By Shy’Ana Thomas
On this beautiful Monday morning, two-time Grammy Award winner Tyler, The Creator, also known as Tyler Okonma, dropped his long-awaited eighth studio album titled “CHROMAKOPIA.” I know what you’re thinking, an album coming out on a Monday morning is different from the Friday night drops that we’re all used to.
Bright and early at 6 a.m. EST (Eastern Time) which was 3 a.m. PST (Pacific Time) for Tyler himself, The Creator took to Instagram to post a story that stated, “Make sure you listen in full with no expectations, no distractions, no checking text, or social media. Letting others paint your thoughts on s*** before you get a chance. Thank you.”
The night before he dropped his new album, he and his team hosted a public listening event in Los Angeles, that only cost $5 to attend the night before the album was released, letting those in attendance see Tyler in action with his alter ego of this album, St. Chroma. Fans had about a two-week wait for the album after the artist first announced via YouTube his plans to drop it on Oct. 16. That’s when fans started to realize this was gonna be the album rollout of the year.
Before the ‘Chromakopia’ album
In 2021 Tyler, The Creator dropped his sixth studio album “Call Me If You Get Lost” (CMIYGL) which put him in the goat debate once more. He rearranged, produced and wrote the whole album that stamped on all his albums. The reviews on this album were good, with Pitchfork, who is notorious for giving albums low ratings, giving this album an 8.4/10 on its first listen. Previously, Pitchfork gave his first album Goblin, that came out in 2011, an 8.0/10 rating. The Rolling Stones gave CMIYGL four out of five stars, The Guardian gave it five stars and Theneedledrop gave it a solid 8/10. It was good reviews coming from all platforms and fans on social media that labeled this as his best album. This album earned Tyler his second Grammy of his career for “Best Rap Album” being grouped with artists such as Nas, Kanye West and J.Cole. After winning a Grammy for the same title for his album “Igor” just two years previous.
This album became Tyler’s third platinum album, which gave him two platinum singles and five gold singles. The features on this album were DJ Drama, 42 Dugg, NBA Youngboy, Lil Uzi Vert, Pharrell Williams, Lil Wayne, Teezo Touchdown, Domo Genesis, Brent Faiyaz, Fana Hues and Daisy World. This album provided some of his best songs to date. His two previous albums Igor and Flower Boy were critically acclaimed and got him more recognition at the Grammys since then.
After CMIYGL saw so much success, two years later he dropped “Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale.” Which is the deluxe, featuring songs that didn’t make it to the original project. That also saw success and got rated an 8.0/10 rating from Pitchfork and saw Platinum and Gold records. After the break, he was silent about anything music-related and was focused more on his other creative endeavors that he’s known for, which is fashion. Having both his brand GOLF WANG and LE FLEUR at his high, especially around the time his album came out. Top selling products are his “French Waltz” Perfume and nail polish bundles that sold at $20 for different colors with detailed designed bottles and promotional pictures that also came with a free lookbook of all things being sold. His collaborations with the legendary shoe brand Converse was still at its peak and being sold out in just minutes, which is normal when Tyler is selling his creations. This new chapter of him in the fashion world improved since Tyler is seen as one of the best-dressed rappers of our generation, always making it to the top 10. Just seven months earlier he came out with his collection of clothes with Louis Vuitton after being given a role as a designer in their brand for the 2024 Mens Spring collection.
Why six in the morning on a Monday
In an interview with Nardwaur, a famous journalist, Tyler shared his thoughts about why albums should be released on a random Tuesday again.
“I think we should put music out…again on Tuesdays instead of Fridays for some reasons, I know because people think of the weekends they could listen to stuff and streams go up and the streaming people are like oh s*** the streams go up on a weekend. But I think it’s a lot of passive listening at parties or people get the time to go to the gym so they’re not really listening. And people on the weekends they wanna chill and just hang out so they’re not really listening. But I think if you put it out during the week…man that commute to work or that commute to school or just whatever that is you really have those…that hour and 30 minutes in it to really dive in and really listen. Because you know once that’s over you got to get to work and I think when that time is shorter kind of like procrastination. You get more done even with listening,” Tyler said during his 2023 Nardwaur interview.
