Has anybody in the rap industry enjoyed the 2010s with as much success as Tyler, the Creator? He has excelled in every field he has taken a fancy to; rapping, songwriting, producing, designing, directing, composing, performing and influencing (Phew, mouthful). His unquenchable creative thirst, his visionary output, his celebration of individualism and his business prowess makes him one of the most influential products of the post-bling era.
His marketability is astounding considering he came up off producing alienating outsider art without any compromise. His collaborations with shoe designers, his clothes line, his festival; it all SELLS just through Tyler being Tyler.
BUT – and there is a BUT – there’s one department that Tyler has yet to excel in which he yearns to dominate, and that is the commercial pop world. He has had the popularity, acclaim and money that being a pop artist entails, but his repeated acclamations that he’d “love to have a fucking number one record” have never been fulfilled.
Contemplations on the accessibility of his tunes have existed from the beginning of his career, “My music is either a fucking sin or too illegal” (Bastard), right up to his most recent work, “What if my music too weird for the masses?” (November). But ever since Tyler dropped the Stevie Wonder inflected “FUCKING YOUNG,” the world bore witness to his stunning ear for melody and pop compositions. There was an awakening in both artist and audience; maybe he was wasting his time with juvenile, self-obsessed raps? Maybe it was finally time to set out on a more mature path of artistry and reinvent his vision? Maybe a man who can play the piano like a lounge lizard should be putting his talents towards creating amazing, lush, boundary-pushing pop music?
Tyler has always stated his desire to write for the worlds biggest pop stars. Justin Bieber turned down “Glitter” in 2013, whilst Zayn Malik snubbed his advances when he was offered “Sometimes.” Both of these tracks ended up being some of the best material off Tyler’s latest album “Flower Boy,” showcasing his endeavour to write ambitious pop songs for the most commercially safe pop singers.
Imagine Zayn’s breathy falsetto singing the intro to “Sometimes.” Or Bieber effortlessly crooning the hook to “Glitter.” You can, right? But both of these artists opted to populate their albums with filler stop gaps between the chart-topping singles. The concept of the amazing album track is not a priority for these artists. They don’t share the same worldview as Tyler.
Then again, who does? Even in the documentary for Tyler’s “Cherry Bomb” record, Syd and Pharrell clashed heads with him as he barked out directions towards them with a passionate but unwavering dominance. Even Charlie fucking Wilson is told how to sing by Tyler! His single-mindedness is both laudable and counter-productive. Just as with all of his other artistic outlets, he refuses to compromise.
“Flower Boy” is undeniable a hip-hop record. It was nominated for best rap album at the “Grammys.” Despite the more dulcet tones, jazzy/soulful instrumentation and focus on singing, it features lots of rapping. But judging by all of these recent details, and one particularly blatant nugget leaked from Tyler himself, his next album could be devoid of rapping altogether.
In typical Tyler style, he changed his bio to “im making a pop album.” Was he announcing to the world that he was now going to be his own pop star? If nobodies going to sing his music, then could Tyler take it unto himself to sing his own songs? Alternatively, like on “Flower Boy,” was he going to play a Nile Rodgers figure, writing and producing all the tracks for vocalists to jump on and sing his tunes?
Tyler could do both. His Tiny Desk NPR performance showed him both tinkling the ivories, allowing the biblical backing singers to take centre stage, whilst at certain points he hit a shy solo above those jazzy keys. It was him at his most exciting, fully demonstrating his amazing ability to direct, play, perform and bring out the best in other people; a bit like one of his idols, Kanye West.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N1w-hDiJ4dM
It’d be difficult to envision this record coming any sooner than in two summers time, but it is definitely one we’re hotly anticipating. Off the back of his best ever album, Tyler has the chance to go full pop style and achieve what he has always set out to achieve; get a number one single. He might need the big name that he’s been pining after, and he might need to write the best song he’s ever written, but in his recent form that’s not above his station.
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