Tyler, the Creator - CHROMAKOPIA

Tyler, the Creator's career comes in two phases, with 2017's 'Flower Boy' serving as the boundary between the two. Before that album, Tyler (and Odd Future, the group he first found fame with) was known for close-to-the-bone subject matter, slur-peppered lyrics, and a kind of messy genius which was, in turn, celebrated and excluded from rap's mainstream narrative. Nobody denied the talent on display across 'Goblin', 'Wolf', and 'Cherry Bomb', but lyrics which were at times misogynistic and homophobic, and a general sense of anarchic chaos, weren't exactly fodder for award ceremonies and stadium tours.

From 'Flower Boy' onwards, this reputation has faded as Tyler seems to have… well, grown up somewhat, alongside getting better and better both lyrically and production-wise. A series of mature, thoughtful albums, which also manage to pack in more bangers than most artists have across their entire career, has pushed him to a level few rappers reach. As Tyler himself raps on new album 'CHROMAKOPIA''s 'Rah Tah Tah', he's the "Biggest in the city after Kenny [Kendrick Lamar], that's a fact now", and it's a sentiment few would disagree with.

So why the history lesson? Well, because 'CHROMAKOPIA' is indebted to everything Tyler has done up until now, possibly more so than any other individual release of his. 'Rah Tah Tah', 'St. Chroma' and 'Thought I Was Dead' are spikier than anything he's made since 'Cherry Bomb'. 'Judge Judy' throws back to the mellower sounds of 'Flower Boy'. 'Sticky' is the kind of glorious, multi-layered mess we haven't heard since his Odd Future days - complete with guest verses from GloRilla, Lil Wayne, and Sexy Redd, which give it the off-the-cuff energy of a rap cypher.

It's an album that bulges at the seams, and a lesser artist would struggle to mould something coherent out of so many competing influences. Yet Tyler somehow wrangles it into something cohesive, with each song making sense in context, and the transitions between tracks like 'Rah Tah Tah' and 'Noid' being so fluid you might not realise they've even happened.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Tyler album without some Bowie-esque character work. We've had the blonde wig of 'IGOR', the opulent Sir Tyler Baudelaire of 'CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST', and now we have the masked figure of St. Chroma, a character seemingly based on Chroma the Great, from Norton Juster's 'The Phantom Tollbooth'. As before, this character has little impact on the songs, but ties together the aesthetics of the album, videos, and (presumably) the stage set when Tyler sets off on his mammoth world tour early next year.

St. Chroma may be masked, but lyrically, Tyler seems at his most confessional in years. 'Hey Jane' is an exploration of accidental pregnancy and parenthood, while 'Tomorrow' reflects on ageing and whether material success is all that matters. One small caveat: a history of oblique references, coupled with characters, verses from other viewpoints, and never being quite sure if he's even telling the truth, mean that nothing can be taken at face value, but either way, there are weighty themes here. Paranoia and the stress of fame is another thread which runs through the album, most clearly on 'Noid', but cropping up again and again, with the dark side of everyone knowing your face weighing heavily on 'CHROMAKOPIA' in a way Tyler hasn't explored in this much detail, or this candidly, before.

Taking 'CHROMAKOPIA' as a whole, Tyler asserts himself once again as that very rare character in hip-hop: an album artist with as much flair for visuals and narrative as for production. His comparison to Kendrick Lamar has more than just geographical significance, with both artists flying the flag for only releasing when ready, favouring polished albums which stand the test of time over throwaway singles or trend-chasing. 'CHROMAKOPIA' has depth, it has worldbuilding, but just as importantly, it has some absolute bangers, too.