Earlier this month, Tyler, The Creator announced his latest self-produced studio album CHROMAKOPIA and introduced the world to his newest character, Chroma. Reportedly inspired by the story of Chroma The Great from the novel The Phantom Tollbooth, the visuals for the project – which are all self-directed – are saturated in a vintage sepia filter.
Famously against Friday releases, the former Odd Future co-founder dropped his album this morning (October 28) following a listening party last night in Los Angeles. Taking to his Instagram story to announce the launch, he wrote: “Make sure you listen in full with no expectations, no distractions, no checking texts or social media [and] letting others paint your thoughts on shit before you get a chance”. With features from Childish Gambino, Lil Wayne, Sexyy Red, Doechii, GloRilla, Teezo Touchdown, Daniel Caesar and Schoolboy Q, the album is already being regarded as one of his boldest projects yet.
Whether you were present online when Odd Future was first starting out or were introduced to his weird and wonderful world more recently, chances are at some point you’ve crossed paths with one of the many personas Tyler has embodied throughout his music career. In honour of the release of his seventh studio album, we revisited all his past work and ranked his best albums. Here’s our final verdict.
Few albums conjure up memories of my early internet encounters quite like Goblin. The album made a huge impact when it was released – largely because of its horrorcore lyrics and viral videos – but beneath these provocations are glimpses of the creative vision that Tyler would continue to refine throughout his career. With the hindsight of his later releases, it is crazy to think that this was all we knew of Tyler at one point, but it does forever deserve recognition for pissing Teresa May off enough to ban him from the country for five years. (SPM)
Listening back, Cherry Bomb almost feels like all of Tyler’s other releases rolled into one: there are elements of Igor’s melancholic melodies in “Fucking Young / Perfect”, a bit of Goblin and WOLF’s West coast rap steez on “RUN” and “THE BROWN STAINS OF DARKEESE LATIFAH PART 6-12”, and a bit of Flower Boy on closing track “OKAGA, CA”; but this is exactly why the project lacks impact. All of Tyler’s albums – even Goblin – feel profoundly cohesive, and Cherry Bomb comes off as confused by comparison. Lil Wayne pulling off a “tramp on lean / trampoline” wordplay will always be genius to me, though. (SPM)
Producing his most successful single to date, “See You Again (feat. Kali Uchis)”, Flower Boy began the metamorphosis away from edgelord-Tyler to the (mostly) softer and mature character we know today. With more intimate lyrics and guest appearances from Steve Lacy and Rex Orange Country, the project was a sharp turn away from Tyler’s earlier releases. It felt like our first chance to get to know him properly. (SPM)
Released in 2021, Call Me If You Get Lost was Tyler’s second number-one album and won a Grammy for Best Rap Album in 2022. Hosted by DJ Drama, Tyler takes the personality of ‘Tyler Baudelaire’ and is backdropped by Swiss mountains. A perfect blend of every era of Tyler, it still to this day feels like a multiverse of all his previous projects merged with reflective and sometimes nostalgic production. On the almost nine-minute-long song “WILSHIRE” he narrates the breakdown of a relationship. If you listen closely you can hear the emotional cracks in his voice as he records into what he later described as a ‘shitty handheld mic’.
Last March, he dropped THE ESTATE SALE with eight more songs that did not make the cut the first time. The second release featured songs such as “DOGTOOTH”, “STUNTMAN” with Vince Staples and “SORRY NOT SORRY”, the latter of which I will stand ten toes down and argue is one of his best songs ever. (HD)
With hindsight, WOLF was one of those albums that proved Tyler has always been ahead of the curve. Following two years after Goblin, the project was equally as conceptual, but sounded wildly different. Confessional and introspective, the album featured Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu, Earl Sweatshirt, Pharrell and more. On “Answer” he grapples with his desire to get in touch with his estranged father and his anger towards him. Honestly, there are too many standouts to mention on this album but “IFHY”, an acronym for ‘I fucking hate you’, with Pharrell, encompasses the feeling of WOLF. His rage meets his darkest, yet softest, emotions and as a result produces what over a decade later is what many consider some of his best rapping, and listening to it back after all this time I have to agree. (HD)
When Tyler dropped lead single “Earfquake”, it was clear that Igor was going to do something special. Turning the experimentation of Flower Boy up to 100, and with rhythms funky enough to make even Teresa May wiggle a toe, this album was lightyears away from where Goblin first began. Solely self-produced (as Chromakopia is) and blending elements of funk, pop and RnB, it definitely deserved its Grammy win in 2020 – just not for Best Rap Album. (HD)
It may only be a few hours old but we’re calling it now: CHROMAKOPIA is Tyler’s strongest album. Following Tyler’s instructions to listen with no opinions or distractions, I can say with full transparency I was not expecting such a spiritual experience. Layered with profound reflections on relationships, fame, heritage and family, he goes from discussing sexuality and religious guilt on “Take Your Mask Off” to unplanned pregnancies on “Hey Jane” and navigating polygamy on “Darling, I”. Elsewhere songs such as “Thought I Was Dead” and “Sticky” give us the taste of his best and most confident rapping.
On “Rah Tah Tah” he says he is “the biggest out the city after Kenny, that’s a fact” and while two full listens still feel like not enough to take in the genius of this album I cannot help but agree with that statement. Welcome to Chromakpia, I have a gut feeling a year from now we’ll be reflecting on his best era yet (that is of course until he disappears for a few years and comes back with something somehow even better, in true Tyler, The Creator style). (HD)