Last week, if someone walked down U Street or waited to cross the street at McDonald’s on Georgia Avenue and happened to look at the ground, they probably saw bright forest green with black lettering plastered on the sidewalk, spelling out “CHROMAKOPIA.”
In the hours following the announcement of Tyler, The Creator’s new album, “CHROMAKOPIA,” dozens of artworks, graffiti and stickers related to it appeared throughout D.C.
Released on Oct. 28, the album, entirely arranged, produced and written by the rapper, debuted at No. 1 with 299,500 equivalent album units within its first week. The album broke the record for the largest hip-hop album debut streams of 2024 on Spotify and has multiple tracks within the top 10 on Apple Music and Spotify.
According to Billboard, the monetization of the music industry, along with the surprise release of Beyoncé’s self-titled album in 2013, made Friday the day of new releases, as it is more likely to be streamed and less likely to be leaked. Yet, Tyler, The Creator broke this norm with the Monday release of “CHROMAKOPIA.”
The album differs from Tyler, The Creator’s other projects. Some songs on the new record stray away from his usual edgy, dark and controversial sound. Plus, for the first time, he featured female rap artists like Doechii, GloRilla and Sexyy Red.
At Tyler, The Creator’s listening party he said “Sticky,” which features GloRilla, Sexyy Red, and Lil Wayne, was heavily inspired by historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). He went as far as to say that it’s his “dream to look on YouTube and just see one of those college HBCUs bands just playing that.”
The themes of love, sexuality and self realization present in “CHROMAKOPIA,” deepen the scope of Tyler’s artistry. “IGOR,” one of his previous albums, followed a turbulent relationship that ended due to Tyler’s crush having opposing feelings. “IGOR” is the character that Tyler created to tell a story. In contrast, Tyler didn’t conceptualize a character for “CHROMAKOPIA.”
Instead, each track gives his listeners a new look into the 33-year-old artist’s world. The album is narrated by Tyler’s mother, Bonita Smith. In his song “Tomorrow,” his mother asks him for grandchildren. Then on the track “Like Him,” his mother describes how his physical appearance reminds her of Tyler’s father who left their family.
In 2020, the rapper’s album “IGOR” won Best Rap Album at the Grammys. Following his win, in an interview with the Grammy Awards TV/Radio Room, he said he was “half and half” on the win, grateful and disappointed.
“It sucks that when we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that is genre-bending or that’s anything, they always put it in a rap or urban category,” he said. “And I don’t like that ‘urban’ word, it’s just a politically correct way to say the N-word to me.”
Tyler, The Creator is cited as an inspiration for some of the artists in 360 Creativity Saves Lives (360). 360 is a music collective that uplifts student artists by giving them platforms and upholding community revitalization through events like concerts, open mics and other shows.
Amauriah Davis, aka MARS, a senior theatre arts major from Atlanta and member of 360, creates her music and finds Tyler’s vulnerability inspiring, specifically hearing the rapper’s takes on love.
“This is such an inspiring project to just be 100 percent honest, right here, right now. Transparency is the most beautiful thing,” Davis said.
“Basically he is talking about how he’s not really monogamous, and that could be scary, because it sounds like, ‘Oh I’m not doing the love thing correctly, because love looks like this, right? And this person, this person has this ratio of sexual, intimate, romantic and platonic love,’” Davis said.
“And if it’s not that they’re not doing the love thing right, but it’s so much more complex than that. So why try to simplify it with that kind of name? Why simplify love and music with rap, with hip-hop, even though it falls into those categories?”
Phyllise Jade Toliver, a senior musical theatre major and artist with 360, said she enjoyed the unique instrumentals throughout the album, especially when taking her own album in development.
“As an artist it really opened my eyes up to the possibilities of instrumentation, the possibilities of adding other audio elements,” Toliver said, adding that she also liked how Tyler, The Creator mixed his old sound with his new one.
“Him telling his truth is him telling his truth. He still kept old Tyler with the production and made it a complete world and universe,” Toliver said.
Copy edited by Anijah Franklin
