On Oct. 28, Tyler The Creator released his seventh studio album entitled “CHROMAKOPIA.” When the album was announced on Oct. 16, the trailer that previewed the opening song on the album “St. Chroma” turned heads. Fans noticed the new, eerie and dark aesthetic Tyler was going for in his album. Ever since the release of the album “Flower Boy” in 2017, Tyler has been in one of the best periods of artistic freedom and creativity in modern music. However, this album is by far the most serious of his discography. This was shown by both the lyricism in his songs and the visuals that came along with them. This was seen in the songs previewed including both “Noid” and “Thought I Was Dead.” The subject matter is Tyler’s most introspective and grim, and the production is less pretty sounding, instead of opting for a grittier sound.
Just from the singles and cover alone, the album garnered mass anticipation. Living up to the hype, the singles did a perfect job encapsulating a preview of the album by painting a picture of what the feel of the album would be like. It felt more desolate than Tyler had rapped since his shock-humor rapping from when he was just a teenager. He fits in perfectly with this style, showing off how versatile he is. This promo did a great job of playing off this very eerie and painfully down-to-earth feeling, at least for Tyler standards.
“Darling, I” is a shining example of one of the more uplifting songs on the record that is more similar to Tyler’s past music. The song showcases his style from his past albums “Flower Boy” and “IGOR” through the soulful R&B influence, which is evident by the vocal pitching on the Teezo Touchdown chorus. He fits the role perfectly, really stealing the show. Tyler has always taken inspiration from his influences, including D’Angelo and Pharrell Williams, especially when going into the soulful direction where he doesn’t just fit, but also is a curator himself. It is also important to mention that he reverts to the subject matter of love which was the main lyrical content of his more R&B-influenced albums.
More upbeat rap tracks like “Rah Tah Tah” and “Sticky” are also present on the album. “Sticky,” in particular, has drawn attention for its interesting features of Glorilla, Sexyy Red and Lil Wayne. Tyler once again focuses on the darker song themes but also has very upbeat rapping on “Thought I Was Dead” where Tyler perfectly curates this upbeat feeling. The words Tyler raps hold an abundance of substance, discussing how he’s always going to have a spot at the top of the rap food chain even if he was off the grid for a long period of time while he was recording this album. It has a more upbeat, west-coast-inspired production than what Tyler is accustomed to. ScHoolboy Q is featured in the song which makes perfect sense as he has stayed true to himself and also has this status of being at the top of the food chain for West Coast hip hop.
The production is as crisp as ever with great sampling and smooth transitions making it feel extremely fresh. It is all produced by Tyler, showing his true talent for both production and world-creating as these songs fit together and are arranged in an order that makes perfect sense.
The record also has arguably the best rapping from Tyler. It has numerous different styles of rapping. The biggest change is that Tyler is at his most introspective and thought-provoking in his verses. Songs such as “Hey Jane” and “Judge Judy” exemplify this perfectly with him being less animated and more down to earth for a change. He speaks on genuine issues that are super impactful to his real life other than fictional concepts like the love circle that was in “IGOR.” It shows Tyler has a feeling of artistic freedom and the weight of needing to pick concepts that interest many being lifted off his shoulders. In this way it is very similar to Kendrick Lamar’s 2022 album, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.” This album received mixed reception due to this same feeling of not having a need to please everyone and just releasing work that is satisfying for the artist and speaking on subject matter that is very impactful to the artist’s real life.
This album has also had a massive pop culture movement, garnering massive attention. It has charted absurdly well, already spending multiple weeks at the very top of the Billboard 200 Albums chart. It has also proved Tyler’s status as an A-lister having the highest amount of streams for a hip-hop album on opening day since Drake’s “For All the Dogs” which came out in 2023.
Fans knew that changes would be applied due to this being the first full-length project of Tyler’s to have a release date longer than two years, this album being three. Also, for the first time ever, track 10 was not a multiple-part song. It was hinted at previously in his music video for “SORRY NOT SORRY” where he was seen slaughtering all his old personas at the end of the video, showing how there would be a big shift in Tyler’s music career.
There wasn’t a single change that genuinely backfired. Everything seemed to connect greatly. The changes have been widely accepted which is primarily due to Tyler’s ability to always reinvent himself and have such a sense of unpredictability that is always implemented at a perfect period of time and is very well thought-out.
This album is truly an album for everyone and has all the styles that made Tyler become so prolific while changing his style drastically. It is a change that felt needed, but fans feared the shift being a bit too sudden and too big. This was not a problem as Tyler stayed true to himself and kept many elements of his previous works. This new trilogy has been started and seems to be extremely promising as just the first album is phenomenal and could go down as a classic if it ages well.
