Think about the last time you’ve ever felt lost in your mind. You have so much you want to get off your chest, but you can’t. You get stuck with your past burdens and they affect you in ways you never would’ve expected. You try hard to find a way to release and express your emotions with stuff that has happened in the past until it finally clicks.
“Chromakopia” is a brand new Tyler, The Creator album that was released on October 28th and shows Tyler, The Creator battling with the shades of maturity, where he slowly realizes that at his point in time, he is not a kid or teenager anymore and he has to start to take responsibility and it just shows a new perspective on the listener that his life hasn’t always been the best. The five songs that truly stuck out to me were “Noid”, “Hey Jane”, “Sticky”, “Thought I Was Dead”, and “Like Him”.
“Noid” is the third track on this record. In it, Tyler talks about how his fame and popularity have caused him to become more paranoid about everything that he does, whether it is going out to eat, shopping in public places, or just going around and taking a stroll around his town. The song itself is a lot different than what Tyler, The Creator usually makes with this track using electric guitar and drums that are way different than his usual style. Everything works well together and the lyrics work together exceptionally well.
“Hey Jane” is the fifth track on this record and it once again, talks about a serious situation but in this situation, Tyler has a pregnancy scare with a former partner of his. This song is very slow and much calmer than the rest of the songs on this record and for good reason. The first half of the song talks about the situation through Tyler’s eyes while the second half talks about the situation through the partner’s eyes. The soft piano in the back with the click clacks of some drums in the background makes it feel calm and fits the song’s overall theme.
“Sticky” is the eighth track on this record and is a lot less serious than the previous two tracks that I’ve mentioned. This track doesn’t have a certain theme and is more of a fun song that Tyler produced. This track has features from Glorilla, Sexxy Red, and Lil Wayne as well. One of the best comparisons that I’ve heard about this track is that it sounds like a group of friends just making a beat on a lunchroom table and just overall having fun together. The track is fun, and simple, but works well as sort of a break from all of the serious topics in this album.
“Thought I Was Dead” is the eleventh track on this record and in this track, he is taking a break from all of the trouble in his life to just rap on a different kind of beat that he usually makes. This track has a feature by Schoolboy Q and his verse at the beginning of the song is well made. I feel like Tyler couldn’t have picked a better feature for this song. Tyler’s verse is way more energetic than some of his previous tracks on this record but it fits the beat perfectly. This song was teased a week before the album was released and just hearing the snippet that he uploaded to his Instagram page, I knew that this was going to be one of my favorite tracks on this record.
“Like Him” twelfth track on this record and this has to be one of the most serious tracks on this record. On this track, Tyler talks about searching his whole life for his father and growing up without a father figure in his life. The production of this track fits together perfectly like a puzzle piece. The lyrics are perfect and the instrumental is beautiful. The part that made this song one of my favorites was the ending of the song where we get some dialogue of Tyler’s mom talking about how his father always wanted to be in his life but she wouldn’t let him and she was saying that it is all her fault and it just really puts into perspective that Tyler had a pretty bad childhood.
Although people have been saying that this album wasn’t the best, “Chromakopia” has such a deep impact on Tyler, The Creator and just listening to this album was quite eye-opening because of the fact that we can see the path to greatness always comes with flaws and challenges along the way. I think people will start to like this album once a few years go by once people start to understand the message that he was trying to convey in this album.
