Few are as consistent in their craft as Tyler, The Creator. Not just in his sound, or his continuously layered worldbuilding, but the level of commitment to a once every two year schedule for album releases. The man stays on point from Goblin to Chromakopia, with Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale as an off-year treat in between. In a hip hop landscape fraught with postponed dates, cryptically absent drops, and leak culture wreaking havoc on a planned track list (“niggas hackin for some rough drafts”), it's refreshing to see such a firm hold on one’s body of work. I like to err on the side of being artist-first, not clamoring for someone to drop a project just because I’m thirsty for more. The art’s ready when it's ready, which is precisely why such a streak is so noteworthy.
chroma the great
Mr. Okonma appears to be inspired from the 1961 children’s fantasy novel-turned psychedelic animated film, The Phantom Tollbooth. Inside the storybook wonder of author Norton Juster’s world is a character by the name of Chroma the Great. When the young hero Milo is transported to the otherworldly Kingdom of Wisdom upon the gift of a magical phantom tollbooth, the boy meets Chroma, the conductor of the color orchestra along his journey. With his baton and music book bearing a spectrum of hues, Chroma the Great conducts the sunrise at dawn the sunset of dusk. And too for the sky he composes the raging colors of lightning and fireworks, casting on the atmosphere its missing vibrance before his touch. Chroma is the Greek root word for color, a pointed choice from the wordplay enthusiast in Juster.
"You are the light
Its not on you, its in you
Don't you ever in your motherfucking life dim your light for nobody"
-Ms. Bonita Smith
Who is Saint chroma?
Tyler, The Creator has a fine touch for character crafting and manifesting personalities in his approach to the concept album. His debut mixtape Bastard brought to our ears the introduction of the baritone Dr. TC (Tyler’s Conscious or Tron Cat) in 2009. The Camp Flog gnaw therapist of inner creation would carry on through Goblin and Wolf, along with storied names like Sam and Wolf Haley. He masked up for Cherry Bomb and donned the white-fleshed stitched on face for Flower Boy in the video to “Who Dat Boy.” He continued to express himself in multiple forms with the conceptions of Igor and Tyler Baudelaire, with all of these marking different chapters of Mr. Okonma’s story.
Perhaps it was in the music video of his 2023 Estate Sale single “Sorry Not Sorry” that he acknowledges this in the clearest form. Bringing forth all of his identities upon a desert stage, he then kills them one by one with Tyler Baudelaire being saved for last in a viciously beautiful Django Unchained homage. But as fellow PSM member thassian pointed out, the video may allude to Tyler’s next evolution for Chromokopia when he shakes the faceless arm clad in a green general’s uniform.
“Can you feel the light, Can you feel the fire” is recited right before the distorted 808s drop and the synths hit their crescendo on “St. Chroma.” In the video this is exactly where the color grading radically shifts as he detonates the Chromakopia shipping container. Saint Chroma conducting his own color orchestra, beautiful yet violent, confident yet loathing, as only Tyler The Creator could.
Taking the mask off
Chromakopia is a deeply vulnerable project. Although that’s been a prevailing trait of his since the jump, his true self—or what he reveals as his true self— has often been veiled under a brash projection. As Tyler grows and matures deeper into his 30’s, you can hear the mask come off more and more.
Throughout the album he opens up on a plethora of personal themes, contemplating growing older and leaving behind a legacy both in music and in fatherhood (“Tomorrow”), wrestling with love and the temptations of non-monogamy (“Darling I”), the futile and mind-wrenching pursuit of the intangible phantom of his father (“Like Him”), the tumult of unplanned pregnancy (Hey Jane), and right after that is straight into a title with obvious implications to the track prior (“I Killed You”).
As a private individual Tyler balances his introspective story telling with keeping things close enough to his chest to protect what's personal. Reddit is still locked in the wire room trying to come to a conclusion on whether “Judge Judy” is mourning a late lover lost to cancer or a play on the name of supposed Call Me If You Get Lost muse, model Reign Judge. The lo-fi acoustic ballad over the Kool & the Gang style synths and subtle percussion paints the soundscape of a luscious summer day. As we’re led on this spontaneous romance sparked at a café ‘round the way, he makes clear reference to the chorus of “DOGTOOTH”, and this is what leads the folks at r/tylerthecreator to make the connection to his last album. Regardless of the who’s who or whether the terminal illness mentioned is simply a metaphorical device used in his story, the feeling bleeds through.
“Sorry that I haven't been communicating much
This past year has been rough, it spreaded to my head
I knew it when we met, if you're reading, it's too late
I'm on the other side, but I just wanna say
Thank you for the moments I could grab before I left”
But just like Tyler expresses on “Noid”, it's a given that fans are going to peel back every last layer and scour for every last detail to piece together his personal sagas. “Privacy? Huh, yeah, right, I got a better shot in the NBA.”
“Like Him” has possibly the most vulnerable pieces of Tyler that he’s put to tape. Bookending the 12th song on the album is his mother, Ms. Bonita Smith, who is featured in short spoken words in intros throughout the album. She speaks on the striking similarities between Tyler and his father, and then closes the piece by expressing to her son it was her youthful mistakes to blame, not his father, for his absence in Tyler’s life. In between is him contemplating his identity, with the specter of his father hanging over him while rejecting his image and forging his own. As textured as the song is narratively it's also so sonically moving. A somber glissando leads us into the piano and synth ballad that soon reaches a screaming climax reminiscent of IGOR’s “Are We Still Friends?”.
Tyler, The Creator and Mama, The Creator
There’s a reason why the auteur in Tyler, The Creator makes sure to include on the cover that he arranges all songs on his album, and it's because there is always a grander purpose and flow to the overall piece. You have the marching stomps and humming chants leading you into the album giving way to the bombastic synths and percussions of the second track “Rah Tah Tah”. After “Noid” breaks the tension, things take a turn for the soulful and romantic with “Darling I” and “Hey Jane”. Both “Sticky” and “Balloon” offer a breath of levity when they come in, sliding through with some feminine energy when the going gets heavy. TDE’s blossoming Grammy nominated emcee Doechii delivers a popping feature on the whimsical instrumental, one that uses the historically sampled “I Wanna Rock” by 2 Live Crew’s Uncle Luke.
“I air this bitch out like a queef” - Doechii
Lets also take a moment to appreciate sassy Tyler on "Thought I Was Dead", where he addresses the pretentiousness accusations and cancel attempts while reminding folks that he keeps his 10 toes planted in his roots, baby. And love to ya too, ScHoolboy.
"Loiter Squad, baby, I don't be with these niggas"
In the spirit of reading too much into things (there’s an art to overthinking, ya know?) Tyler seems to enjoy playing with switching between stylizing song titles in all uppercase letters or regular font. One could say it reflects the tone of the album. Cherry Bomb by its nature is an explosive, in your face expression of the man when he was in a period of experimentation. All caps. IGOR is an angry, spiteful lover yearning for what he cannot have. All caps. CMIYGL was loud and boisterous, it was DJ Drama hyping you up from behind the booth, a luxurious vacation epic. All caps. Chromakopia, however, is the introspection of man maturing into his 30s, contemplating identity and inner fulfillment, waxing on the wise words of his dear mother. The masked figure of Saint Chroma is a break through the veil, uncompromising individuality slanted with paranoia of his surroundings. I know it's simply lettering, but the green haired angel’s in the details.
If you’d like to read more on Tyler, The Creator’s traditional Rwandan hairstyle, the Amasunzu, along with the overall African influence on this new Tyler era, peep this write-up I dropped during his early roll out. (all my fellow tutsis in the club represent)
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