Igor is Tyler, the Creator’s critically acclaimed 5th/6th album. It is arguably considered Tyler’s most successful album to date, produced and arranged entirely by Tyler himself featuring uncredited guest vocals from comedian Jerrod Carmichael (who serves as the album narrator), Lil Uzi Vert, Solange, Playboi Carti, & Kanye West. While hip-hop roots are present, the album incorporates elements of pop and neo-soul. The album itself managed to debut atop the charts (beating out DJ Khaled’s Father of Asahd; to the producer’s ire) as well as even win a grammy for Best Rap Album. In celebration for his album (as the anniversary for it's release is coming up soon) which was for a time one of my absolute favorites I constructed a think piece from my perspective when I first listened to the album
My First Lesson:
To be fair, I remember first listening to Igor, I had recently had a fall out with one of my best friends mid-2019 after my high school graduation and was feeling miserable throughout the summer. I was so heartbroken almost nothing could cheer me and was going to sleep miserable. I went through a period where I was lurking music and listening to every album I could find from Kali Uchis' Isolation to Daniel Caesar's Case Study 01 (which I might add Entropy made me tear up inside especially his line "Oh how can this be? I've finally found peace") to Goldlink's Diaspora. I stumbled upon Igor the day I went to get my non Driver’s license not long after. I never really listened to a Tyler album before that day but I decided to give it a chance because one of my (now former) friends kept posting him and cosigning his release I was like "You know what... fuck it Imma add it to my library". From what I heard from my friends was that Tyler was weird and had issues and I was so used to listening to bodies of work that were more mainstream like Khaled's Father of Asahd or had clout like Lil Nas X's Old Town Road, DaBaby's Suge, Megan Thee Stallion's Hot Girl Summer, or Roddy Ricch's The Box, I never paid attention to people like Tyler. I only paid attention to what's "Hot" right now. I had no interest in weird raps like Tyler. But it was a spiraling moment where I was fucked up in the head and music is normally my calm space. So I decided to give it a whirl...
The first time I listened to Igor I did not understand the story but I did enjoy some of the songs and added them to my playlist. I mean What's Good and Earfquake were bangers, A Boy Is A Gun and New Magic Wand had more soulful approach. Gone, Gone/Thank You did have a unique unexplainable hold over me though. I can't really explain it but it was something about the song... when it got to Thank You a part of me felt like I was ready to just go insane and bawl my fucking eyes out. It felt sad but I didn't know it was sad because I didn't really digest the album in full only on a sonic level. It wasn’t until much later (I would say October-ish) when I finally got over my sadness that I decided to give it another listen. One of my friends and music collaborator even told me it's a story about another guy and I was like "bro what"? I was still closeted at the time so I reacted negatively to it. The thing is I misunderstood what was going on. I thought A Boy Is A Gun was more about perspective and that the metaphor can be applied differently. I believed that A Boy Is A Gun was actually about a Boy having a gun. But anyway the whole theme of it felt familiar and I could relate to every song being played. It’s like I lived the story and it’s completely relatable. Not long after the album became one of my favorites and was frequently played through out the following year. I played the album at least once a week (from Apple Music Replay's account I played the album over 1,000 times and +200 for 2021 since Call Me If You Get Lost had dropped). It feels great for my first Tyler and that alone made me a fan. I could not stop playing the album. Slowly but surely I got into most of Tyler’s other work (except for Goblin, excluding Yonkers and She). It’s amazing how an edgy teen like Tyler who started off making horrorcore in his alter-ego state could make an album detailing love, obsession, and heartbreak, showing more of his sensitive side previously seen in Flower Boy and hinted in Cherry Bomb and it’s even more inspiring knowing Tyler produced it by himself which is very noteworthy for a black musician. It's because of his catalog that I became a real big fan. Throughout the year of 2020 I began listening to his other albums slowly ending with Wolf in the summer. I did not listen to Goblin up until he started a rollout for his (as of this post) last album Call Me If You Get Lost. Not my favorite but something to listen to if you wanna feel "hell-ish" but that's a different post.
One thing about Tyler is that he refuses to rap the same shit over and over and you can tell even though he enjoys showing off his older work to humor his fans (or even gain new ones), he’s pretty exasperated when fans request he play some of his generic songs like Yonkers which was made under the span of 6 minutes and was merely released as a joke. Tyler also admitted he doesn’t like Goblin as much as his future works and merely made the album to standout among his rap peers seeing as he was flat broke and hardly had a penny to his name it came to a point where he was practically homeless. Upon the success of Goblin, Tyler felt he’s reached the part in success where he can make whatever he wants but one thing’s to be sure, Tyler never does sequels. We’ll never see a part 2 of Wolf or Goblin, Tyler merely holds off his current gimmick for as long as he can until it’s time to promote his new body of work. This isn’t really a bad thing because it shows how interesting Tyler is and you cannot really predict what he drops next and at this point of time that makes it all the more exciting. He's definitely someone I can learn from and pick up technique's from.
