“Loop around the block, eyes glued to the rearview / Rather double back than regret hearing, ‘Pew, pew,’” raps Tyler, The Creator on Chromakopia’s lead single “Noid.” It’s a bravado-tinged reflection on the paranoia of being a rap superstar in the 21st century.
Peers a whole decade younger than 33-year-old Tyler have met the wrong end of a gun, while the epidemic of rap murders has also claimed the lives of TakeOff, Nipsey Hussle, PnB Rock and countless others in recent years. By Hip Hop standards, the Odd Future founder is now a wise old veteran.
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These kind of elder statesman introspections are the real core of the one-time shock rapper’s eighth album. Fans hoping for a continuation of the “old Tyler” that was prominent on Call Me If You Get Lost will be disappointed, but the riotous punchline merchant who put the fear of God into school teachers and grandmothers alike is not entirely dead either — just older, certainly smarter and probably softer.
Take for instance Tyler’s much-publicized relationship with his estranged father. On his 2013 Wolf track “Answer,” Tyler was the boy, barely out of his teens, in search of a relationship with his dad and full of anger at his absence, spitting: “‘Dad’ isn’t your name, see, ‘f-ggot’s’ a little more fitting,” before even mocking him for his Nigerian ancestry.
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As with much of Chromakopia, Tyler comes to the adult realization that truth, choices and consequences are much knottier. Tyler’s mother, Bonita Smith, serves as a sort of narrator-slash-Jiminy Cricket figure across the album. On the outro of “Like Him,” after Tyler has spent the prior couple of minutes reflecting on his similarities to the man he barely knows, his mom drops the bombshell that his dad did in fact want to be a part of his life.
Throughout Chromakopia, Tyler unpacks his own identity, rich, middle-aged ennui and his Blackness, all through schizophrenic, polarizing statements. These are, of course, big questions, which is why the answers are so unclear.
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“Take Your Mask Off” is a masterful deconstruction of masculinity — particularly within the ultra-macho sphere of Hip Hop and Tyler’s own role in perpetuating the archetype of the shit-talking tough guy early in his career. The title is a refrain throughout the track — aimed at the hypocrisies of the church, a homophobic gay man and a middle class kid who pretends to be from the streets — and ultimately, on the fourth and final verse, himself, closing the song as conflicted as when he opened it.
“Judge Judy” contains orgiastic lyrics about creampies but ends with a stark suicide note. “Tomorrow” sees Tyler contemplating giving his mother a grandchild while also lamenting the emptiness of fame and wealth. The only time Tyler actually sounds happy is when he hooks up with GloRilla, Sexyy Red and Lil Wayne on “Sticky,” which he uses to forget about his mental strife for a moment to become raucously playful, going bar for bar with two of Hip Hop’s hottest women as they rap about materialism and sex.
It’s been a banner year for West Coast Hip Hop thanks to Kendrick Lamar’s dominant victory over Drake and acclaimed albums from ScHoolboy Q, Vince Staples and Mustard (with more to follow from Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, Ab-Soul, Roddy Ricch and Ice Cube).
Tyler even popped up as a surprise guest at Kendrick’s Pop Out concert in Inglewood this past summer. However, it has always felt like he has been an outlier when it comes to the local scene. Not gangster enough for the streets, not lyrical enough for the old heads and too punkish for the Pitchfork crowd.
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Yet it has always been clear that Tyler is just Tyler, even if he’s not sure himself what that means. A Hip Hop iconoclast that flits between personas, moods and genres, Tyler captures the confusion of 21st century identity on Chromakopia as he quests to find out who he is and where he wants to be.
RELEASE DATE: October 28, 2024
RECORD LABEL: Columbia
Listen to Chromakopia below:
