October 28th, at 6 A.M EST, which was noon, 12 PM Central African Time, a 14 track project titled Chromakopia by Tyler the Creator dropped. Prior to that, the artist had made an announcement of the coming of this new Tyler era by a teaser of “St. Chroma,” and also a single titled “NOID” preceded the album release as the official leading single off the album.
When I heard “NOID,” Iwas put in a state of a daze because I couldn’t even try to think what this new project was going to sound like. However one thing was beyond obvious to me, and that was that, it was going to be different, in what way, I couldn’t tell you. But it’s something we’ve come to expect of the artist, he’s the kind of person who will give you authenticity and variation in one breath.
“NOID” made the internet go crazy, especially “African internet”, because of the sample inculcated by Zambian band Ngozi Family from an album over 40 years old called 45,000 Volts.
Tyler the Creator creates projects that feel like an era or period of time but in reality its just about an hour or less (album) of components which are further divided into smaller chunks (tracks), something that every artist does, but somehow when he does it, it gives the listener a different kind of experience. An experience almost bigger than it just being a music project, it’s an art piece with a whole world of its own.
Listening to this record for the first time was a different experience, it was released on a Monday. We’re living in an age where music is typically put out on Fridays, as the week ends and everybody gets ready for the weekend. And because of the microwave era we’re currently in, this happens so regularly its easy for projects to find themselves in the box to the left. But this project coming out on a Monday, at noon CAT, but 6AM EST, meant his audience woke up Monday morning, hungover with the blues to new music from Tyler, and his CAT audience got to listen to some fresh out of the oven music from Tyler during their lunchbreak, making for a spicy Monday indeed.
Imagine hitting play and entering the world of Chromakopia at “St. Chroma,” into “Rah-Tah-Tah,” feeling included in “NOID” if you hail from CST, living through “Sticky,” into “Thought I was Dead,” then sailing through “Balloon” and then finding your way home at the end.
CHROMAKOPIA
COMES OUT MONDAY MORNING AT 6AM EST
YOU CAN LISTEN TO IT WHEN YOU WAKE UP YOU DON’T HAAVE TO DEPRIVE YOURSELF OF SLEEP FOR SOMETHING THAT IS GOING TO BE THERE WHEN YOU WAKE UP – tweeted T.
As the record starts, the opening track “St. Chroma” starts with a stomping thump lining the perimeter of the track, but before the rhythm of the thump is cued by the orchestrator, a familiar voice of Tyler’s mom in the intro sets the tone of the project giving it some sense of substance.
“You are the light it’s not on you, it’s in you, don’t you ever in your motherfucking life dim your light for nobody”
This absolutely resonated with me on a personal level. Art truly is God’s gift to his children, because not only is it a form of expression, but also a channel of divine communication. Often times if you tune into the universe it has a way of relaying nuggets of wisdom and knowledge that will be relevant to you at that time. It’s like needing a bone and being thrown that said bone, it’s just that naturally it happens in a way that’s often inconspicuous to the naked eye and no-sixth-sense kind of individual, and so one really has to tap in.
This message resonated deeply because more often that not, people will try to dim your light, and not even to chide them or anything because it’s some form of survival instinct on their part. They want to dim your light to make themselves comfortable and to maintain that bubble of comfort. This is why as people, we are rebuffed by things that present themselves as different, because we don’t know anything about ‘different’, and due to the fear of the unknown inherently living and breeding within us, we perceive different as a threat, therefore the threat has to be dismantled regardless of how harmless it maybe, it becomes a fight or flight situation.
Obviously due to self-preservation, we wind up doing tedious, petty and terrible things such as dimming the light around us, lest it blinds us. It doesn’t make someone a terrible person, but it is a terrible thing to do to someone. And so this intro from Tyler’s mom directly parallels some recent occurrences in the movie of my life, and so the reiteration and reaffirmation from the universe and from God through this song only serves as confirmation of stale energies I suspected to have been present in my movie to really have been.
Art is a gift from YAH and he uses it to communicate with us because ultimately all creators of art in whatever form are all pulling from the same source. That’s why its important to listen, beyond the two ears to one mouth ratio we are also endowed with other four senses that allow us to feel, which is just another cousin to listening.
“St. Chroma,” assisted by vocals from Daniel Caesar offers an exhilarating and almost divine-like start to the record, and it’s just a party from there as the album transitions into “RAH-TAH-TAH” beautifully. With a hard resounding baseline and gritty lyrics to go along with it, this presents an interesting comparison because both tracks are somewhat boisterous in regards to concept and content, and yet done in different tastes/styles and demeanours, an interesting polarity and dynamic between the two tracks.
It’s important to note the beautiful transitions in this project, its so seamless its almost easy to assume it to be one wholesome part as opposed to a sum of parts. Its like a beautiful sentence adorned by mesmerising conjunctions and connectives that make a seemingly long dull lifeless sentence, a string of words beautifully constructed and joined together, coming to life on paper.
CHROMAKOPIA is a tightly tucked in, neatly bound, beautifully curated and put together album. It’s everything an album or record should be. It’s seamlessly wholesome, substantial and meaningful, with a beautiful well connected sonic production underlining it, and most importantly its authentic. It’s interesting and important to note that beyond the artist’s other personal influences on him as a person and his artistry, this project is solely influenced by Tyler.
It sounds like a combination of different Tyler eras jam-packed into one single sounding record, and its not done in a distasteful way or as a dying horse’s last kick, but it sounds like nature’s moulding and nature’s hand at play, because ultimately every wholesome person who resides in the comfort and confines of their individuality is a culmination and combination of the different eras and periods of life they had to go through to get to that point.
