By: Megan Hastings
Public Relations Manager
On Oct. 28, Grammy-winning, American rapper and producer Tyler, the Creator released his seventh studio album, Chromakopia. Arriving three years after his previous album, Call Me If You Get Lost, Chromakopia features tributes to the rapper’s various eras. Tyler wrote, produced, and arranged Chromakopia himself, revealing that the album was originally about him growing up in Hawthorne, Inglewood in California. During this 14-track journey, Tyler enlists artists such as Daniel Caesar, Doechii, Sexyy Red, and other friends to craft a project that speaks on his consuming paranoia, angsty upbringing, and desire for family.
Music critics described Chromokopia as an early midlife crisis album that centers on common struggles with newly discovered adulthood. The introductory track introduces the titular main character, St. Chroma. Tyler boasts in the song Rah Tah Tah that he is the biggest rapper in Los Angeles after Kendrick Lamar. Conversely, Noid delves into his concerns over parasocial relationships and celebrity culture. In Darling, I, which features vocals by Teezo Touchdown, Tyler reflects on his artistic ambition and the practice of monogamy. Sticky, a standout track with the aforementioned Sexyy Red, Glorilla, and Lil Wayne. It is the chaotic, unpredictable eighth track that pushes listeners far out of their comfort zone and into the world of Tyler, the Creator. For the same reasons mainstream listeners might dislike it, those same qualities make it a compelling highlight of the album. Some of the other noteworthy songs include his collaborations with Canadian singer-songwriter, Ashton Simmonds, also known as Daniel Caesar. Caesar worked with Tyler on St. Chroma and track nine, Take Your Mask Off, the latter of which showcases Tyler’s knack for storytelling. Take Your Mask Off sees Tyler call out different characters for leading false lives, including an affluent but miserable housewife and a homophobe who turns out to be a closet homosexual. Consequently, this aligns well with Chromakopia’s theme of self-discovery amidst fame. Driven by piano and synths from the 1980s, the song surely resonates with fans of his 2017 album, Flower Boy.
Chromokopia shows Tyler attached to his rap roots but on a more expansive plane of music, utilizing more obscure and hidden samples scattered throughout the tracks. This attention to musical detail works strongly in his favor rather than against him, which shouldn’t come as a surprise for those who stuck around throughout Tyler’s unapologetic, creative growth over the past few years. The Guardian accurately described Chromakopia as “An album that began with its author denying its existence, [it] ultimately seems to manifest a state of confusion, in which everything is in flux and nothing is quite as it initially seems. It achieves that to an enthralling and exhausting effect.”