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 all the time needed to be a father to you. … He’s a superb man,” she tells him. That line is a significant 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 whenever 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 afraid of bein’ a dad or mum,” 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 youngsters with nigger associates who say the n-word” nails it on “I Killed You.” The tune 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 road 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 crew to report background vocals. You may 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 Lifeless.” Identical 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 demise confessionals, it’s the braggadocious, Cherry Bomb-sounding tracks that basically hit: “Thought I Was Lifeless,” “Rah Tah Tah,” “NOID,” and “Sticky.” His rejection of the previous is comprehensible. “That model of T that you simply knew was a reminiscence,” he says on “Tomorrow,” anticipating the critiques: “Who’s that? You niggas get too hooked up to listen to the idea.” Not too way back, total 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 vanity that makes folks need to bow down slightly than roll their eyes.