Before headlining Cochella this last spring, Tyler the Creator had assured fans not to wait on an album because he wouldn’t be releasing one: Despite this, On Oct. 28, Tyler dropped his seventh album “CHROMAKOPIA”.
In defiance to the album’s title, which refers to an abundance of color, Tyler’s teaser included a monochrome world with a masked protagonist: He highlights the color green through both his album cover and music videos which display bright green shipping containers. Through aspects of the music videos released, it can be interpreted that Tyler plays the role of St. Chroma himself, leading the individuals in his music video in a military-like motion into a shipping container that he later detonates along with everyone inside of it. The video for “Noid” features St. Chroma again being chased by fans; Chroma can then be seen locking himself in his home, fearful of what’s outside. He begins seeing figments of his imagination in his mirror, signifying paranoia and distress. While this could be a clue to why Tyler/Chroma may have detonated the shipping container in his video before, I believe the meaning is up for interpretation.
Fans have speculated that “CHROMAKOPIA” is loosely based on a character called Chroma the Great, featured in a children’s novel “The Phantom Tollbooth.” This character is a powerful conductor whose music brings color to the world. This leads me to believe that Tyler is basing his own character, St. Chroma, off of this character implying that his music will induce change.
Fans, as well as myself, were disappointed in the absence of Frank Ocean on “CHROMAKOPIA:” Frank Ocean fans speculated that he would be making a reappearance after his break resulting from his brother’s passing. In Tyler’s silhouette teaser, fans believed that they saw the outline of the artist they missed. Aside from this, Tyler the Creator features several artists in “CHROMAKOPIA,” just some including Daniel Caesar, Childish Gambino, Lil Wayne and ScHoolboy Q. There are 14 tracks exploring music genres such as hip hop, rap, R&B and jazz.
One of Tyler’s most noteworthy songs from the album is “Sticky” which has blown up on social media platforms because of it’s unexpected appearances: Featured on the track is GloRilla, Sexxy Red and Lil Wayne. This track is extremely unique and seem outside of Tyler’s comfort zone as the upcoming female vocalists aren’t artists most would expect him to work with. The track displays Tyler’s creativity and refusal to stick to a specific genre of music. Despite the song’s fame, there is just as much hate: Fans of Tyler hate that he is working with more “new-gen” artists that don’t align with his style or purpose. I think GloRilla and Red’s feature was more of a statement from Tyler proving his open-mindedness and willingness to veer outside of his comfort zone.
The most popular track featured on the album is “Noid:” It has a straightforward theme of the paranoia resulting from fame. Some of his lyrics from the song include, “I can’t even buy a home in private/home invasion got my brothers dyin’.’” This highlights the risk of being a celebrity and the fear that can result from such. This is a popular theme throughout some other songs of Tyler’s including “Colossus” from his album “Wolf.” This is a theme, I think, Tyler will continue to implement in future songs/albums.
Tyler’s album explores several music styles and offers a unique look into his life as not only a celebrity, but an ordinary man who faces real-life struggles. I noticed while listening that the album may have been inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers,” released in 2022, which also discussed both real-life and fame-induced complications. While some fans were underwhelmed with Tyler’s new release, I believe that it offers a unique insight into the artist’s life and tells an apparent story incomparable to his seven previous albums.
