On his seventh studio album, “Chromakopia,” the multi-hyphenate Tyler, the Creator pulls back the curtain. Across 14 tracks, the rapper born Tyler Okonma interrogates the anxieties that come with age and fame, intertwining them with his own wisdom and some that arrive via carefully-placed voice messages.
Tyler is a jack of all trades excelling across industries in music, fashion and television. Like his hero Pharrell Williams, Tyler is known for his unconventional fashion sense as the founder of luxury label’s Golf Wang and Golf le Fleur, along with his television work on the Adult Swim sketch comedy series “Loiter Squad.” He established his role as a counter cultural tastemaker and controversial rule breaker with his first mixtape, 2009's “Bastard," and continues to push the boundaries of music — it's no wonder his latest release continues to break barriers.
“Chromakopia” starts off strong with “St. Chroma” — an introduction to the new masked persona on the album's cover — with forceful military cadences in the background of both Tyler and R&B singer Daniel Caesar’s vocals. A reassuring woman's voice is heard at the beginning, “You are the light. It’s not on you. It’s in you.”
“I ain’t never had a doubt inside me,” he raps. “And if I ever told you that I did, I’m (expletive) lyin’.”
As a whole, the album “Chromakopia” represents the two-time Grammy-award winning artist as he delves into his 30s. In this new era, he seeks understanding in all aspects of his life as he seeks to understand himself.
It's not all light, like on the track “Like Him,” where Tyler explores similarities to an estranged father.
“Give me love and affection / Attention, protection (Go),” he sings in the second verse. “How could I ever miss a chance (Go) / That I never had?”
At a listening party for the album in Inglewood, California, on Sunday night, Tyler offered a kind of mission statement for the album. “‘Oh, I’m not the guy I was at 20," he said. “I’ve got a gray hair on my chest. Life is life-ing. I just wanted to write about stuff I think about when I’m dolo,” shorthand for the slang term “solo dolo,” to mean “by myself.”
He's thinking about a lot: “Hey Jane” details a pregnancy scare atop dreamy production, “Take Your Mask Off” tells the story of various characters afraid to live in their truth. It's as much about Tyler, the Creator himself as it is about them. “I hope you find yourself," he says. "I hope you take your mask off.”
Lead single “Noid” targets celebrity, addressing paranoia and the strange parasocial relationships that come with fame in a claustrophobic, transgressive package. The chorus samples Zambian rock band Ngozi Family’s 1977 track, “Nizakupanga Ngozi.”
But the album isn’t all deep introspection. Tyler is as brash as ever on like “Thought I Was Dead” and “Rah Tah Tah,” which use deep bass that reverberates, felt in the listeners' bones.
His fun and outrageous personality isn't hidden, either. It’s clearly heard on tracks like the cheerful "Sticky” which features Lil Wayne, GloRilla and Sexyy Red and “Balloon,” which features Doechii.
The entire album, as stated on the “Chromakopia” artwork, was written, produced and arranged by Tyler Okonma. It’s a too-early mid-life memoir, one many 30-somethings will relate to: An album that considers all that he's accomplished, fears and hopes for the future to come.