The project begins with the track “St. Chroma,” laying foundations of his ingenuity by marching along to his whispered anthem of vanity. Like soldiers, he’s leading us into the unknown as a sergeant character using Daniel Ceaser’s returned angelic vocals to lure us into CHROMAKOPIA. Tyler (T) reels us in with the fire, getting us ready for what is to come; the metaphorical light instilled from what seems to be his mother shows us the sprightly source of creativity continuing to fuel him. The bridge ascends to a drop, and T explodes all expectations of what we think this album will be. He sets out the idea of the doubts that begs him the question of: “Do I keep the light on or do I gracefully bow out?” Introducing the term “CHROMAKOPIA,” it seems to me that the album is to dive into all the new challenges in his life, using the lessons from back home to put into perspective what his mother would say. To me, CHROMAKOPIA is the name of a thematic representation of where the chromatic roots of T’s musicianship began: his mother.
Projects prior to the 2024 release brought decade-defining sounds to and throughout the years of the pandemic. Tyler’s chutzpah has brought him up to continuously get better and better with each release, developing a new thematic persona for each new project. Flower Boy in 2017 reversed his offensive nature (prevalent in his early upbringings on the adolescent internet), transforming people’s perceptions of his capabilities to prove what he set out to accomplish years in advance. IGOR in 2019 was an experimental mix of R&B, soul, and some rap, using chords to amplify the sounds of Flower Boy that turned out to become a Grammy-winning success. Call Me If You Get Lost was the braggadocious Gangsta Grillz mixtape that Tyler had mentioned wanting to do since childhood, introducing the elements of hip-hop that heavily inspired him to his large audience. Tyler was on top of the world after COVID, and has not seen any decline since.
When teasers of CHROMAKOPIA began, it was a climactic moment of pure-excitement, one that fans had been building up for years. The unexpected timing and punctual nature of Tyler’s album cycle this time around created a buzz around the Halloween season release, with teasers revealing a sergeant costume and a mask. T then reversed the expectation and overall theme of his album in espionage, however, using his masterful ability to get the listeners to hear what he actually wanted to say. T uses the demanding spotlight to show the consequences of fame in this hyper-digitalized age of the internet. Seen in the clever pick of the single, “Noid,” T introduces the distressing paranoia that his level of fame has induced. To an extent, his experience as one of the biggest stars of this decade has left him with a decommitment to his fans as he is left paranoid and overall resentful with living in LA. The mask seemingly represents his public persona from his music, which is so closely tied to him as an individual to the point that he is recognized anywhere he goes. T’s impressive abilities to demand the attention of the listeners seems to be a double-edged sword, with it also being the biggest drawback of his fame.
Although Tyler begins to become more candid, this does not slow down his ability to RAP. He follows “St. Chroma” with “Rah Tah Tah,” bringing new confidence to the playlists in 2024. Tyler adds his classic dawg growls with these clicking sounds that make me think of shells, bringing us back to his early Odd Future era of music. Shouting out Kenny at the end of the track, T shows the LA love by sharing the energy of the spirited revival of hip hop in his city over the summer. He extends this wave of tenacity with features of GloRilla, Sexyy Red, and Lil Wayne on “Sticky,” displaying the dexterity of his production skills. T borrows elements explored this year by Pharrell Williams with drill team instruments, like the loud trumpets heard after Wayne’s verse–Tyler compliments the best features of each artist using the production to bring weight to each of the brief verses. “Thought I Was Dead” supplemented a great showcase of SchoolBoyQ, and served as a notable teaser to the album days prior to show the rap-heavy album this was going to be. “Balloon” features the new and breathtaking talent, Doechii, with a prolonged verse stimulating an impressive word play and animated personality. Even in all of these features, T is rapping his tuckus off to remind you whose project these tracks belong to.