That's my experience and I hope you can see where I'm coming from with this. I love Igor because it's his most relatable. It's a story that people like me have lived and even though I don't listen to it as often as I used to. That era was really iconic to me personally. I would say Igor is Tyler's best album so far. CMIYGL was personal favorite and highlight T's production but it doesn't really have a big story going on like Igor you know. I'm always excited to put new people into Tyler and Igor and won't stop convincing people to give it a listen or get into him.
Below is a tracklist detailing the meanings between tracks for those of you that require meaning and perspective to it:
This song, which is mostly a heavily structured instrumental, details the introduction of Igor and his current mind-state. The refrain which is beautifully sung by the emo rapper Lil Uzi Vert and neo-soul singer Solange (the sister of Beyonce) contains the words “ride around town they gon’ feel this one” which can be taken in 2 ways. The first is introducing Igor to the world and the 2nd is Tyler letting everyone know what to expect as they proceed throughout the album.
The album’s lead single which is also Tyler’s highest-charting single so far. Containing uncredited guest vocals from fellow rapper Playboi Carti. The song is essentially Igor pleading his male love interest to never leave despite the fact that he doesn’t treat him the way he should’ve, Igor desperately feels like he needs him and can’t live without him even going far as to place blame on himself.
Fun Fact: The song was made in 2017 during production for Tyler’s last album Flower Boy. It was originally produced and written for Justin Bieber who declined the song so Tyler kept it. Believing the song would also be big, Tyler requested Rihanna record vocals for the song only for her to turn it down as well so Tyler instead kept his own raw vocals within the song.
At this point of time, Igor is questioning his feelings and mental state. He feels conflicted and struggles with the idea of staying vulnerable and pursuing the feelings he now has or quit while he’s ahead of himself. However he culminates these feelings into believing he is in love with this boy and believes that he is the one.
Exactly What You Run From You End Up Chasing/Boyfriend
In the original/streaming version, this song is merely an interlude with Jerrod Carmichael serving as the narrator. He quotes the title of the track which ends up foreshadowing next tracks. The actual song which was released on the anniversary of Igor continues on as Igor pours out his heart towards his love interest and wants to be his boyfriend.
In this song, Igor feels like he’s running out of time to make his love interest feel the same way about him. He feels the love is fleeting and fears the worst may happen should this path continue. In the song Igor questions if he really likes him or is merely a rebound to keep him entertained which is explained fully in the next song.
By this time, Igor has grown suspicious of his lover and discovered a photo of him and his ex-girlfriend. He begins to grow desperate and tries all he can to avoid losing him to this female knowing he still has feelings for her but to little avail as he cannot stop thinking about her. Igor becomes frantic and goes to extreme lengths to avoid losing his lover to the point of threatening to kill her to get what he wants.
In the next song, Igor finally acknowledges that what he has with this person is unhealthy and is essentially toxic as he was going to the extremes to avoid losing his man but now sees this boy is becoming that of a gun to him and if handled improperly could result in Igor in getting himself hurt or even in trouble with other people. He finally decides to break it off with him in the end and decides to distance himself as he could see not only is Igor putting 60/40 in this relationship but the boy clearly still loves his ex.
As Carmichael warned early in the album, as Igor starts running away from his feelings, he found he could not bear to lose his man and begins wondering should he go back to him this time letting him do whatever he wants to Igor and becoming the puppet in the relationship. The climax and outro of the song represent his deteriorating mental health before finally and abruptly coming to his senses
Now with a renewed sense of self-worth, Igor decides to go at it and become independent of his boy, assured he can manage on his own.
By this point, Igor has to accept that he could not be with his boy and admits defeat. To make himself feel better he still displays some arrogance towards his boy, assured his ex-girlfriend could never make him as happy as he could and knows every little thing about him. Even though he tries very hard not to show it Igor is clearly heartbroken and crushed but he still takes the time to mentally thank his ex for giving him the joy and euphoria along with all the good parts that comes with a relationship, he does not hate his ex for leaving him or the girl for stealing his man but knows it would be a long time until he would find love again. He’s finally opening his eyes to reality and knows it’s time to move on.
Igor is attempting to move on from his feelings and is no longer angry. He had lost his love to a girl and is struggling to refute his love he had for him however his actions in the next song suggest differently and is only pretending to preserve his self-worth or to show the boy that he’s moved on. Despite trying he later admits to himself he just can’t let go of the time they had together.
In this outro, Igor still cannot get over his repressed feelings and continues chasing his love interest despite knowing the relationship ended. Igor merely has a desire to be friends and remain on good terms with him to at least give him some closure. He doesn’t want to end everything between them with a dramatic ending.
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