American rapper “Tyler, the Creator” released his eighth studio album, “Chromakopia” on Oct. 28 as a continuation to his previous album, “Call Me If You Get Lost.” Tyler is known for his use of abstract elements in his music, which makes him stand out from most other modern rappers in his sound and style.
Tyler’s first hit song, “Yonkers” was released on his critically acclaimed second studio album “Goblin.” “Yonkers” featured elements of New York Drill rap with a unique vibe that only Tyler could create.
Tyler has featured many popular and niche underground artists in his past songs. His method of features can capture both artist’s styles individually. When executed properly, this method of collaboration has a lot of potential and is usually successful because it appeals to the audience of both artists and provides both audiences with a unique sound they likely haven’t heard before.
There are many artists featured on “Chromakopia.” Some are popular in mainstream music like Sexxy Red, Childish Gambino and Lil Wayne. Other artists were brought on to the album because of the popularity they gained recently from viral songs such as GloRilla and Teezo Touchdown. While the lineup for featured artists is full of very talented musicians, almost none of them were featured well.
Instead of Tyler and the featured artist both being able to have their own unique sound, it sounds like they are trying to achieve a sound that is more mainstream.
Unfortunately, none of the songs released on “Chromakopia” can compare to his releases in the past. Not only do the features leave something to be desired, but the sound of “Chromakopia” overall pales in comparison to Tyler’s sound that he had captured so well in the past. Through abstract musical elements and uncommon experimental styles in his music, Tyler has always had a unique sound that made him stand out from other artists in mainstream hip-hop.
While the sound to “Chromakopia” was certainly unique, it doesn’t work well. It feels like Tyler was trying to give his album a sound that is more dramatic than anything he has done in the past to continue being more different with every release. This would have been good if done well, but it sounds awkward and clunky at some parts that ruin the way the album comes together.
Most of the songs on “Chromakopia” fail to create the feeling that Tyler could create with his music in the past.
There are a couple of good aspects to the album that are worth mentioning too.
Every song on the album has smooth and appealing transitions between them. The beginning of most songs picks up right where the one before it left off. This is proof that the album was made thoughtfully and wasn’t just a compilation of songs unrelated to each other like many albums in mainstream music are now.
There is also the element of Tyler’s mother, Bonita Smith, narrating the album. This has not been done in this way before and was done very well. The album’s concept drew inspiration from Tyler’s experiences growing up in Los Angeles, California, and tells the story of lessons he had to learn as a young child. The meaning behind this album is deep and has the potential to convey a lot of emotion.
The heavy use of poor artist features and the sound of most songs being clumsy and badly done leads to the album not reaching the quality of his past albums. “Chromakopia” deserves two out of five Loper stars.