This project’s capabilities are not limited to just his hyped-up raps and sounds of driller beats; more so than his previous projects, CHROMAKOPIA dives into themes of vulnerability and introspection. Sitting at age 30, time has become a struggle that is glaringly applicable to many of the topics Tyler dives into. In “Hey Jane,” T reveals a surprising mistake, leading to a conversation with a woman about an unplanned pregnancy. T’s worries and thoughts about becoming a father, especially so soon in his career, sheds light on the sides of his life that he deems unfit for a child to see. It seems that the relationship between the two is relatively healthy, as T’s lyrics in both parts of the conversation pose a mutual understanding and respect for each others’ emotions. It’s later revealed that Tyler’s mother is very keen on the thought of a grandchild, seen in the apprehensive, string-heavy “Tomorrow.” The pressure regarding the topic of fatherhood is represented through the repeated phrase “Give it up!” when his mother is talking about her desires for a grandchild, showing us the role times plays on the other side of parenthood. This same phrase is found in the track that follows “Hey Jane,” named “I Killed You,” a continued display of the pressure T feels: his apprehensiveness towards parenthood seems to come from the feeling of obligation to have a child, but the unfit environment that makes it a difficult reality to imagine. The crass nature of the song in the beginning is reminiscent of some of his earlier projects from Goblin and WOLF, bringing a dark and twisted tone to the topic of abortion. His justifications align with the aforementioned negative side effects of fame—like his paranoia—and T’s overall self-proclaimed “selfish” lifestyle. The bridge, however, falls into a more Flower Boy-esque sound, as T touches on the inherently pure, innocent form of beauty that the child would represent; the delicate nature of the child is at such a high risk thanks to the drawbacks of his fame. His tug-o-war between the life and the endangered innocence of the child represents the surface level justifications towards an abortion, but perhaps this talk of fatherhood displays a larger reflection of T’s character.
The irritants of Tyler’s world are brought about in “Take Your Mask Off,” dissing the fraudulencies he observes in religion, family, and musicianship. Toward the end of the track, however, it seems he aims his shots towards himself after his mother’s reminded lesson of “Keep that sh*t one hundred with you, with yourself.” T then proceeds to take his own mask off, insulting his own excessive lifestyle, as well as his business endeavors that feel shallow or hypocritical—with the majority of his income coming from clothing purchases from an audience that’s not fully tapped into his music. He insinuates that he has lost touch with the mass audience appeal he’s culminated over his career, reflecting on the fact that his musicianship is not recognized to the extent he geeks about. He also mentions his selfish nature in specific regard to his lustful desires, challenging himself with the idea of therapy, and to get to the bottom of why he really doesn’t want to be a parent. His lack of commitment in relationships is showcased specifically in “Darling, I,” with the upbeat R&B sound enhanced by Teezo’s exclusive vocals. In this song, he reveals how his lack of monogamy and selfish desires have potentially become obsolete or immature at his age, leaving him at a crossroads. Revisiting the themes of “Tomorrow,” the dissonance of the sounds come to show the uncertainty of whether it is time to change his ways, or if he should continue down the path that seems to have left him slightly unfulfilled. Similar to how Kendrick Lamar peeled the entire banana of his own discontentment and struggle in Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, it seems as so Tyler, The Creator is starting to peel back a few layers of his own.
Tyler starts to end his project with a yearning for his father who was never there. He comes to ask his mother to be honest about his father’s absence, as his aforementioned struggles with fatherhood may align with why he might think his father wasn’t there for him. I really enjoy the falsetto melody accompanied by Lola Young over eager guitar solos and an eargasm bridge that is a lovely, bittersweet expression of longing. The conversation leads T to wonder why he is thinking about his father when he’s received all the love, support, and accolade he could’ve ever wanted. The ending of the song is an explanation from his mother of why his father wasn’t there, bringing a sense of closure alongside the admission of her mistakes, in a beautiful way that brings tears to the eyes. The following track, “Balloon,” goes on to be one of the most positive and uplifting songs I’ve ever heard from Tyler, easily becoming one of my top songs of the year. This track brings the album to a satisfying close, as self-reliance and self-confidence bring a more positive perspective to the unsure, somewhat dark feelings explored prior.
Tyler’s ending track, “I Hope You Find Your Way Home,” wraps up the project by summarizing the feelings discussed throughout all the songs. He comes to answer the questions he poses throughout the album with confidence, even if in a somewhat impermanent way. The journey back home to CHROMAKOPIA guided him through his strife, using lessons from his mother to prompt both the sources and solutions. This project doesn’t seem to be a representation of a thematic character he’s usually creates alongside the music, but rather is him taking off the mask to reveal his truly vulnerable self to the world. All of his struggles that coincide with being a cultural influence show that even he is not perfect; and, with coming to terms with that, Tyler culminates a musical experience that drives you throughout his own personal self-reflection. CHROMAKOPIA is the complex inner-workings and trials of not only Tyler’s sergeant character leading the listeners to the next best phenomenon in music, but perhaps of Tyler himself–listeners are shown a real reflection and assessment of character, humanizing one of the decades’ most committed entertainers.
