Hip hop visionary Tyler, The Creator released his newest album this past Monday titled “CHROMAKOPIA”, after announcing the project two weeks prior causing fans to be very ecstatic. The album, serving as his seventh solo project, is creatively lush, vibrant, dark, and innovative in the best ways possible.
Tyler Okonma, better known by his stage name, “Tyler, The Creator” is a producer, writer, and rapper based out of California who is famous for his innovative production style of fusing R&B, soul, pop, and experimental hip-hop into his many records. He was a part of the hip-hop collective known as “Odd Future” in the late 2000s and early 2010s which featured at least a dozen members. However, he became the most famous one after leaving said group. He went on to make many solo projects, the first solo studio album being “GOBLIN,” released in 2011, and his last three endeavors “Flower Boy” (2017), “IGOR” (2019), and “Call Me If You Get Lost” (2021) have been met with critical and commercial acclaim. Two weeks ago, when he announced his new project with a teaser video of the opening song on the album, many fans (including myself) were very excited to see what he had in store for us this time, and I am happy to say that it didn’t disappoint my expectations.
Context, Themes, and Meaning:
The album came out this past Monday which is unusual since most music within the last decade always comes out on Fridays. However, this wasn’t always the case. Starting around 2013, the music industry as a whole decided to switch the day that albums dropped from Tuesdays to Fridays and Tyler has been adamantly against this decision. According to him, releasing music on Fridays makes it so that people don’t necessarily pay attention to the music as it’s released on the weekend in essence. However, the fact that this album was released on a Monday suggests that he wanted people to enjoy and digest the music a bit more and actually process what they listened to rather than just listen to it and forget about it on the weekend (which is something I will touch on throughout this review).
The themes of this album involve various aspects of Tyler’s life involving (but not limited to) love, self-respect, uplifting oneself, and facing adversity and overcoming challenges in your present and future life.
There was a fan theory that this album was the spiritual sequel to “IGOR” (2019) as the colors in the cover of this album were just the complete inverse of the colors used in the “IGOR” album cover. For those unfamiliar with “IGOR”, that album is the story about a love triangle that is a perpetual loop that never ends — the love triangle gets split up/broken up and is then brought back together again constantly — so some imagined this album to be the aftermath of said metaphorical “breakup”. I think this idea is interesting and it makes many of the songs much more interesting with this piece of fan lore in mind. Whether or not this is the correct interpretation is unknown, I feel it is important to mention either way.
Production:
The album is very layered and I feel can be best compared to IGOR in terms of production and overall style, as like that album, it features a lot of R&B and neo-soul elements with a heavy emphasis on smooth lo-fi experimental production with hints of punk rock influence here and there. Unlike that album, “CHROMAKOPIA” has a much bigger emphasis on the hip-hop element on the album, with many straight-up rap bangers like “Sticky”, “Rah Tah Tah”, or “Thought I Was Dead”. Overall, very polished production however it should be noted that on many songs, such as the opener St. Chroma, the vocals from Tyler himself sound muted and are being overpowered by the beat or melody. However, I don’t mind this personally because this feels like an intentional choice on his part to further the message of “paying attention” to the album (read the above section for why I think this is).
Either way, the production is much more polished and personalized towards Tyler’s style when compared to his earlier solo works and it works and flows very well hand-in-hand with the lyrics of the songs themselves.
Lyrics:
A lot of the lyrics feel like things we’ve seen discussed by Tyler before, particularly deep emotions and how Tyler feels at the time he’s writing the album. Some songs are passionate, and others are more so aggressive, but every song definitely feels like it was written by Tyler himself. You can feel his tone and his style oozing in nearly every verse on this album and his lyricism paired with his production is something that is always a treat to hear.
Favorite Songs/ Least Favorite Songs:
My favorite songs from this album are “St. Chroma”, “Darling, I”, “Like Him”, “Thought I Was Dead”, “Sticky”, and “Balloon”. The production on these songs is extremely layered and very complicated and have a very smooth sound to them and are very different from each other but still feel cohesive with each other within the general soundscape of the album. The lyrics and sound in general you hear on these tracks also resonate and hit the listener with various vibes, depending on the track, from either ethereal to hype.
I think this is best illustrated on St. Chroma which begins with a whispering rapping verse with marching being the backing instrumental followed by the signature angelic layered chorus which acts as a hook of the song. Then this is cut off by a loud thrashing punk solo which acts as the break with interspersed adlibs, then continuing to the second verse and second hook which repeats what we saw at the beginning. Not only is this song one of my personal favorites from the album but I think it is the perfect encapsulation of why I like it and its best features in general. The reason why is that it introduces audiences to the album and prepares them for it in many ways. From the whispering verse in the beginning, which forces listeners to actually pay attention to the album’s messages to the various switch-ups in genre, style, and flow, it is telling the audience what to expect from the album. Again, Tyler wanting the audience to pay attention to what is being said in the album is something that was hinted towards when he chose to release this album at the beginning of the week rather than the traditional Friday drop. In addition, I think the song captures the vibe of the album as it sets up the project’s focus on freedom, passion, and uplifting oneself through the lyrics which cover such subjects. Also, as a side note, this song (as the introductory track) formally introduces us to “Saint Chroma”, the character played by Tyler, seen in the music videos and album cover of “CHROMAKOPIA”, who we can imagine plays a big role within the worldbuilding, lore, and themes of the album as a whole.
Moving along, another standout track I would pick from my list of favorites to talk about would be “Sticky”. This is your typical rap banger track which features Lil Wayne, Sexyy Red, and GloRilla with an infectious chorus and pumping, dominating beat, and has some phenomenal verses from the features and Tyler himself talking about standing up for oneself and standing up to others.
The final standout I want to talk about from my list would be “Darling, I” which has an addictive warm-sounding guitar backing track and sounds like a cut straight out of IGOR. It’s a song about love and commitment in relationships, but the main star is probably just the higher-pitched singing performance which I think Tyler does an amazing job at in this song along with the incredible flow and sound of the instrumentation which could be described as somewhat dream-like, tender and a bit lo-fi inspired too.
My least favorite song is “Tomorrow”. This song is about Tyler’s future and retiring/stopping making music. Despite the message being personal to him, the song just didn’t click with me, and I don’t think I’ll be revisiting it. This goes down to the fact that it wasn’t really that catchy or striking when compared to other cuts on this album.
Wrap-up:
This album is one of my favorite hiphop albums we’ve seen this year and continues to prove that Tyler is one of the most innovative and creative producers and rappers we’ve seen in the modern industry. The various personal angles we get to see from Tyler are intimate in ways that we have seen before, however approach a different angle musically and thematically. I would definitely recommend this project to any fan of R&B, hip-hop, or experimental music. “CHROMAKOPIA” continues the streak of brilliance that Tyler has found himself in, and he continues to grow and perfect his work within the space he’s carved out for himself in the hip-hop sphere. I can’t wait to see what other works he has in the future for us.
Rating: Decent 8 out of 10.
