Tyler, the Creator’s surprise announcement of CHROMAKOPIA took all fans by surprise. Largely due to it breaking Tyler’s classic trait of dropping an album (or coalition of music) every two years. This schism in his time scale raised some questions about Tyler’s new album. Will it signify change? Does it mean we will see a whole new side of Tyler which hasn’t yet been unveiled? These questions were accentuated by my last memory of Tyler’s most recent and memorable song, ‘Sorry, not Sorry’, where the music video depicts Tyler (as he is beyond the realms of music), killing his former characters. Denouncing them as a part of his ‘true’ identity. With all that in mind, CHROMAKOPIA indicated an artistic neophyte that Tyler was going to display. 

The promotion of the album, through the release of the singles ‘Noid’ and ‘St.Chroma’, displayed a dark turn in Tyler’s perception of his own fame and musical journey. Most notably on ‘Noid’, he presents himself as deeply paranoid about social interactions and constantly being recognised. It brings out more confrontational and volatile behaviour seen not only in the lyrics but also with the sample tracks’ hard-hitting power chords, helping make for an explosive piece of production. This song has a strong sentiment to characteristics more attributed to his earlier works, such as ‘Wolf’ and ‘Goblin’. This notion spreads over to ‘St.Chroma’ (the opening track on the album). Its layering of Tyler’s classic euphoric synths and vocal harmonies, being meshed alongside creepy and sinister whispering at the start of the song, makes for a kaleidoscope of contrasting sounds. 

This sets up the eerie and erupting production on ‘Rah Tah Tah’. Here, Tyler displays a very aggressive take on his hedonistic ventures. He seems to suggest that he uses materialistic validation as a way of combating the repression he faces through his struggles with fame. Something which is further explained on the following track, ‘Noid’. 

The fourth single on the record is ‘Darling,I’ featuring Teezo Touchdown. This song delves into the polyamorous exploits of Tyler. The shame he has felt by comparing himself with other people as well as the liberation he feels by being honest and understanding his own desires, seen in lyrics such as “I’m too curious to try to be/ hidin’ things, feelin’ shame inside of me”. This ideal is presented over the top of an instrumental happy, R’n’B-like beat. Something which could easily have fitted into his most popular albums Flower Boy and Igor. 

‘Hey Jane’ further unfolds this new insight into Tyler’s relationships. Within the song, Tyler implements a double-sided perspective. One being his own viewpoint, and then singing from ‘Jane’s’ perspective on what they should do about her pregnancy. This storyline helps Tyler illustrate issues of fatherhood, age, and identity. Although the beat is simplistic and less dimensional than the other songs on the album, the complexity, and depth are already apparent through Tyler’s lyricism. Helping this become the most conceptualised track on the album. 

There is then a big change in production and concept with the 6th song on the album, ‘I Killed You’. Tyler goes on to use the medium of hair as a way of speaking about his own appliance to politics within the black community. He suggests the embarrassment he’s had with the natural state of his hair, trying to manipulate it into something more ‘acceptable’. Thus, Tyler looks back on this as a metaphor for his failure to properly acknowledge his African-American heritage. This topical change is met with a stylistic change in production, where Tyler’s fans are met with synth layers and leads which are very similar to the early stages of his career. 

Following on from the epithet of ‘I Killed You’, Tyler shifts back to the focus of his sexual exploits with ‘Judge Judy’. The slower beat patterns and strenuous vocals provide the song with a skit-like feel. Where Tyler’s verses seem more akin to a stream of consciousness rather than the hard-hitting metaphors and rhyming schemes which feature on the other tracks of the album. 

However, his album decides to switch up (again), with the classic, catchy, and hard-hitting single of ‘Sticky’. The track is composed with an array of styles, coming from features like Sexxy Red and Lil Wayne, as well as the instrumental which is made up of a fiery kick drum, sweet-sounding synths, and an uplifting brass section. Although this song could have easily been drowned in its multiple features and different production styles, Tyler has managed to make it formulate in a corresponding way. For a first-time listener of CHROMAKOPIA, this will easily be a stand-out song. 

After this, follows ‘Take Your Mask off’. An R’n’B, soul, and funk-inspired instrumental, which is further emphasised by the vocal melodies of Daniel Caesar and Latoiya Williams. This song acts as another demonstration of Tyler’s faith in honesty. Within this morally didactic piece, he displays stories of people who have been swallowed by their lies and lost their sense of identity. This is seen most clearly in his last verse, where Tyler takes on a self-reflective angle, where he confronts his contrasting ideals and hopes that he can lift off the mask he has been burdened with. 

‘Tomorrow’ fits into the introspective style that the album has to offer. ‘Tomorrow’ narrates Tyler’s struggles of ageing and the responsibilities and social expectations that come along with that. The lyrical value of this song, however, is not upheld by the flat, interlude-like beat. Tyler’s momentum is then momentarily restored by ‘Thought I Was Dead’. The chants and horns add an extra layer of aggressive and wild nature that this song already has. The track is another addition to Tyler’s more haughty style of music. Tyler has already presented his mechanisms for expressing his repressed self by being egotistical. ‘Thought I Was Dead’ just seems like a ‘gloat-a-thon’ which doesn’t really try to build on any of the album’s concepts. 

The first of the final three songs of the album, ‘Like Him’, is one of the more gloomy takes on the record. The dramatic, yet harmonious piano is met with an unfamiliar side of Tyler’s persona. He exposes his conflicting mindset about his father. Where he faces the fact that he will never have a father and the wish for a dad is still apparent after all these years. “Mama, I’m chasing a ghost”. Although Tyler has mentioned multiple times about the absence of his father, ‘Like him’ is the best, most in-depth, and evoking piece on the topic thus far. The growth and its massive crescendo at the end, followed by the dialogue of his mother trying to comfort him, makes this arguably the most complete and well-rounded song on the album. 

Yet again on this album, there is a switch up with ‘Balloon’. This bright and uplifting song turns the album into a more celebratory fashion. The cartoon-like beat and fun feature from Doechii helps lead the album onto its final song, ‘I Hope You Find Your Way Home’. The striking synths, the soul-influenced piano and Tyler’s most impressive rapping on this album, makes for a very strong finale. Here, Tyler is able to round off the multiple concepts taking place across the album. He presents himself as an example for the audience, how they should find their way home as he did, and ‘take the mask off’ as he has. Although, I don’t think that Tyler is perhaps the best example for figuring out your own solutions, considering not many people in his audience will have profound paranoia from having worldwide fame and a luxury lifestyle, I still think that Tyler’s message is a rather positive and thoughtful one. 

Overall, this album is full of some of Tyler’s best songs to date. His pallet of product has become evidently more expansive and he has shown us concepts which were previously not fully explored, in a more in-depth fashion. However, CHROMAKOPIA does have some weak points. I think there is a fair amount of disparity between his concepts and songs, where the listener could easily be lost by the constant switch up in narratives between his issues with paranoia, sexual relationships, and personal issues. Adding to this, I don’t think Tyler has properly developed the new artistic character that was indicated in the lead up to this album. It still has heavy connotations of previous works across his discography. With that being said, this is by no means a disappointing album. There is still plenty to take away from it and a lot of enjoyment to have while diving into this LP.

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