Alternative rap pioneer Tyler, The Creator was my introduction to music — something I now can’t live without.
Ever since his 2017 album, “Flower Boy,” I’ve been overinvested in Tyler’s world and the characters he portrays in his reflective albums. Whether it was the struggles of characters such as “Wolf Haley” or “Igor,” I was hooked on each album, finding pieces of myself in the characters.
Tyler released his latest album, “CHROMAKOPIA,” on Oct. 28 following a long break to focus on other projects. Going into the album, I was expecting the same kind of music: a new character with a theme and plenty of features from Tyler’s old hip-hop group, “Odd Future.”
I was wrong.
Instead, the album is Tyler’s most vulnerable project. “CHROMAKOPIA” goes so far into Tyler’s past, present and future that the “character” isn’t even a character, but rather Tyler expressing himself under the cover of a mask. Some of the songs take two to three listens — along with a lot of knowledge about Tyler’s past – to fully understand what is going on.
The album starts with a “theme song” as usual, “St. Chroma.” This album brings a new overarching theme of songs having advice from Tyler’s mother, save for a confession that broke me in “Like Him.” The rest of the album involves Tyler coming to terms with pieces of himself over time through his mom’s insight runs throughout the songs.
As expected, the album features tracks from all genres, including more energetic songs like “Rah Tah Tah,” but also more mellow songs like “Darling, I” — all of which are amazing. “CHROMAKOPIA” further proves Tyler’s amazing skill of switching emotions while keeping amazing flow.
One thing I didn’t enjoy at first were the features. Tyler usually finds ways to add lengthy feature verses to almost every song with several fan favorites, most notably Frank Ocean. In this album, though, the features focus on Tyler himself. Even with fun features from artists like Doechii, Daniel Caesar and Teezo Touchdown, the album still made up for the lesser features by making them as consistent as the theme surrounding the album.
In the album, Tyler comes to terms with his maturing. This is best seen in “Tomorrow,” where it’s shown how he changed his mind about slowing down his music releases. Lines like “My mother’s hands dont look the same” and “These jet black strands are turning gray” were thought-provoking, and reminded me of listening to a younger Tyler discuss coming to terms with fame.
The biggest part of this album is the song “Like Him.” This track compares Tyler to his absent father where he constantly begs to his mother, “Mama I’m chasing a ghost,” and “Do I look like him?” Tyler learns his father actually wanted to be a part of his life the whole time, as his mother apologizes for keeping the two of them apart.
As a long-time fan, this absolutely shocked me. After seeing it expressed throughout his entire discography, I know how much Tyler’s absent father impacted him, and I can’t even begin to imagine what this moment must have felt like to him.
In true Tyler, the Creator fashion, this horrible moment switches to “Balloon,” a silly song with a beat that sounds straight out of a Roblox tycoon game. The album finishes with “I Hope You Find Your Way Home,” where Tyler continues to discuss his unwillingness to have a kid of his own.
“CHROMAKOPIA,” although not the same as his previous albums, opens up as Tyler, The Creator comes to terms with reflecting on his past and how it affects his future. Being the first album without a fictional character at the center, “CHROMAKOPIA” does a unique job on showing Tyler’s thoughts and emotions.
