OPINION: MUSIC REVIEW: Chromakopia is great, everyone just loves to hate 

By Juan Carlos Puente
Editor-in-Chief
Published Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024

Tyler Gregory Okonma, known professionally as Tyler, The Creator, recently released his new album Chromakopia to much critical acclaim. Despite its greatness, people all over social media are giving the album low ratings just because of a specific featured artist they don’t like or because the album is “not hype enough.”

I felt the album was extremely good and holds a solid place right under Tyler’s 2019 album Igor, widely regarded to be his best album to date. What makes Chromakopia great is how it delves into the more personal aspects of Tyler’s current life, something fans haven’t really seen before.

Tyler delves into the topics of romance on a more personal level than in Igor by going into the specifics of what he looks for in partners. In the song Darling, I, he begins to speak about his polyamorous feelings as he identifies the many things he loves about each partner outside of their sexual relations. At the end of the song, Tyler speaks about how he accepts his way, and if he never settles down he will still be happy with his music; it is the only thing he can never fall out of love with.

These messages directly correlate with the song Noid, where Tyler explains the paranoia he experienced as a result of his fame. He feels as if it’s difficult to build relationships or bonds because there’s the underlying feeling that people only like him for his status and not actually for him. There are also heavy messages of time passing and age as Tyler matures, most notably in the songs Tomorrow and Like Him.

In Tomorrow, Tyler mentions how he’s no longer the same energetic and bombastic person from the release of his first album Goblin in 2011. The song goes on to talk about how he begins to notice himself and those around him getting older; for a moment, he feels left behind.

In one line of the song, Tyler mentions how his friends and others close to him are already building their lives with spouses and children; meanwhile, Tyler only has his music and new cars, which he constantly buys. By the end of the song, Tyler is left in a space where he accepts how he is now and allows himself to let everything else develop in time.

Meanwhile, Like Him focuses on Tyler’s growth. He begins to notice how he looks and acts more like his father, who wasn’t around for his life. Tyler examines how things worked out fine despite never knowing him; so, how could he feel sad about it? The real kicker is at the end of the song when an audio clip of Tyler’s mother plays as she reveals that his father actually wanted to be in his life, but it was she who pushed the father out of the family because of her immaturity.

This revelation directly relates to the song Answer on Tyler’s 2013 album, Wolf. Throughout the song, Tyler mentions how he hates his father for his absence and for what that did to his mother. However, by the end of the song, Tyler reveals that despite all of his

hatred for his father, if given the chance to call him, he hopes he would answer so they could talk and get to know each other.

In the end, Chromakopia is an incredible album that deserves every compliment it receives, and it somewhat pains me to see people’s low rating due to silly reasons. One of those reasons includes a song featuring Sexxy Redd; because of that, people think Tyler fell off. Another is that the album doesn’t have the same braggadocious nature as 2021’s Call Me if You Get Lost. This album is its own entity and deserves to be respected as such, in my opinion. Despite this, I feel people will eventually come around to the album and learn to appreciate the messages it has to offer.