No matter if you find him to be obnoxious, weird, funny or extremely talented, two things that are for sure about Tyler, The Creator. The first being that he makes incredibly unique music and secondly, he is a boss in every sense of the saying. Between his solo musical career and his many endeavors with Odd Future (OFWGKTA) including the Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, The Golf Media App and designer clothing brand Golf Wang, Tyler Gregory Okonma has built an empire in the short timeline of about five to eight years.
Through it all, he has maintained a staunch dedication to honing his craft and pushing the limits of his musical repertoire, releasing five albums to date that all accurately and weirdly provide brilliant social commentary on times at hand. One of the most impressive things about Tyler, The Creator as an artist is most likely his ability to take different parts of the musical and different genres and melt them all together to create some of the most wonderful sounding, hype drowning records while also still maintaining a funny jab of peculiarity within the mix to keep things light.
As we explore Tyler, The Creator's somewhat short, yet sonically extensive discography, we will get a chance to see the many sides of Tyler and hopefully have somewhat better of an idea of who he is with this week's essential tracks.
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"VCR / Wheels"
Tyler, The Creator's early discography is quite dark. Between his first two official projects Bastard and Goblin, there is this sort of dark and looming aura surrounding the two albums that largely opts to leave empathy and happiness by the wayside to focus more on angst, aggression and oddity. Even more so, with this debut mixtape Bastard, Tyler had a point to prove and he went about making it known with his use of vulgar and deranged bars and superb production ranging from his tasteful sampling to his eclectic use of synths and melodies.
While it is a particularly light-hearted song compared to the rest of the album, "VCR / Wheels" is a great starting point for delving into Tyler, The Creator's discography and especially a great entry point to the album, even though it's the exit song. The smooth mellow grove of the production is highlighted by Tyler's trivial, yet catchy hook and loosely sprinkled sexually inappropriate lines. All in all, this song is dope and it's just strange and eccentric enough to introduce you to Tyler without being too hard and offensive as songs like "Bastard" "French!" and "Seven" can be.
"Golden"
One of the defining factors of Tyler, The Creator's musical identity is his experimental nature and ability to make talking to himself in the third person incredibly cinematic and suspenseful. "Golden" which appeared on Tyler's 2011 Goblin album is the mega mind bending, slightly schizophrenic track that best represents the album. It's kind of like a summoning of all the tracks on the album but with more of a twisted and genius clarity.
It has the bars, the energy, the rolling and imperfect production and troubled voice that most of the songs, if not all on the album, are a multitude of.
"PartyIsntOver/Campfire/Bimmer"
By his third project in 2013, Tyler, The Creator was yearning to show that he was a versatile producer, artist and musician and took a step away from shock value so that he could infuse more musical finesse into the album. The result is WOLF, which could quite possibly be his most complete offering to date. The album features the same aggressive and perplexing nature we had come to know Tyler for, but also features a lot more of the beautiful, harmonized moments we only got glimpses of on projects before with tracks like "Analog 2" and "Fish."
"PartyIsntOver/Campfire/Bimmer" is the melodic three-part epic that serves as one of the building blocks to Tyler expanding his musical talent. "PartyIsntOver" uses a production method made up of a myriad of polyphonic textures that blends seamlessly into the choral chorus of "Campfire" and finally the bass boosted and cascading sounds of "Bimmer." Ultimately, this song has an ambitious composition but it works extremely well and again, is a testament to Tyler, The Creator's skillset as a master mixologist of production.
"IFHY" Feat. Pharrell
Though he admits he is bad at keeping his emotions bottled up on "IFHY" Tyler, The Creator leaves it all on wax with this track and gives us a range of emotions and feelings many of us didn't know he was capable of. On the contrary though, songs like "She" and "Her" are like the first real reference points for a track like "IFHY" but what makes this record so different is how mature and refined it sounds.
Additionally, what gives this song more appeal is the sheer relatability of it all. While a lot of his music is obscure and filled with immature jabs at social norms, there are songs like this that describe the angst and emotional turmoil of millions.
"Lone"
Again, with WOLF, we got the full range of Tyler, The Creator's thoughts and emotions like never before, and part of that is due to his level in his career by this point. He had really begun to realize his superstar status and how his influence and personal conflicts factored into the totality of his public persona. On tracks like "Colossus" and especially on "Lone" he explores that paradigm and digs deep into his personal affairs to tap into some of his most thought provoking and highest quality music.
"Lone" is the culminating exit that illustrates the true growth he was going through and is definitely a golden essential.
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2Seater
"2Seater"
Cherry Bomb was without a doubt an experimental album and we really got to see Tyler, The Creator take his hodge podge artistry to the next level with plenty of compound songs and surprises. "2Seater" is 300 times the personification of everything Tyler has done from the perspective of a rapper and a producer. The composition of the song is all over the place but Tyler somehow manages to keep it all within reach and push the limit his chops thus far.
"F*****G Young / Perfect"
This song is actually very beautiful and it sort of represents Tyler, The Creator's metamorphosis as an artist. In crude terms, Tyler had finally figured out the perfect formula of making melodically pleasing songs with absurd subject matter. In a way, this song is also very symbolic of the new sort of sound and direction we would begin to see Tyler taking that features more of an instrumentally inclined sound and softer chords.
"Smuckers" Feat. Lil Wayne & Kanye West
"Smuckers" really needs no introduction. This record is ridiculously legendary and its extremely refreshing and impressive to see Tyler, The Creator perform lyrical acrobats along side these two pioneers.
"911 / Mr. Lonely"
On his latest album Flower Boy, Tyler, The Creator continues to excel in both rights as a producer and a rapper and does an even better job of giving the commentary of a regular, suburban, youthful existence the proper cadence and rhythm. This track is both long winded and concise because it gives us sort of a two-pronged approach, with the first half of the song playing heavy on melodies and a solid rhyme scheme while the second half basically spazzez.
It also worth mentioning the superb blend of funk, hip hop and RnB that this song has because it is sort of the foundation of this new sound Tyler has advanced into. This is definitely a standout record from the album and an essential for the library
"Boredom"
It has been nothing less than entertaining to watch Tyler, The Creator grow over the years, but even more so, it is exciting to hear the new methods and approaches he's taking to blending in more sounds and interests in his music in order to differentiate his existence as just a rapper. Everything about this track speaks volumes to his skillful ability to utilize his various musical influences like Jazz, Alternative, Soul and more within his music to help define a whole new category of rap.
While we are unsure of what direction her will take next, let it be known now that Tyler, The Creator is not to be doubted when it comes to cross-blending different genre's and sounds to create ultra dope music.
Honorable Mention: "Where This Flower Blooms"
To say that Tyler, The Creator is getting softer is tone deaf to say the least, because in all reality, he's becoming harder. He is finally becoming the diamond from the rough and it's songs like "Where This Flower Blooms" moments of that truth shine through and prove his advanced and forging style.
And in all reality, every time Tyler and Frank Ocean link it it's like a wild fire so there was no way we couldn't let this live here.