Along with the Wu-Tang Clan, Tyler, The Creator, the head member of the California rap collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, was key in my development into a hip-hop fan after seeing my friends posting songs by him obsessively on facebook in 2011 when "Yonkers" dropped. I was pretty late to the party, but I was taken aback by his astute lyricism on songs like the aforementioned "Yonkers" and the disturbing "Tron Cat", and buying the Goblin album introduced me to "Nightmare" and "Window" which also impressed lyrically, at least to me. Not all his songs hit the lyrical mark (the immature "Radicals" and "Her") but overall, the album totally piqued my interest in the Odd Future world and in hip-hop in general. There has been no shortage of Odd Future material since the group broke through with Goblin with full length albums by Domo, Mellowhype and others, but for the last couple of years I've been most eagerly awaiting Tyler's follow-up to Goblin and what it had in store, mainly because of that album's cliffhanger ending.
So, last week his new album, Wolf, got a release date and a new song was released later that day, and I was fucking glued to my computer waiting for the exact moment for the song to be posted on the Odd Future site. When it did, I pressed play faster than you can say "Fuck Steve Harvey!" and.......
...I was really let down about how little Tyler has progressed in the last two years. Sonically, there is nothing new here. The instrumental for the first three quarters of the song is very similar to "Rella", an Odd Future song released a year ago. Around the 3:36 mark in the music video there is a sharp turn into a new beat, which is really cool, but the beat is very similar to the new Earl Sweatshirt song "Chum" which Tyler probably produced. Another thing about the second beat is that is features the same exact cheap-o production style found on Goblin, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that beat was left over from the Goblin sessions. The song also includes a high-pitched computerized voice that's identical to the one found on the Goblin track "Sandwitches" and Tyler shouting out "GOLF WANG!!!" identical to the same scream on the track "Transylvania" off the same album. Honestly, I don't really feel like I'm listening to a new song here. And let me clarify, I do like this song, its just that my expectations for the new album are now lowered a little.
Lyrically, Tyler is just addressing things that we all already know about him, making me long for the esoteric lyricism on "Yonkers" that impressed me so much two years ago. He references the "Yonkers" video, his alleged homophobia, as well as other things you can easily read about on his fucking wikipedia page, except this time around he's talking about his new-found fame and wealth, referencing his beamer and the money he's made since becoming a famous rapper. What I loved about the Goblin album, and Bastard that came before it, was that Tyler was relateable to me. On those albums you had Tyler as a frustrated teenager with really dark thoughts talking to a therapist, Dr. TC. And who was I at the time? A frustrated teenager with really dark thoughts who talks to a therapist! Tyler even said that this new album would talk about his fame and money and buying shit, so that relateability is probably going to fade away on this new release.
It's obvious at this point that Tyler is not really all about being forward-thinking, or even about being that lyrical. He's all about being this character that he's created for himself, and I could I identify with this character for a while, but now it's coming to an end, but shit, I'm still going to buy the hell out of this album in April just to see how the story goes on with Tyler and his therapist.
7.2/10
No comments:
Post a Comment