Photo Credit: Luis Perez

By Landon Baggett

Staff Writer

Tyler, the Creator’s eighth studio album, CHROMAKOPIA, popped up suddenly and without compromise, rolled out by brief, bold cuts of songs which dropped on YouTube. Bite-sized clips of “St. Chroma,” “Noid,” and “Thought I Was Dead” released preceding the album, containing bold imagery blanketed in a black-and-white color tone. Tyler first appeared to viewers stomping through the sand, trailed by a line of marching men. Accompanied by the rhythmic thumping beat of “St. Chroma,” Tyler led the men into a shipping container that would then explode as the beat picked up and a new color took over the display. Finally, a big, green “CHROMAKOPIA” logo would overtake the screen, accompanied by Tyler’s voice yelping out the album title. Tyler, the Creator’s fans are not strangers to rollout videos like this one. While many viewers were impressed by Tyler’s dedication to his vision and his willingness to get weird with the visual identity of his albums, similar rollout videos have dropped with his last two albums, Call Me If You Get Lost and IGOR. IGOR was the more conceptual album of these two, and its rollout videos included burning stages, bright blonde wigs, bubblegum pink suits with blood red sleeves, and other surreal, dreamlike elements.

Tyler fans expected CHROMAKOPIA to be a “spiritual successor” to IGOR, Tyler’s 2019 concept album which told a story of love, heartbreak, revenge and acceptance. By using samples of classic R&B songs, grainy synth sounds and heartbreaking lyrics, IGOR carved out a special space in many landscapes, namely R&B and pop. Tyler’s next album, Call Me If You Get Lost, never claimed to be like IGOR, instead cutting out a sphere of its own. This album was much more dancey and hip-hop centric, and while stories were told of love and emotion in individual tracks, the album as a whole was less connected by a single story thread. Finally, with the release of CHROMAKOPIA, immediately upon seeing Tyler’s Phantom of the Opera-esque masked alter ego, coupled with the wild visuals of the snippets used to rollout the album, fans assumed it would be just like IGOR. What CHROMAKOPIA turned out to be was something in-between the banger-filled Call Me If You Get Lost and the deeply emotional IGOR.

A word that could be used to summarize CHROMAKOPIA is audacious. Tyler’s confident persona is brought to the forefront of many songs through strong brass and synth instrumentation and loud, boisterous lyrics. While Tyler’s impressive confidence is nothing new to his fans, CHROMAKOPIA bears a few notable hallmarks. One of these hallmarks is a willingness to quickly switch tones. For example: “Judge Judy,” a sincere R&B song about sexual acceptance and the need for respect between sexual partners, is immediately followed by the audacious song “Sticky,” a banger that boasts features from GloRilla, Sexyy Red and Lil Wayne. Later in the album is the track “Like Him,” a deeply personal song that communicates the pains of being compared to an absent father figure. Tyler’s quiet falsetto is accompanied by the belted vocals of Lola Young, the song’s feature, forming an incredibly emotional song. Therefore, listeners might get whiplash from the sudden switch to “Balloon,” a joyful party song, which features the up-and-coming lyrical artist Doechii.

Another hallmark of CHROMAKOPIA is the theme of self-improvement. Tyler uses many songs to turn his lens inward, analyzing his inner self. For example, Tyler uses the song “Darling, I” to ruminate on the nature of committed relationships and whether or not he’s ready for one. Tyler ends his first verse with the impactful lyric, “Nobody could fulfill me like this music shit does, so I’ll be lonely with these Grammys when it’s all said and done.” Later in the album, Tyler observes his own cultural identity through songs like “I Killed You.” In this song, Tyler speaks directly to his hair, making references to the nature of black hair and its cultural significance. “Take Your Mask Off” is another example of Tyler’s observation of black culture and the ways that people take dark paths due to societal expectations. The provided examples highlight Tyler’s consciousness of the world he lives in and his place in it, and suggest a lot of personal introspection.

Because of its introspective themes, CHROMAKOPIA has been likened to Kendrick Lamar’s album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. Themes of personal growth, fatherhood, love and the search for inner peace underscore both works. Songs like Tyler’s “Hey, Jane” and Kendrick’s “We Cry Together” are both used to represent conversations between romantic partners, though the specifics differ. Tyler’s “Like Him” and Kendrick’s “Father Time” both view fatherhood, but from very different angles. For these reasons, many fans say that CHROMAKOPIA did for Tyler what Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers did for Kendrick, but it is narrow-minded to disregard all the ways in which Tyler made CHROMAKOPIA his own. Both artists retain their own distinct identities, and Tyler even pays tribute to Kendrick in the early track “Rah Tah Tah,” calling himself “The biggest out the city after Kenny, that’s a fact now.”

CHROMAKOPIA has had a far reach, debuting at #1 on the charts of multiple countries on release. The album has influenced several social media spheres in different ways, with snippets of Tyler’s eccentric music videos filling Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok. Artists and editors on these platforms have taken a distinct liking to “Like Him,” one of the most emotionally resonant, climactic songs on CHROMAKOPIA. Capitalizing on the many strained paternal relationships in popular fiction, TikTok users have related “Like Him” to characters like Spider-Man (specifically Miles Morales), characters from the TV show Arcane and even Luke Skywalker. “St. Chroma,” the bombastic first track of CHROMAKOPIA has also been used to great effect by many editors, typically accompanying fan-favorite underdog stories, like those of Dragon Ball Z, The Walking Dead, and even the real NFL playoffs. Songs from CHROMAKOPIA have even been adapted into arrangements for marching bands. “Sticky,” one of the most explosive bangers on CHROMAKOPIA, was played by the Jackson State University Sonic Boom of the South Marching Band in an electrifying performance. Tyler himself responded on Twitter, “THIS IS WHY I MADE STICKY!!!!!! THIS IS WHY I ARRANGED IT THAT WAY. THIS BEAUTIFUL MY HEART IS FILLED”

The influence of Tyler, the Creator’s eighth studio album, CHROMAKOPIA, has been huge, and its themes of introspection, love and confidence have struck a chord in listeners’ hearts. The most exciting element put forward by CHROMAKOPIA is not its powerful lyricism, not its unique features, not even the bombastic instrumentation that Tyler’s come to be known for. What’s most exciting about CHROMAKOPIA is the fact that it indicates that Tyler isn’t stopping anytime soon.