The Weekly Coos

Tyler, the Creator is back, but he is not better than ever as his new album Chromakopia brings enough ideas to the forefront, but stifles them in a mosh of recreating something that won’t meet the heights of similar-minded projects like 2018’s Igor. Though I was very partial to his last album, Call Me If You Get Lost, where he was rapping rapping and just coming on every beat hard, the ranging musicality is something I still hungered for. Chromakopia is back to that exploratory nature, though this time we’re hearing Tyler through a different lyrical lens as he faces a new stage in life. He calls it maturity, and I call it being human, in return, we are seeing another conceptual turn where the mask on the album cover is more symbolic as he tackles the duality of his person. We hear his fears and thoughts about topics like materialism and polyamory. Unfortunately, as many songs come across as high points, it is the weakest of his albums since Flower Boy, mostly because the writing, though matured, isn’t all that different from past albums.

“St. Chroma” opens the album by introducing a loop delivered in unison with other tracks, seamless transitions around an elevated core ethos, though inconsistent with the quality of specific elements, specifically, the writing for Tyler, the Creator. The album lulls in the middle, and much of that comes from the homogenization of tones, leaving little room to expand past some carbon copies of Igor, as he does so with “Judge Judy,” which doesn’t have the intimate staccato of “Darling, I,” which treads familiar territory in content. It’s an album that wants to be grander in different ways but flunks on hitting high marks because it doesn’t lack the skill to bring anything new to the table. It’s one thing to give him props as he tries, but it isn’t enough for one to give it more than some mild positivity. It’s a good album nonetheless, and much of that emanates from having a direct vision and delivering it with impact, making the highs stand out more. These include “Sticky,” “Rah Tah Tah,” “Noid,” and “Thought I Was Dead,” which have a sense of worth and ingenuity. Though I like them, they don’t parallel the greatness of Igor.

Chromakopia, like the Tyler, the Creator album, is feature-heavy. Their input is great, especially with “Sticky,” “Take Your Mask Off,” and “Thought I Was Dead”—though others replicate layers that extend the parameters of the song’s reach, like how Daniel Caesar elevates the sensibilities about the masks duality Tyler raps about in “St. Chroma” or Teezo Touchdown, who adds some soul to Tyler’s charm. It adds depth, sanding the edges, and elongating it while making the journey worthwhile. It’s one of the weaker albums because Tyler, the Creator isn’t evolving lyrically despite the mature themes, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still deliver. He can give us some resounding depth, and he can flex without being too arrogant and that’s why the work feels so well-rounded. “Sticky” has Tyler, Glorilla, Sexy Redd, and Lil Wayne bounce off each other with stout command, expressing why they are the shit. “Thought I Was Dead” sees Tyler and Schoolboy Q reflect on their mentality and its relation to their hood and Hip-Hop culture overall. It makes for an interesting follow-up after a resoundingly beautiful ode about his mother, rapping about her life and how well she raised him through the hardships.

Though I’ve lamented on how Tyler, the Creator’s maturity is so much in the lyrics, it’s in the themes, but there are those rare bright spots that allow us to see this new direction, which many know he can command. From “Hey Jane” to “Judge Judy,” we get a three-track run that is distinguishably mediocre. It’s a sizeable stopgap that doesn’t offer much to the table, except some unique choral performances; fortunately, what comes before and after are considerably greater and more memorable than expected. That’s even after accounting for how much of a slight downgrade it is from similar albums like Igor. It’s an unfortunate turn since there was some hope upon hearing some of the singles. It makes me wish there was some more effort into making the production less rudimental, despite having some fun with it himself. It makes the highs stand out further because you’re getting a collision of what works around the content; it could be why I’m higher on the reflective notes, and a few braggadocio moments, instead of the whole. 

It’s safe to say I was disappointed by Chromakopia, but it wasn’t a bad album. It’s too linear and doesn’t try to be more than the sum of its parts. Tyler, the Creator is taking a strong step forward as an artist, but there are still things to work on. But when you reflect on what you listened to, you realize that the music isn’t all bad, more standards have shifted based on his run of quality since Flower Boy and the immediate parallels to Igor. I think it’s positive that the album could have been boring or elongated but it isn’t. Fortunately, the final product is recommendable, even when he reverts from what he gave us with Call Me If You Get Lost, turning another 180.