Tyler’s mom guides him throughout Chromakopia, even when her voice notes usually simply summarize the content material of the songs. The exception is the devastating “Like Him,” through which Tyler questions if he’ll find yourself identical to his estranged father and his mother suggests the reality is extra difficult. “He’s at all times wished to be a father to you. … He’s a superb man,” she tells him. That line is a serious plot twist within the Tyler, the Creator lore: For over a decade, he’s blasted his dad for being absent. “Dad isn’t your title, see ‘faggot’’s a little bit extra becoming/Mother was solely 20 while you ain’t have any fucks to spare,” he rapped on 2013’s “Reply.” This revelation, paired with the being pregnant scare in “Hey Jane,” illuminates why he’s been considering a lot about fatherhood. “Boy, you egocentric as fuck, that’s actually why you terrified of bein’ a guardian,” he admits on the self-diss observe “Take Your Masks Off.” Few issues are extra humbling than seeing your self in somebody who, up till this level, existed solely as a villain to you.
Journeys to Manila had been flexes on Name Me When You Get Misplaced, however on Chromakopia, Blackness is a standing image. Tyler is a Kendrick and Jay-Z fan—acting at this summer season’s Ken and Buddies Juneteenth present and rapping over a 4:44 instrumental in 2017—so he was certain to rap about white supremacy sometime. Surprisingly, the person who as soon as declared that he wrote music for “white children with nigger pals who say the n-word” nails it on “I Killed You.” The track begins off as an interpolation of the kids’s ditty “Wheels on the Bus” however morphs into an interrogation of Western magnificence. Drums that sound like a djembe and intermittent horns wouldn’t be misplaced in a New Orleans avenue parade. Tyler, flute in hand just like the Pied Piper, urges Black folks to embrace their kinks, darkish pores and skin, and different options that the world tries to stamp out: “You the room, child, they the motherfucking elephant.”
Black girls rappers appear to remind Tyler there’s extra to creating music at 33 than uber-serious lyrics. “Give a fuck ’bout pronouns, I’m that nigga and that bitch,” he raps on album standout “Sticky,” that includes GloRilla and Sexyy Purple. The beat is easy; it appears like he employed a dwell step workforce to file background vocals. You’ll be able to inform he’s simply elated to be with the girlies and the chorus is destined to cling to your hippocampus. Tyler is an incredible rapper when he needs to be, even on cartoony beats like “Balloon” and “Thought I Was Useless.” Similar to “STUNTMAN” on The Property Sale, “Rah Tah Tah” channels the West Coast and Southern rap sound Tyler grew up on. “I’m a bona fide face seat, field muncher,” he says, making Munch sound like a place of authority.
For all of CHROMAKOPIA’s hitting-your-thirties ego dying confessionals, it’s the braggadocious, Cherry Bomb-sounding tracks that actually hit: “Thought I Was Useless,” “Rah Tah Tah,” “NOID,” and “Sticky.” His rejection of the previous is comprehensible. “That model of T that you just knew was a reminiscence,” he says on “Tomorrow,” anticipating the critiques: “Who’s that? You niggas get too connected to listen to the speculation.” Not too way back, complete nations and commonwealths had been terrified of Tyler due to his controversial lyrics. Then he began philosophizing and crooning about love and have become a bit extra brand-friendly. Few are as quick-witted of their raps as him, although. Fewer nonetheless have the form of infectious conceitedness that makes folks wish to bow down slightly than roll their eyes.
