ is potently executed, especially as it does feel like a refined version of what Tyler has tried to do on ‘Cherry Bomb’ and it is the sort of purposeful production decision that he emphasizes with the hard-hitting bangers that are filled with pummelling melodic passages and Tyler’s phenomenal presence as a rapper and a singer. The opener of ‘St. Chroma’ that ramps that explosive bombast as Daniel Caesar’s vocal harmonies wondrously acts as the transition from the stomping melodic start to the rumbling bass groove, the scratchy and clacking effects across ‘Rah Tah Tah’ that adds some lighter texture amidst the succumbing bass and Tyler’s imposing flows, the surprise posse-cut of ‘Sticky’ where Glorilla, Sexxy Red, and Lil Wayne offers their brief yet excellent verses amidst the filthy bass groove and sassy horn lines amidst the presence of crowd cheers, the clamoring march of ‘Thought I Was Dead’ where the array of horns, shuffling percussions, and soldier chants do allow ScHoolboy Q and Tyler The Creator’s to just blow through with their flows, and the soaring keylines of ‘Balloon’ does add a brighter edge to the usual set of bangers, especially as Tyler and Doechii manage to give some joyously humorous bars that do embrace their queerness to heart.
This is where the softer parts do occur as per usual album by Tyler since ‘Cherry Bomb’, but there is a compelling nature to a lot of these compositions as the production does try to give clarity to the rest of the instrumentation and vocals, allowing their glimmering tunes to shine through. Leaning towards that pop, r&b, and soul sensibilities that are similar to ‘Igor’, but finally letting the natural tones speak out, leading to a lot of these songs to voice out without anything getting in their way. The charming 80s feel of ‘Darling, I’ as the synths carry a lot of melodic foundation across the melodic waves from the backing vocals and Tyler’s more earnest character, the minimal beat that pops up on ‘Hey Jane’ as the synths carry off a lounge tone to them - giving the vocals to flow through easily, the slinky soulful funk of ‘Judge Judy’ where the sifting melodies glitter through the synths and acoustics, the vocal harmonies that pop up on ‘Take Your Mask Off’ that gives the song its impact amidst the ray of keys and synth swells, the tender atmosphere of ‘Tomorrow’ from the layers of vocal backings and guitar strums just before the rumbling beat gives more weight to the song, and ‘I Hope You Find Your Way Home’ ends the record on a glisteningly bright note, where the prominent presence of piano progressions and shambling grooves let the song develop up just before it gets cut off by the vocal sample from Tyler’s mom which eventually transitions to the synth melody to soar until the very end. Eventually concluding this record.
All of this does lead altogether to what Tyler The Creator is now dealing with on this album, where on past records there are glimpses of that vulnerability showing through, especially on ‘Flower Boy’ that never shies away from showcasing part of his identity and status that he is musing throughout, a musing that he does tend to undercut throughout ‘Igor’ and ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’ where the conceptual framing of the former and the aristocratic irony of the latter shoves away those sincere pieces of himself, like a mask that he keeps on putting up, a disguise that he can’t just take away. So now, when he realizes that he is getting older and when the fame and success just don’t give him much to work with amidst the paranoia that he feels towards the rabid fanbase and dogshit parts of music discourse that he explicitly discussed on cuts like ‘Rah Tah Tah’, ‘Noid’, and ‘Thought I Was Dead’, he eventually starts confronting what he has shunned for quite a long time - an aspect that he has kept up even within the Wolf Haley trilogy once the shock factor wears off and the vulnerable touches start surfacing - the father that is no longer within his family and the queerness that he dismisses but slowly hints on ‘Flower Boy’ and beyond.
Before going knee-deep in that subject matter, it’s important to highlight that those reflective revelations of himself do crop up from the romantic relationships that he imparts from ‘Darling, I’ up to ‘Judge Judy’. A set of songs that may seem to finally allow Tyler The Creator to be grateful for the love that he has gained, but it’s also rather complex once the details start to show themselves. In ‘Darling, I’, he expresses the fact that perhaps a monogamous relationship is not really for him and he wishes that his partner would find love outside of his presence as he too wants to find love outside of whatever romantic limits he finds himself into. There’s an open communication between him and that partner that creates the acknowledgment of maturity amidst a sense of sadness that will later come through. ‘Hey Jane’ is where the sense of paranoia starts to dig deeper, where the unexpected pregnancy shakes them both, yet what Tyler does is rather compelling. Where instead of running away, he comforts his partner. It is also noteworthy how Tyler frames the perspective of the girl, wherein, she respects Tyler for what he did for her and the fact there is an agency on how she can handle the situation as she can just move places, but it doesn’t take away that fear of losing Tyler as a friend, because to quote how she feels about him directly: “You're not dumb, and your energy is a good mood /
A lil' weird, but overall, you's a good dude, huh”. The streak of relationship songs eventually ends with ‘Judge Judy’, where amidst the explicit intimacy and genuine romance on display, there is an acceptance that Tyler has towards women who have more experience with sex, but also a sense of sadness about the fact that Judy eventually passed away due to an illness, wishing him to embrace a long life and showing his true self towards other.
