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Tyler, The Creator Does It Again

Paris Himes

> Album Review

Starting off the album with the lyric, “The sun beaming,” Grammy award-winning artist Tyler, The Creator released his seventh studio album, CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, on June 25th, 2021. This album is unique to his past work.  He is collaborating with DJ Drama, a well-respected producer and DJ known for his mixtape titled Gangsta Grillz.  His decision to honor 90’s R&B and early 2000’s hip-hop with a twist, CALL ME IF YOU LET LOST, is a pivotal moment in Tyler’s career, and proves that it’s time to give him his props. 

The album starts with a track titled “SIR BAUDELAIRE,” featuring DJ Drama.  This song introduces Tyler’s persona Sir Tyler Baudelaire, a parody character of the French poet Charles Baudelaire. The song has a simple beat, with sound effects that help Tyler narrate the story he is trying to portray.  

In this album Tyler, The Creator, shows off his versatility and strength as a rapper. Unlike his previous album IGOR, released in 2019, that was mainly production-focused and drew from the pop and R&B genre of music. “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST” is a heavy rap driven album, with impeccable features from 42 Dugg, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Wayne, Teezo Touchdown, Domo Genesis, Brent Faiyaz, Fana Hues, Daisy World, Lil Uzi Vert, and Pharrell Williams. 

Even though Tyler created a character around his album, Tyler uses this album to talk about his personal life and issues he faced while creating this album. The songs explore love, feeling lost in fame and fortune, and his feelings towards society’s portrayal of him today. An example of this is on the track “MANIFESTO” he says, “I was canceled before canceled was with Twitter fingers.”  Here he speaks to how controversial he has been as an artist.  He also sends a message to his Black fans, saying, “So I just tell these Black babies they should do what they want.”  He has a similar lyric in the 2017 album Flower Boy.  In the song “Where This Flower Blooms” featuring Frank Ocean, the lyric says, “Tell these black kids they could be who they are.”  

An honorable track off of CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST is “WILSHIRE,” an eight-minute song where Tyler vents in a poetic way about a love triangle he is part of. The song has a drum and synth loop that allows Tyler’s lyrics to punch. The lyrics help you understand Tyler’s love interest and his relationship and how it’s forbidden because she is dating his friend.  

CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST is an honest album that shows a more personal side of Tyler that listeners often do not hear in full detail. My favorite tracks of this album are “LEMONHEAD,” “WUSYANAME,” “JUGGERNAUT,” and “HOT WIND BLOWS.”  Tyler proves how rap music remains a creative genre by keeping it authentic to the rap genre.

Album artwork – Call me if you get lost, tyler-the-creator, luis-perez director of photography

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