![]() Personas have always been integral to Tyler’s work, from the demented “Satan’s son” of his ‘Bastard’ era to the platinum-wigged crooner of ‘IGOR’. Mostly, though, he seems at peace with his own wrongdoings, noting on ‘CORSO’: “Look, tried to take somebody bitch ’cause I’m a bad person / I don’t regret shit”. ‘MANIFESTO’, meanwhile, sees Tyler exorcising his demons – whether that’s guilt for old indiscretions ( “I was a teener, tweetin’ Selena crazy shit”) or whether he’s using his voice for good ( “I feel like anything I say, dawg, I’m screwin’ shit up / So I just tell these black babies, they should do what they want”). Abrasive lead single ‘LUMBERJACK’ samples horrorcore pioneers Gravediggaz‘s 1994 track ‘2 Cups of Blood’, bringing us back to Tyler’s early, menacing ‘GOBLIN’ era. While Tyler’s recent records have been nothing short of brilliant, it’s still thrilling to hear Tyler let loose again on ‘Call Me…’, such as on the bassy bruiser ‘JUGGERNAUT’. The guest list, too, looks to the past and future of rap, bringing together hip-hop’s all-time greats ( Lil Wayne, Pharrell Williams) and brightest stars of today (42 Dugg, YoungBoy Never Broke Again). In part, it’s an homage to the much-loved 2000s ‘Gangsta Grillz’ mixtape series from American producer DJ Drama, who adds his signature ad-libs to the majority of the tracks here. In some ways, the record operates as a love letter to the genre. He proclaimed in a recent Instagram Live: “Shout out rap music – I love it.” While he warned fans in the build-up to ‘IGOR’ to not “go into this expecting a rap album”, it seems that Tyler has had a change of heart of late. ![]() His lyrics, too, have recently taken on a far more reflective and meditative tilt, touching upon heartbreak, self-reflection and sexual fluidity.Ī large part of ‘Call Me…’, however, sees him return to the craft that made him his name, a middle-finger-up to any fans chiding him for not rapping any more. While he made his name with brash, no-holds-barred bars that encapsulated youthful rage, Tyler’s last handful of releases – 2017’s ‘Flower Boy’ and its Grammy-winning avant-pop follow-up ‘IGOR’ – showed stark growth as the harsh beats of old were swapped out for sublime, deftly-delivered jazz, R&B, funk and neo-soul flourishes. How many would have predicted that the delinquent provocateur of California’s rap rabble-rousers Odd Future would blossom into one of hip-hop’s most dynamic figures? It’s true: Tyler’s journey – both creatively and personally – has been quite remarkable over the past decade. As he puts it on the lounge-rap cut ‘MASSA’: “I’ve calmed down in front of cameras… I’m not that little boy y’all was introduced to at 19.” The song is a snarled retort to so-called ‘cancel culture’ at once exhilarating and a little nostalgic, it displays a side of Tyler that we haven’t heard for a while. ![]() “I came a long way from my past,” Tyler, the Creator raps on ‘MANIFESTO’, the defiant standout from his sixth album ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’.
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