And this eventually leads to songs like ‘Take Your Mask Off’ and ‘I Killed You’ which go into detail about Tyler’s complicated relationship with his identity. The former song is an extensive rumination of the insecurities of fragile thugs that are more confused about who they are, religious family men that preach lackluster bible verses but are willing to indulge in queer activities that they fear to embrace fully, weary mothers that might get the bag and children but regrets on not accomplishing their goals, and even Tyler The Creator himself whose success allows to keep the mask up rather than embracing the emotions within, and the latter song explores the embrace of Tyler’s blackness that swivels through a lot of hair metaphors that branches into subtopics such as gender roles and family dynamics. Telling that despite how things have changed since then, Tyler is still embracing the heritage that he has belonged to.
So now that he manages to finally put down the mask that he is wearing, it is where the oddball charm of Tyler The Creator as a musician and as an artist does show through in clear sight, an oddness that might not fit in a usual box within a lot of the hip-hop adjacent circles but is a facet that makes Tyler The Creator unique and endearing in his lane. From the complexity of the female characters and the openly supportive behavior that he exhibits to them (‘Darling, I’, ‘Hey Jane’, ‘Judge Judy’), the embrace of his bisexuality as well as the gender inclusivity that will put off a lot of cis-identifying hip-hop folks (‘Balloon’, ‘Sticky’), as well as being mature on how he gently discusses monogamous relationships and unexpected pregnancy (‘Darling, I’, ‘Hey Jane’).
But of course, this all leaves the one last theme that the album dials into: the reflection of his father and how aging and possible parenthood leave Tyler at his most introspective. It’s a theme that is ignited further by the vocal presence of his mother who had showed up back in ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’ but is now positioned more within the record, acting as that presence that guides Tyler throughout his paranoia, but also is the one that keeps reminding Tyler on what he had to ruminate on. On ‘Tomorrow’, he reflects on the passage of time and the possible parenthood that he thinks about, especially as the vocal snippet of his mother tells just how she wants to have a grandchild and points out how she is getting old. It goes rather serious, as on ‘Like Him’, there is devastation on how Tyler wants the attention and love from the father that he will never receive, constantly chasing a ghost that will never come back as the vocal snippet of Tyler’s mother at the end of the song is a heartbreaking message of how she tries to convince Tyler that it’s her fault on why his father wasn’t there for him in the place - a self-blame that makes the song really gut-wrenching. And it all eventually leads itself down to ‘I Hope You Find Your Way Home’, concluding the song where Tyler reflects upon the success and the struggles as a successful black person within a white-dominated landscape that doesn’t give him the flowers that he should, as well as how that success adds more weight on his tentative decision on wanting kids. But amidst all of those frustrations, that vocal call from his mother will always be his guiding rod. The motherly presence that keeps his light shining brighter moving forward.
Besides a few cuts that don’t exactly work the way they should - the Zamrock sampling on ‘Noid’, the oddly abrupt tune of ‘I Killed You’, and the ghostly execution of ‘Like Him’ where a sharper vocal delivery could’ve allowed the emotions to work better - there is a sense of culmination and refinement on ‘Chromakopia’ that’s worth digging up. Sonically, it refines upon the experience of ‘Cherry Bomb’ and the textural blending of ‘Igor’ that allows the melodies to furiously explode when they need to but also expose a lot of the softer sensibilities without much in the way of distraction. Thematically, it is Tyler The Creator’s most compelling lyrical work ever, as there is that emotional scope that he finally sinks within in his most openly introspective mode to date. Definitely his hardest to digest, especially when the production, writing, and pacing will turn the party down, but there is a lot that’s worth pondering. It may as well close the arc that Tyler had to ruminate, hoping that it can open another that allows his light to shine even brighter.
Favorite Tracks: ‘St. Chroma’, ‘Rah Tah Tah’, ‘Darling, I’, ‘Hey Jane’, ‘Judge Judy’, ‘Sticky’, ‘Take Your Mask Off’, ‘Tomorrow’, ‘Thought I Was Dead’, ‘Balloon’, ‘I Hope You Find Your Way Home’
Least Favorite Track: ‘I Killed You’