Another thing of interest I’d like to note is the presence of Tyler’s mom in this project. She often makes cameos in his projects and its undeniable how much of an influence she is on him. Its refreshing and lovely to experience the dynamic of their relationship through his mom’s monologues, because boy is she expressive. What do I mean? On “NOID” there’s an interlude she goes:
“Don’t trust these people out here, please, whatever you do
Keep to yourself, keep your business to yourself
Don’t even trust these motherfuckin’ accountants
‘Cause they will try to get over on you, okay?
Please, because I don’t wanna have to fuck nobody up
I promise to God
On CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST Momma, she said
If you fuck with my kids, I’ll beat up kids over my kid, okay?“
Talk about love that exceeds norms and regulations.
Another thing that’s great about the album is that Tyler is not shying away from collaborating with other artists on this project. Its not always a bad thing to have other artists cameo and feature on a project or record because it’s a great show of versatility and the ability to be expandable on the artist’s part. And in cases where an artist from an older or different generation is able to collaborate with artists from a younger or again just different generation, to perfectly have their sound gel in with the featuring artist without losing their authenticity in the whole process, it makes for a beautiful body of art.
A great example of that being the joint Jay-Z and Kanye project Watch The Throne, the band/duo NxWorries consisting of Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge. On this record, there’s some wild verses from wild collaborations on Sticky, which features Glorilla, Sexyy Red, Lil Wayne. But despite this being the most commercially viable single off the record, this track bumps. Its got mad drums, a crazy baseline, a catchy hook and wild lyrics that will just have you laughing and not knowing why you’re not repulsed.
Maybe its because the song is actually just that good, it just gives you everything from conscious comical meta bars from Tyler like: “Nigga, give a fuck ’bout pronouns, I’m that nigga and that bitch”, Glorilla on some I’ll steal your man on a sneaky link mission and beat your ass if you try me: “Sneaky link, she say that’s her nigga, I don’t give a fuck
These bitches tryna scrap, but I’m knuckin’ if you buckin’, ho”
But at least she started the verse on some “Uh, lit-ass bitch, steppin’, I be poppin’ shit”, very familiar to something like “popping shit, you would think I went to school for chiropractin”, from another one of her songs. This girl stays poppin shit.
Sexyy Red comes through and if you know anything about Sexyy, this girl does not disappoint, and please note the irony and puns in that statement. “I don’t fight for my respect, bitch, I fight for dick”
Lil Wayne brings the genius to his verse though, granted these artists only had a very small window to drop a fire verse and make their verses memorable, all artists took to different avenues to accomplish that, and Lil Wayne decided to just body the whole thing. Who the hell uses words like discombobulation and rosacea in a verse to rhyme in 2024? Its not just about the use of unorthodox words to rhyme but also slipping in some clever snide word play in there at the same time alluding to some shit…in 12 seconds and absolutely kill it:
“Standin’ like ovation on business occupation
Drippin’ condensation, gotta whisper conversations”
Moving on…clearly its getting sticky here.
Other interesting notable collaborations are from Schoolboy Q, Santigold, Doechii, Latoeiya Williams, Teezo Touchdown, Lola Young.
I’ve heard some to say this to be Tyler the Creator’s most vulnerable album. Its weird how age croons you in a way to find more comfort in your vulnerabilities in the sense of being more at ease and sort of at homeostasis with that part of yourself. The older one gets the more the mask sheds off, as your perception of the world and life changes too. A lot of things that seemingly used to matter a lot, lose importance in your life just as the trees shed their leaves as seasons change.
Perhaps Tyler does disclose and unleash a lot on the latter part of the album. Its kind of like the dying down of the party, when everybody trickles out and that once dim lit room is crazy bright bringing your feet to the ground as reality sets back in and you’re left to clean up as you experience a crazy post-drunk sadness madness, but you try make a party of it anyways. It is the one-man-warm-down-party after the actual party.
The concept of ageing has increasingly become of interest to me, and its divine communication as I perceive it, when the universe and I are so much in tandem that I find myself bumping into a lot of a content/material/eavesdropped-conversations in relation to the topic of interest’s occupancy in my mind. And bear in mind at this point I haven’t looked it up on any search engine on the world wide web, I’ve only thought about it and flirted with the idea in my head.
Track 10 on chromakopia titled “Tomorrow,” has Tyler expressing some relatable sentiments about getting older. As the song starts, his mom is saying hey I’m getting old, I need a grandchild…not paraphrasing, she literally says that. She says, “Nigga I’m getting old, I need a grandchild.” See why I love this woman? Expressive. With that in the back drop, Tyler starts a verse sort of giving a description of the status quo/present moment/state of things in his life.
“My mother’s hands don’t look the same
These jet black strands are turning gray
I’m gaining weight, I’d rather rest
The thought of children, it brings me stress
Because time is changing”
I remember how dumbfounded I felt when some time ago the realization really dawned on me that apparently the world didn’t actually revolve around me, it wasn’t just me experiencing growth and ageing, but the people around me too, people beyond my generation, were also moving at the same pace as I was.
It was kind of like that moment when the mask unsheds of your parent and you realise they’re just as imperfect and human as everyone and anyone else. As you lose the last shred and bit of your childlike mind and perception and realise that because you’re just as big now, that pedestal you once put them on, doesn’t seem too high no more. We’re actually all in this marathon thing called life, and we’re all moving so there’s really no catching up to anyone.
The biggest out the city after Kenny, that’s a fact now!
