After 3 years of work in the studio, Tyler Okonma, (better known as Tyler, the Creator)’s eighth studio album, CHROMAKOPIA, was officially released on October 28th, 2024. The album’s cover depicts a masked Tyler reaching out into the distance with the words “ALL SONGS WRITTEN, PRODUCED, AND ARRANGED BY TYLER OKONMA” written, highlighting that the album was self-produced.
CHROMAKOPIA has 14 tracks and is 53 minutes long. The album contains features from famous artists including Daniel Caesar, Teezo Touchdown, GloRilla, Sexxy Red, Little Wayne, Latoya Williams, ScHoolboy Q, Santigold, Lola Young, and Doechii. The album was released on a Monday morning at 6 a.m. rather than the traditional Friday morning album drop that most artists do to encourage more productive listening like during the drive to school or work where the listener can better take in the lyrics, rather than listening to the new music at a party or hanging out with friends in a setting where the music is being only passively listened to and not actively listened to.
The album begins with the lead track “St. Chroma,” featuring Daniel Caesar. Before any actual music can be heard, Tyler’s mom, Bonita Smith, shares a message that sets the tone for the album. She says, “You are the light. It’s not on you, it’s in you,” and then she continues by telling him never to dim his light for anyone. After this message, the eerie chanting of “Chromakopia” begins to play on the record along with a series of screams, sounding like “ahh” and “woo woo,” echoing in the background.
To me, “St. Chroma” had a mysterious, spooky feeling, especially with Tyler’s whisper-like rapping extending for the majority of the song while the screams continued echoing in the background. Just before the chorus begins, the only real instrumental besides the rapping and echoing screams is a simple step-like beat, which creates a simplistic sound that I enjoy. My favorite part of this song was the chorus, where Caesar and Tyler’s voices blended perfectly as they sang, “Can you feel the light inside? Can you feel that fire?” Their voices are layered in such a way that it sounded like a chorus of people singing together, which I thought creates a cool sound. Overall, this song was the perfect way to start the album and is one of my favorites overall.
My favorite song on this album is “Sticky”, which features artists GloRilla, Sexxy Red, and Little Wayne. This song is chaotic and erratic, but in the best way possible. The track starts with Tyler’s verse and the same simple vibe as the opening song. The opening beat consists of repeating “hey’s”, and the only instrumental behind Tyler’s rapping is the sound of someone whistling on repeat. Then, in Tyler’s verse, we first hear the repetition of the phrase “it’s getting sticky,” which repeats throughout the entire song after this point.
After Tyler’s verse, you can also hear people in the background beginning to cheer for the rapper. Out of the many features in this song, my favorites are from GloRilla and Little Wayne. As GloRilla starts to rap, the beat intensifies and you can hear a catchy bell sound in the background that repeats. Despite her verse only being around 10 seconds, she adds a lot to the song, and her style of rap and deep voice make her feature a perfect addition to the song. I also love Little Wayne’s verse, which was similar in length to GloRilla’s verse, and features an impressive addition to the song. My favorite part of Little Wayne’s verse is a rap section with no other instrumental besides whistling in the background, which makes his verse extremely unique. Overall, this song will definitely be added to my playlist.
The album tells multiple different stories, making it a more positive, entertaining listening experience. The storylines throughout the album differ greatly: “Hey Jane,” track 5, is about an unplanned pregnancy, “Like Him,” track 12 featuring Lola Young, is about Tyler’s experience with an absent father, and the final track, “I Hope You Find Your Way Home,” reflects on Tyler’s journey finding himself.
In general, I would rate this album an 8.7 out of 10 after my first listen. I really enjoyed the lyricism of the album, as most songs told an interesting story. There weren’t any songs that I disliked; each song had engaging lyrics and flowed well into the next when listened to in order. One of my favorite parts of the album was the amount of artist features it had, which brought a new light to the album that wouldn’t have been possible without them. My opinions will probably change as I listen to the album again, but I’ll definitely be adding many tracks from CHROMAKOPIA to my playlist as soon as possible.