On his Instagram, just five days before the release, he made a post finally sharing the time the album was going to come out since people questioned that the date landed on a Monday instead of a Friday like usual. With the caption being “CHROMAKIPIA. MONDAY MORNING. 6 AM” and leaving a comment behind on the post saying, “Yall N***** can just wake up and when yall finished sleeping and listen to it” with a lot of people not used to this type of announcement, since it seems like forever since an artist has done this. This new but familiar way of releasing puts a mark on the typical album experience that Tyler dishes out. All of his previous albums have been released every other year on Friday nights.
This is the eighth album of his career coming out in an odd year. His first studio album Goblin came out in the summer of 2011 while he was only 19-years-old. His second album was Wolf in 2013, followed by Cherry Bomb in 2015, Flower Boy in 2017, IGOR in 2019, Call Me If You Get Lost in 2021, The Estate Sale in 2023 and now Chromakopia in 2024 at 33-years-old.
The review of the album
I started my Monday morning off listening to this album on my commute to school with so many notifications going off about the album. The reactions from others gave me comfort that this album was peak, just like how everyone thought it would be. Opening the Spotify app and being greeted with the album was something great. Now, let’s get into those tracks.
When going into the album I already heard some of the tracks that Tyler previewed during the rollout, but couldn’t point my finger at what the theme could be about. Since his last three albums CMIYGL, Igor and Flower Boy were all about love, growth, sexuality, heartbreak, jealousy and success. When getting into Chromakopia it touched on paranoia, having/wanting children, relationships, fatherhood and identity. At his album listening party, the fans finally got to hear from Tyler about what this album means to him.
“The album kinda just turned into me taking a bunch of s*** my mom told me as a kid, Now that I’m 33, all that stuff is like oh, that’s what the f*** she was talking about. People are getting older, folks having families now, and all I got is a new Ferrari… Life is living and I don’t know, I just wanted to write about stuff that I think about when I’m dolo,” Tyler said.
Going into the album, there are many surprise artists since the features aren’t listed. Hearing Daniel Caesar, Childish Gambino, Teezo Touchdown, Lil Wayne, Glorilla, Sexyy Red, Schoolboy Q, Doechii, Willow and Santigold. In the opening track, the listener is introduced to Tyler’s new alter-ego, St. Chroma in a collaboration with Daniel Caesar. The second track “Rah Tah Tah” features a hard-hitting instrumental with hard 808s, which is a distinct thing from Tyler’s production fading into Noid. In the third track, Tyler talks about the ongoing paranoia that he faces with an outro by his mother. Songs like “Rah Tah Tah”, and “Sticky” with Sexyy Redd, Glorilla and Lil Wayne and “Thought I Was Dead” with long-time collaborator Schoolboy Q were hard-hitting and will do exceptional when performed live. The songs left me with a thought and sadness while also relating to the words. Songs I gave a second listen to as soon as it ended were tracks like “Hey Jane,” “Judge Judy,” “Like Him,” “Tomorrow” and “Take your mask off.” The topics of the songs were heavy but returning from Tyler himself with him opening up more on sexuality, relationships, kids, and his father with every track being opened up with words from his mom. Having songs like “Darling, I” and” I Killed You” gives a feeling of wanting more because of his production and chord progressions just like so many of the other tracks.
Overall, I would give this album a 10/10 – not because everyone loves Tyler, but because it was worth the wait. The meaning behind the tracks gets progressively more deep and more personal. I feel this is the most vulnerable he’s been and that’s really what music is all about at times. Being able to put feelings into words and be able to find the right samples, chords, hi-hats, drums and so much more to follow along is a gift that not many people have. But Tyler improves every year and has gotten better since we first heard his production that screamed he was inspired by his idol Pharrell Williams yet being in his own lane. The progression of his music every year gets better than the last and his run continues with each album that is produced. He takes his time, doesn’t rush, and knows how to put the song list together to where everything matches up. 2024 is the personal year for music and I feel he takes the cake with the year getting ready to end. All words spoken and all thought of why this was put together made so much sense. The creative rollout of the album of big green Chromakopia trucks driving from state to state to even the promo video for the world tour that’s coming up soon. Everything is detailed in it and it’s clear to see.
I can confidently say with the third listen today that this could be his best album and could be an album of the year again. The hype was worth it and you should all listen.
For more information on the era of Chromakopia, go to Chromakopia.com.
