This graphic depicts a “retro” cassette with Tyler, the Creator’s new album name on it as well as a quick introduction to the piece. 

If you don’t already listen to Tyler, the Creator, now’s a good time to start. This is one of the best albums of 2024. For fans of hip hop, rap, and r&b, this album has many hits for everyone. 

On  Oct. 28, Tyler the Creator released his new long-awaited album, “Chromakopia.” The follow-up to “Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale” features eight new tracks from the album. 

Eight days before the album drop, Tyler, the Creator officially released the teaser trailer of the “St. Chroma” track on his social media platforms. This started a buzz which kept people guessing who would be featured on the album, and many people were thinking and hoping for Frank Ocean, another well-known Alternative R&B/Hip Hop artist. People were really excited for who Tyler would bring onto his tracks this time around, so much so that thousands of prediction TikToks were made about the album. The album features Daniel Caesar, Teezo Touchdown, GloRilla, Sexyy Red, Lil Wayne, LaToiya Williams, ScHoolboy Q, Santigold, Lola Young, and Doechii.

Then, a week before the drop, on Monday, Oct. 21, Tyler dropped the lead single, “Noid,” talking about his anxiety and struggles of always being in the eyes of others to tease the album and set the mood for the upcoming album. The result was a craze of reactions on TikTok as people were surprised by the Monday, midday drop.

A few tracks stand out from the others–for mostly good reasons.

Some of the best songs on the album like “St. Chroma,” paint a very cinematic introduction to the record. Other songs like “Sticky” and “Thought I Was Dead,” give the impression that the song is more trendy, maybe something you would hear a lot on your social media platforms, or a song you might hear at a school dance. Another song that gives hype energy is “Rah Tah Tah,” with a very energetic rhythm, production and lyrics that has “that” energy. The energy that leaves people with an excited buzz inside, wishing to listen to it again. It’s a song that you could imagine people vibing to hanging out with their friends, having a good time. 

Tyler, the Creator has moved more mainstream than ever for high school students, so hearing he would be dropping an album led to a buzz around it. The album was already getting a fair amount of attention and hype on social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, with over 8,000 posts under the little snippets of the first song on the album, “St. Chroma,” revealing a feature. Many fans, including us, were excited that he would be dropping a new album, and the hype around it on social media helped to further the anticipation and excitement.

Reactions to the album were varied from students–from casual listeners to fans.

 “‘Darling, I’ was my favorite off the album. I like the features, but I give the album a 5/10 rating,” Maryam Al Janabi ‘27 said. 

Janabi didn’t really seem to like the album, mentioning not even listening to it that much. Kate Hardin ‘27 has similar opinions.

“I thought it was pretty good, I’d say it was a solid 8.5/10,” Hardin said. “My favorite song was ‘Darling, I.’”

Niandra Fernando ‘27 shares her least liked track, “Judge Judy.” “‘Darling, I’ was my favorite off the album, but ‘Judge Judy’ was my least favorite,” Fernando said.

Overall “Darling I,” seems to be a popular favorite. It has soulful elements of R&B (rhythm and blues), and the most common least favorite is “Judge Judy”, which we deem to have a completely different vibe from the rest of the album. However, we do find ourselves in alignment with some of the themes found in the song, which not many people can relate to. The song has a very repetitive chorus and a poor story setup, which is not commonly found in his songs. 

However, our take with our shared favorite, “Darling, I,” featuring Teezo Touchdown, the song was very upbeat, reminding us of other Tyler, the Creator songs such as “Best Interest” and “SWEET/I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE.” It also resembles elements of one of his other albums, “Flower Boy,” which is one of our favorites. These elements are more pop and alternative R&B, which is a genre of music more to our liking. Though he includes his rapping, the background music and chorus are uplifting, leaving us content with his music and wanting more. 

We strongly believe that Tyler, the Creator has a real talent for lyric writing and song construction. It’s almost unexplainable, but his music truly is art and it’s clear to us that he enjoys making music and does it more than just for money and fame. 

We would give the album a solid 8/10. Though we both had the same favorite song, we both had different least favorite songs, one of them being “Balloon” and the other being “Judge Judy.” They had numerous elements like an odd beat or extreme repetitiveness which threw us off and led to us viewing the song as the weak link. With balloon, it wasn’t necessarily produced very well and had an odd beat, and with “Judge Judy,” the rhythm was unappealing and wasn’t very soothing to listen to. 

We thought that we could easily vibe with most of the beats from the song, as well as the backup vocals and the voice of Tyler himself. We cannot even begin to imagine how long this process took, from start to finish, throughout the process of writing the lyrics to putting it all together in the end, but we were glad to have an album of his to look forward to before Halloween. It brought with it extra excitement and a surprising but thrilling aspect of our “spooky season.”

The song “Like Him” featuring Lola Young talks about his past trauma with his father, where they are compared in many ways. A lyric from the song, “She said that I make expressions like him, my legs to my shoulders and my chin like him, my waist and posture like him.” 

Though people have mixed feelings about the album, “Chromakopia” seems to be well-crafted and gives Tyler, the Creator fans something new to enjoy.