Tyler, the Creator posted a music video of a snippet of his new song, “St. Chroma” on Wednesday, Oct. 16. The 84-second clip featured a new, hard-hitting track, with Tyler whispering lead vocals and gradually getting louder as the song continues. Ultimately, it built up to the explosion of a shipping container, as the video switched from black and white to color, and the repetition of what would be the title of his new album, CHROMAKOPIA. 

The next day, he followed up this teaser with the official announcement that he would be dropping his eighth album, which he planned to release on Monday, Oct. 28. The Instagram post has over 3.7 million likes, and it kicked off a wild ten-day stretch of speculation and excitement about the new LP.

Unlike many artists, who elect to gradually release snippets or singles of their music for months before an album release, Tyler has a track record of keeping his album rollouts short and sweet. Over a two-week period, he released a snippet teasing the album, the official album announcement and release date, a music video for his single “Noid,” tickets for a world tour kicking off in February, and the album itself. He scheduled the release for 6:00 a.m. on Oct. 28, a Monday morning, unlike artists who typically wait until Friday at midnight to drop new music. He explained his desire for musicians to release during the week in an interview with Nardwuar on Nov. 16, 2023.

“I think we should put music out again on Tuesdays instead of Fridays,” Tyler said in the interview. “My reasoning is, I know people think because of the weekend they can listen to stuff and the streams go up…. But I think it’s a lot of passive listening…. I think if you put it out during the week, that commute to work or…school, you have the hour or thirty minutes to dive in and really listen, because once that’s over you gotta get to work.”

Even though streams may go up over the weekend, the Monday release date didn’t diminish the album’s streams. It topped the Billboard charts by Friday, Nov. 1, making it his third straight album to debut at No. 1. In those same four days, it sold just under 300 million album units. The success CHROMAKOPIA has achieved since its release is impressive on its own, but it’s Tyler’s lyrical and musical brilliance that it have made it such a sensation.

The album opens with “St. Chroma,” and Tyler’s mother Bonita Smith’s words.

“You are the light / It’s not on you, it’s in you / Don’t you ever in your motherfucking life dim your light for nobody,” Smith says. 

These opening lines introduce themes found both stylistically and thematically throughout the album. Smith’s voice is woven throughout the album, giving Tyler advice and lessons that apply now more than ever to his life. In a listening party for the album, which he hosted at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., the night before CHROMAKOPIA was released, Tyler talked about the impact of his mother’s words on the album.

“The album kinda just turned into me taking a bunch of shit my mom told me as a kid,” Tyler said. “And, now that I’m 33 all of that stuff is like, ‘Oh, that’s what the fuck she was talking about! Oh, I’m not the guy that I was at 20!’”

Thematically, the album is about Tyler growing older, going through new and difficult experiences in life and understanding how to deal with them while seeing his peers getting married and having families. Throughout, he tries his best to keep shining his light and expressing himself to the fullest extent he can, but he transforms throughout the album and finds new ways to shine his light that might not have been apparent before. 

This progression connects to the title of the album, CHROMAKOPIA, which many people interpreted as a reference to the character of Chroma The Great from Norton Juster’s book “The Phantom Tollbooth.” In that children’s novel, Chroma is in charge of orchestrating each day’s colors. Without him, the world would be only black and white. Smith is encouraging Tyler to shine that light, a sentiment reflected through the “St. Chroma” music video and the tour announcement video, which both feature a switch from black and white to color. 

Tyler, the Creator tackles many difficult topics throughout the album, showing a sense of vulnerability that he has gestured at in the past, but not to the extent he does here. Three tracks in particular highlight this vulnerability: “Hey, Jane,” “Take Your Mask Off,” and “Like Him.”

