After the release of CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: The Estate Sale, many wondered what Tyler’s next move would be. On October 28, 2024, Tyler, The Creator released CHROMAKOPIA: a meaningful, emotional ride that keeps people interested until the very end. This album is very good but also very different from many other previous works like IGOR and Flower Boy. The real question arises: how will CHROMAKOPIA fit amongst the wild variety of music Tyler has created?
CHROMAKOPIA is 14 tracks long and has a 53-minute run time. It has multiple features such as Daniel Caesar, Teezo Touchdown, GloRilla, and ScHoolboyQ. They add a lot to the album, but sometimes their verses don’t last long enough. Lil Wayne appears on “Sticky” and does a fantastic job, but it would be so much better if the verse was longer.
Tyler jumps around in themes and moods many different times, such as the transition from “Like Him,” a beautiful but sad song about Tyler not really knowing his father into “Balloon,” a bouncy, happy, and fun song. “Take Your Mask Off” talks about how people have to put on a mask and fake their lives just to be accepted in society. “Hey Jane” is about Tyler getting a girl pregnant and the struggles that come with it. With IGOR, he sticks to one theme about a strange love triangle between him, a guy, and that guy’s ex, but in CHROMAKOPIA, he’s able to put them all into one album.
Tyler has said many times that he isn’t a rap/hip-hop artist, he can never be placed in a single category “I’m not hip-hop, I’m Tyler” and “ I don’t like being put in a box. I just make music, you know?” says Tyler. These quotes show that he’s his own genre and not just your typical rapper.
This is an album that needs time. My first listen was great, but I wasn’t sure people would like it as much as I did right off the bat. The more I listened to it though, my perspective changed and so did many others. I continued to enjoy this album more and more through continuous listens. This album is by no means his best, but that doesn’t make it a bad album. In fact it’s really good, since some people expected “See You Again” and “EARFQUAKE” 14 times.
Tyler’s vocals and mixing have grown so greatly over the years. They have changed from the loud, crunchy, and obnoxious sounds we heard in Cherry Bomb into something completely different on newer projects. Tyler’s growth as an artist has been so amazing to see. Nobody in the Goblin and Bastard era would have ever thought he would be making songs without constant edgy and dark themes.
