CHROMAKOPIA and Tyler the Creatorβs Backstory
The renowned artist Tyler, the Creator released an album titled CHROMAKOPIA on October 28th, 2024. Many Tyler fans around the world have opened their own streaming services to listen to the album. Songs on the album such as βSticky,β βLike Him,β βNoid,β βRah Tah Tah,β and βSt. Chromaβ hit the top 30. The response of the album’s drop has been overwhelmingly positive, the album’s tour only highlights the positivity. Social media has completely blown up when it comes to CHROMAKOPIA β Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter have been talking about it since its release, along with Spotify wrapped and Apple Replay as their annual report recently came out.Β Β
CHROMAKOPIA is full of wonderful storytelling, great uses of tone and vocabulary, and complex instrumentals. Diving into βLike Him,β the 12th song on the album, Tyler tells a story about his struggles with his absent father. The song starts out with a vocal recording from Lola Young, the woman playing his mother. She compares Tyler to his father, and how they look similar. He asks βHow can I miss something Iβve never had?β wondering why he feels this way. βDo I look like him?β is repeated throughout the song as he searches for any form of clarification. At the very end, there is a final voice recording from Tylerβs mother, providing him with that clarification. βIt was my fault, not him, βcause he always wanted to be there for you.β Tylerβs mom was the one keeping his father away from him. βLike Himβ builds on the song βAnswerβ from his 2013 album Wolf. In βAnswer,β Tyler blames his father for never being there for him and never answering when he called. βLike Himβ shows his mother was really to blame.
βSticky,β the 8th song on the album is his most popular, a stark contrast from βLike Him,β βStickyβ is an upbeat, aggressive song. Lil Wayne, GloRilla, and Sexxy Red are featured with their own individual verses as well. βStickyβ is meant to sound like a song made around a cafeteria table.Β
The Big Questions:Β
Does he have split personalities? Does he make alter egos and act as if it is a character he’s talking about in his lyrics/songs?
According to Sugar High: Tyler the Creator Talks Cookies, Clothes, and Crying to Kanyeβs βViolent Crimesβ article he discusses touchy topics dealing with mental illnesses and human feelings. βHis musical catalog is full of complicated explorations of suicide, love, angst, and [suggestive] jokes. In his videos, one minute he’s glossy-faced while butterflies gracefully land on his neck, while the next, he’s wearing a man’s surgically removed face to escape the cops. His world is lawless, limitless, and lucrative. So you can’t blame him if he’s bored with the one that the rest of us are stuck in.β He has no particular structure for writing his songs talking in his songs.
He also has been somewhat open about being βwildβ when he was youngerβsuggesting self-harm.
Β βWow. How’d you get that scar on your left arm?
βIn 2010 my friend Travis bought a knife. We didn’t know if it was sharp enough, so I got it and put it in my arm and carved it like that and was like, βYeah, it’s sharp enough.β Seriously? No lie. I have no reason to lie to you. Why the f**k would you do that? I don’t know. I was wild when I was younger.β Tyler the creator also suggested that he is not depressed so how does he speak on his characters so well? βI MAKE SONG EXACTLY ABOUT MY LIFE NOW UNFORTUNATELYβ¦.AND IM NOT DEPRESSED SO YOU WON’T BE HEARING NO SAD SHIT FROM ME AT ALL. SMILE BABYβ
β Tyler, The Creator
His song Gone Gone Thank you, analyzing it is a good example of depression being exhibited in his song. Acording too The Watoto Speak! β Tyler, The Creator makes each section of the song. In the beginning, heβs depressed because someone left him and he thinks all of his love is gone. In the middle, he realizes why the relationship didnβt work in the first place and finds peace. In the end, he says that he is grateful βfor the love and the joyβ but heβs βnever gonna fall in love again.β This song touches on the last two stages of grief, which are depression and acceptance, both important parts of finding inner peace.β Summarizing this maybe he was dealing with mental health in the past but doesn’t anymore and can speak on relating experiences not necessarily meaning he’s depressed but deals with depressing incidents or can tell a story by his songs from past incidents.