Tyler The Creator’s most recent album drop, Chromakopia, came out on Oct. 28 and charted at the number one spot for the Billboard 200 for the week of Nov. 9. He previously accomplished this same achievement with earlier releases, “Call Me If You Get Lost” (2021) and “Igor” (2019).
It is no surprise that this latest 2024 album has set charts ablaze, with his unusual release date being on a Monday rather than a Friday, as well as the featured artists not being shown accompanying specific tracks until after the release had happened.
This left fans speculating and created room for shock value as they guessed who might be collaborating with Tyler. Many theorized Frank Ocean, a friend of Tyler’s who is a widely known R&B artist, may possibly make a comeback as one of the listed features. Sadly, he was not listed in any space on the album, although some chatter that his vocals can be heard on the seventh listed song, “Judge Judy.”
Like Tyler’s previous albums, this album blends several assorted styles and sounds of music such as jazz and soul. Tyler’s albums have a running theme of playing into a storyline, whether it be his own reality or from the perspective of a fictional character. As for Chromakopia, it reflects Tyler’s ideas and feelings towards aging and all that he has learned.
“The album just turned into me taking a lot of things my mom told me as a kid, now that I’m 33, all of that stuff is like, ‘Oh, that’s what she was talking about. Oh, I’m not that guy that I was at 20. Oh, people are getting older. Folks are having kids and families and all I got is a new Ferrari.’ It does feel good to be in Ferrari,” he said to XXL Magazine at the album listening event on Oct. 27.
This can easily be seen in his song “Like Him,” which went viral on platforms such as TikTok, with Tyler finally understanding the actual story behind his estranged father, and feeling like the young, confused child he once was all over again. Giving context to the story are the higher pitched background vocals of Lola Young, along with his mother providing a long awaited explanation in the last 30 seconds of the song.
The audience first learned of this saddening story through the emotional song “Answer,” which is the sixth track of Tyler’s second studio album, “Wolf” (2013).
Each of Tyler’s projects hold symbolism, allowing listeners to dissect and interpret the art he creates. The title is thought to have two meanings combined, with “chroma” being in reference to colors while “kopia” is speculated to mean duplication, explaining that the album is a blend of color representation or replication.
“Chroma” can also be used as a prefix to refer to the chromatic scale of music, representing all twelve octaves, so it can be thought that chroma can also stand for the color that music can provide in a dull and rather lifeless world, just like how “St. Chroma,” the title of the first track, is thought to be a reference to a character from the children’s book, “The Phantom Tollbooth”. The character “Chroma” is an orchestra conductor whose music brings color into the world, hence for the play on words within the album title.