“Hey, Jane” is structured in the form of two letters between Tyler and a girl named Jane, as they grapple with the shock of an unexpected pregnancy. The first verse is from Tyler’s perspective, as he raps through his stress, fear, and difficulties with responsibility. The second verse is from Jane’s perspective, as she goes through similar emotions and weighs the possibility of raising the child alone, as both she and Tyler were raised by single mothers. The track features some of the rawest emotions Tyler has expressed in his music, and it requires multiple listens to fully grasp everything each person stresses about in their verses. The title of the track, “Hey, Jane,” is the name of a company that provides reproductive care and access to affordable medication for those who need it. 

“Take Your Mask Off” is supported by a catchy hook from Daniel Caesar, and proves relevant to Tyler’s alter ego for CHROMAKOPIA, who sports a mask covering his entire face. However, the subject of the song strikes deep into the hearts of its listeners by describing the many masks people place on themselves to hide who they truly are. The first verse describes a successful middle-class child who, after receiving validation from gang members, gets arrested and is placed in jail. The second verse dives into the life of a preacher who never expressed his homosexuality as a child due to his fear of how God would treat him, so he has covered it up throughout his life and is filled with regret because of it. The third verse is about a mother in a successful family who feels that she gave up on her dreams too soon, which leads her to contemplate suicide. The fourth and final verse delves into Tyler’s own personal struggles with fame, fortune, and fear. He raps about growing up and experiencing fame, and the paranoia that came with it (also referenced in the track “Noid”), being scared of future relationships, growing old, and creating a legacy which will only be rewarded after his death. He ends the song by recognizing that he needs to be more honest with himself, encouraging others to do the same, so that we can be happier in our own skin.

“Now go stand in the sun, and use some fake tears to water your roots / Take that mask off and tell ’em the truth, let’s talk about it,” he raps. 

“Like Him” is a narrative piece, almost exclusively featuring Tyler’s vocals, where he reflects on his lack of a relationship with his biological father. This track is certainly his most introspective and emotional of the album, and for good reason. He tussles with his lack of a father figure throughout his life, even though he’s told he looks like him, making it feel like he’s chasing someone who is never there. He reflects on the impact of his father’s absence on his own identity, and while everything may have worked out because of his success, the presence of a father figure could have helped him on this journey. The painful lyrics are accompanied by a beautifully produced beat, including a heartbreaking synth piano solo as the song begins to wind down before his mother’s outro. He mentioned in the buildup to this album that his audience never really knew him before the age of 17, and this song certainly gives context to his curiosity about his father as he grew up and was molded into the person he is today. 

A key characteristic of recent Tyler, the Creator albums is an impressive list of features. While some artists are criticized for being “carried by features,” all of Tyler’s contributors provide meaningful depth to each song, and it’s no different here. Artists like Daniel Caesar, Willow, Teezo Touchdown, Childish Gambino, GloRilla, Sexyy Red, Lil Wayne, and Doechii provide strong features to tracks across the album.

The album wraps up with “I Hope You Find Your Way Home,” the perfect conclusion to the LP. The production is quintessential Tyler, the Creator genre-blending, with a beat that feels both tender and experimental. In the lyrics, he refers back to the album’s predominant themes, most specifically the relationship he talks about during “Hey, Jane,” and why he ultimately felt like he wasn’t ready for it. Tyler recognizes his shortcomings when considering if he’s prepared to become a father, which is a sharp contrast to the boldness and swagger he has written with in previous albums. The repetition of the song’s title, “I Hope You Find Your Way Home,” offers reassurance that he and others might be able to embrace the journeys they take. At the end of the song, he repeats a single lyrics as ethereal vocal runs lead the song out. 

“The light comes from within,” he says.

The recognition that the light his mother described at the beginning of the album is within him, and that he now has found ways to express it differently as a product of his fame, shows the growth he has achieved due to the experiences he writes about across his songs. Like he said, he’s no longer the same person he was at 20. He now knows how to shine his light in new ways, and he has matured enough to be cognizant of how others’ lives allow them to do that differently. Through CHROMAKOPIA, he experimented and found out how he can shine his light, even through all the difficult experiences he’s faced as he’s grown older, and now the journey has let him find his way home.  

Max Forstein can be reached at mforstein@wesleyan.edu.