Tyler, The Creator

Life seemed more difficult after the Flower boy era for Tyler, The Creator. A native of Los Angeles, this versatile artist has been put on the very high bar and he has to work hard and try to overcome this project. But there seems to be nothing impossible for this striking genius of music. At 28, the evolution that this artist has offered in his musical career seems to be taken from a book that mix the genre of science fiction with a typical story of self-improvement. He introduced himself to the world with his band Odd Future, where he presented himself as a sinister warrior, it was a long time ago and not many people remember these times. It was with his album Goblin, already solitary at the beginning of this decade, when the attention of the whole world was made and he presents himself as a young and violent visionary. After this album they followed Wolf (2013) and Cherry Bomb (2015), where the bases are dense and the aggressive darkness reigned. But Tyler was going to sprout little by little, and evolved in each album, improving in terms of sounds and musical styles without abandoning his essence and path. The culmination of his flowering was, right, with Flower boy (nice metaphor), a fair and sincere work. This album went a step further, a medal in excellence for himself. He offered original production tricks, new sounds, letters and rhymes on projections and the demonstration that this young man was capable of doing magic by reinventing himself. And not only that, we can see a clear personal evolution into tolerance: a measure he launched his projects, he opened his mind, both musical and socially speaking, moving from homophobia to play with sexual fluency in Flower boy. Tyler turned from a boy to a man (yes ..., weird, falsely infantile and original man) with this album, which is presented as the best of his career and very difficult to beat. Well, The Creator has put all the meat in the spit to create IGOR, an album care for detail that raises to unsuspected levels all the good and remarkable of his previous work. No, I'm not exaggerating, I promise. Tyler has overcome even more if possible and presents a project inspired by a love break up and the sentimental process experienced by our protagonist. Pain gives us strength, that is understandable, but, how does such an enigmatic being perceives pain? This is what is presented to us in IGOR, a project as crazy as full of nuances, where the singer is multidisciplinary, delving into new styles that merge with each other and showing more personal than ever. Continuing with his more experimental phase, Tyler will continue rapping but will dare to sing his first notes in this project dyed pastel pink.

I have conflicting feelings about Tyler, the Creator. On one end I really admire and respect his growth as a black man in society. His openness about himself and vulnerability have without question inspired young men everywhere to be their true selves no matter where they fall on the sexuality spectrum. I think his sneakers are dope and his social media is hilarious. On the other end, I‘m not crazy about his music. I’ve always wanted to love Tyler’s music. I’ve noticed him consistently get better and better at making music, figuring out his sound and just overall increasing his abilities. But every time I listen, I find one song that I like a lot and then I get bored with everything else. I enjoy Tyler’s music the same way I buy LaCroix, I’m excited at all the possibilities but after I experience a little bit I’m good for a few months. To be fair to him and critical of myself, I honestly don’t think that I have the right taste in music to truly appreciate what he’s doing. Tyler makes music for fans of N.E.R.D. I just missed out on the N.E.R.D. wave because this is music that came out on CD’s and not through illegal downloads. So where other people could walk in and purchase any of their albums, I was 12 and drawn to Lil Bow Wow’s “Beware of Dog.” Now some of you might say “why didn’t you just download their albums illegally” and to that I’ll say, I just didn’t think about them. I was too busy trying to get Game’s 300 Bars and Runnin or Booty Talk 29. My priorities weren’t set to listen to the protoype of sad boy rap/rock. So as a result of these early life decisions, I don’t fully grasp what Tyler’s doing. I keep waiting for that one album to change my mind, I thought it was gonna be Flower Boy but I found myself more entertained by Tyler talking about the album than the album itself. However, IGOR just released so, I’ll give Tyler another shot.

In an unexpected move that sure left his fan base and naysayers joining hands in rejoice, Tyler, The Creator made an album; and it wasn’t about misogyny, rape, or anarchy. The angsty days of yelling for shock value were mostly gone for the then 26-year-old artist and his focus realigned. Or maybe he grew up. In 2017, Tyler dropped his fourth studio album, Flower Boy, a self-produced, conceptual project in which the rapper aimed to showcase his capabilities as a musician that can make quality music, that is worth critical acclaim; and well, he succeeded. Flower Boy debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 charts, selling 106,000 copies in its first week—a personal best for The Creator, and was nominated for Best Rap Album of the Year at the 2018 Grammys. In this Narrative, I will be dissecting four songs from the record to explore certain thematic nuances that may offer insight into the album’s purpose and detail my own personal experiences when listening to each. *Disclaimer: I’m not Tyler or anyone that claims to fully understand what this album is about. I believe that only he knows what it’s truly about and it should be left up to your interpretation, but read along if you need guidance.

Anyone who knows anything about Tyler, The Creator intrinsically associates the rapper, songwriter and producer with hard-hitting lyrics, raw AF realness and dark, bass-filled beats. So how exactly does the soulful R&B single ‘EARFQUAKE’ fit into this formula?