The Pop Corporation

You can’t trust Tyler, The Creator. That’s part of his charm, right? He says he won’t be releasing any new music this year, and then almost out of the blue, a new album comes out and all the GOLF WANG devotees get their multicoloured trousers in a bunch and show the kind of unswerving devotion that makes a right-minded music fan feel suspicious of the whole thing.

Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t listen up when Tyler does something – those fans are super devoted for a reason, and that’s because in an era of music that can fall foul of groupthink and having all the edges sanded off for maximum appeal, Tyler is an artist with a singular vision or, if you prefer, doesn’t give a fuck.

From his time making skater friendly horror rap, to donning a blonde bob and crooning his ass off, to putting on festivals and selling clothes, Tyler has hopped from project to project on his own terms. On ‘Chromakopia’, he’s delving into heavy, deep breaks and samples and at times, reminding us of Kanye, but without all that emotional baggage of wasted talent and fash flirting.

‘Noid’ samples what sounds like Ethiopian jazz from here (we could check, but where’s the fun in that?), coupled with a Beasties ‘Check Your Head’ skuzz guitar riff, backed by a chunky, lo-fi beat and, sincerely, you think back to a time when Ye was just about the only producer with the stones to throw everything and the kitchen sink at a song and make it work. ‘Sticky’ and ‘Thought I Was Dead’ showcases more mega-heavy grooves gleaned from what must be a dynamite record collection in Tyler’s house.

It’s not all impenetrable clunk though, as there’s G-Funk, West Coast AOR, jazz and Golden Era hip hop floating through the tracks too. In ‘Darling I’ and ‘Judge Judy’, the album bubbles along with a carefree, almost Daisy Age take on R&B and rap. ‘Take Your Mask Off’ is one of the LP’s stand-outs, and destined to be bumped in the car on the weekend, or nodded along too half-baked out of your mind, Z-shaped on the sofa.

Thing is, Tyler is in his own lane so he knows he’s not making music that is meant for the strip-club or for the DJs still slinging trap. He’s side-stepped the whole scene and created a dedicated fanbase that hangs on his every move. For a set of people, Tyler must be that generation’s Doom or Madlib, right? He’s created a world that they all live in now and, if you’re signed-up, you might wonder what causes such reverence. However, whatever your feelings, it’s Tyler who has a festival of like-minded artists and a bazillions plays on Spotify, and the kind of fans who have record collections that are made up entirely of Tyler and related cuts.

And maybe Tyler isn’t wholly comfortable with all this, as we’ve seen promotional bits for ‘Chromakopia’ that showed Tyler heaving his way through a crowd and being assaulted by a fan who got too enthusiastic. And then a phone turns into a gun, and that’s probably something to do with our handheld devices stealing everyone’s privacy and being a powerful, unwieldy tool which gets us all cancelled, in trouble, and too attached to our favourite performers… possibly.

As you’d expect, some of the themes in the album tackle paranoia and mistrust, but also loneliness and worrying about the future. Maybe his fans who have grown up with him will identify with such sentiments? Maybe it’s a message to them? Either way, this is a dense album and there’s a lot to unravel, and as unsettling as the groove is, it’s not an unpleasant experience, even when you’re faced with Tyler’s mum talking about why he doesn’t know his father.

Obviously, the whole thing is chaotic, but the bedlam is what Tyler, The Creator has traded in for years, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone really. Packed with twists and turns, with songs that go from booty to suicide notes in the blink of an eye, it’s impossible to argue against the notion that Tyler is one of the most interesting people we’ve got in music, and whether you like the music or not is almost a moot point.

If he takes on different personas through each project cycle – from the sensual ‘IGOR’ to the showy ‘Sir Tyler Baudelaire’, he is now wearing a mask and St Chroma hasn’t worked out what the hell is going on, but he’s willing to at least address how weird the 2020’s have been and how they’re just getting weirder.