By JOSEPH VITALE
Tyler, the Creator’s journey thus far has involved mixtapes, albums, music video awards, television shows, Twitter fights and everything in between. Now, as his underground hype begins to simmer and his talents begin to soar, it is exciting to see the now 22-year-old inspire, be inspired and put together his best effort yet.
On his latest release, Wolf, Tyler chooses tighter beats, boosts the production quality and creates an interesting and detailed storyline filled with more characters and more emotion. The result exceeds his past two solo efforts as each track has a great variety of sound, with obvious influences coming from artists such the hip-hop jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD, hip-hop heroes Public Enemy and his Odd Future crew.
On Wolf, Tyler introduces new characters and paints a vivid story just as in his previous releases Bastard and Goblin. On Wolf, for example, he plays three main characters Wolf, Sam and Dr. TC, who are constantly interacting throughout the album at Camp Flog Gnaw, a rehabilitation center. “Pig,” a track at the album’s midway point, clues us into the story as to why Wolf is actually at the camp with the line “Grab a couple friends, start a couple riots.”
In telling the story, Tyler does not hold back his in-your-face, over-the-top lyrics. They are offensive, vulgar and should not be played in front of children. More importantly, they can never be seriously listened to by anyone who refuses to see the separation between Tyler as a person and Tyler as a character. Tyler’s words and stories, furthermore, ultimately tie into the alternative messages of his act. There are plenty of projects (Death Grips is one) that, when it comes to the lyrics, do not advocate peace, equality or progress. Instead, they take the most despised aspects of hip-hop music and turn them up to an extreme for whatever reason (For Tyler: “I was defiant, always said, ‘F*** s***’”). On Wolf, these amplified elements are violence, apathy, misogyny, vulgarity and drugs, although Tyler openly refrains from drugs in real life (“And while y’all are rolling doobies, I be in my bedroom scoring movies”). Another controversial extreme is homophobia, although Tyler points to his friendship with Frank Ocean, arguably the most talented member of Odd Future, who is openly gay (“Saying I hate gays even though Frank is on 10 of my songs.”). All of these extremes have been the source of criticism since his rise to popularity; however, Tyler chooses not to directly respond to his critics but continues to do what annoys them (which translates into belittling women with his friends and using the word “faggot”).
Beyond this brand of radical rebelliousness, there are some deeply sincere moments on the album that are beautifully composed. On one of Tyler’s best tracks to date, titled “Answer” he talks about how he resents his father for leaving him, but if Tyler were to ever call him, he hopes that his father picks up the phone. The soul infused instrumental is touching and the emotion and passion are almost overwhelming.
There are also some moments where Tyler continues to struggle with typical teenager business, such as on the track “Awkward,” where he talks about kissing his crush but then not knowing what to do about it (“Then we awkwardly stared until our lips locked/Then we awkwardly stared because our lips locked”). Also, on the track “PartyIsntOver/Campfire/Bimmer,” he capitalizes on his self-consciousness with the line “Um, I said, the party isn’t over/We could still dance, but I don’t have no rhythm.”
With so much coming from Tyler himself, it becomes easy to look past some of the fantastic vocal contributions on the album. Tyler often features his fellow Odd Future members (namely Earl Sweatshirt and Frank Ocean) but comes through with a great Nas sample on “48.” There are also a sprinkling of beautiful female vocal samples from Syd the Kidd on “Answer,” Erykah Badu on “Treehome95,” and Tallulah on “Tamale.” The two best features by far, though, are Hodgy Beats’ verse on “Jamba” and Domo Genesis’ verse on “Rusty.” Both of them bring the tracks home with their smooth flow and hungry lyrics.
While the storyline in the album does stray at times and there is some repetitive subject matter, Tyler continues to show his potential as a lyricist and as a producer. After a good listen, any intent music fan will find Wolf to be an intricate puzzle: It takes patience and thoughtfulness, but, even by the end of the last track, you will come to know that its Creator is still not showing all of his cards.
