Release Date: June 25, 2021
Features: DJ Drama (host),42 Dugg, Youngboy Never Broke Again, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Wayne, Teezo Touchdown, Domo Genesis, Brent Faiyaz, Fana Hues, Louisa Whitman (uncredited), Daisy World, Lil Uzi Vert, & Pharrell Williams
Run Time: 52:41
Tracks: 16
Top 5 Songs: WusYaName, Massa, Sweet/I Thought You Wanted To Dance, Hot Wind Blows, juggernaut
Best Beat: Sweet/I Thought You Wanted To Dance
Best Hook: WusYaName
3 Track Run: Runitup, Manifesto, Sweet/I Thought You Wanted to Dance
Final Grade: 9/10
No no no no no. Listen Listen Listen…
Tyler’s highly anticipated 6th studio album succeeded the critically acclaimed Igor. I expressed some surprise to see Tyler returning to rap after transitioning from the soulful style first experimented with in Cherry Bomb and continued from Flower Boy to Igor. Although not the most critically acclaimed Tyler Album, just as Igor before it. It’s done well commercially, twice in fact. It took a couple listens to truly grasp his transition as well the ever-present adlibs by it’s homage DJ Drama who serves as the host of the albums and makes cameos throughout the album but I managed to successfully get into enough to regard it as personal favorite (sorry Igor you lasted as long as you did)
Tyler took many inspirations from 2000s Mixtapes most notably Gangsta Grillz mixtape he even aspired to make his own tape based on it from a tweet he posted many years ago. This album drop signifies that dream becoming a reality. Not only that but this album gives the listener a chance to see how refined Tyler’s producing skills are. If you take a look back at Tyler’s gritty and raw material you can see and understand how much Tyler has evolved since early Bastard-Goblin-Wolf days. His style is always evolving but Tyler still stays true to himself and despite hating performing Yonkers all the time due to popular demand he never hesitates to expand his fan base and those just now getting into his music. Him diving back into his old work while doing new shit shows that despite his questionable lyrics and raunchy tone he and his Odd Future cohorts were using, Tyler has no regrets.
Not only that but Tyler’s production and style makes everyone play a significant part, there’s no corny features or bad verses present. He recruits hip-hop veteran Lil Wayne in the reworked Slow Hot Wind sample Hot Wind Blows of which the 2 flawlessly managed to carry with the verse even serving as one of Tune’s best features so far this year. Tyler even highlighted Youngboy Never Broke Again (known for his persistently annoying fanbase/stan/troll accounts) on WusYaName which to me personally was the first youngboy song I really enjoyed as well as 42 Dugg on Lemonhead (which has a small cameo from Frank Ocean). The album contains many standouts and highlights such as Massa which details Tyler rewinding back to when he was a poor nerdy weird little boy in a tough situation who decided to take a risk and get into music which led to him becoming one of hip-hop's biggest superstars who only gets better with each project while those who laughed or mocked him for his earlier edgy work are now irrelevant which he gladly takes the chance to laugh at and triumph via the song Corso & Runitup. The song Manifesto (which features fellow Odd Future member Domo Genesis) takes the time for Tyler to address important issue such as his stance on religion (of Tyler is a firm atheist/agnostic) & addressing Black Lives Matter and clapbacking at angry white people getting on him for not speaking on those issues.
Love is also a prominent topic within Tyler’s albums; it has been present in a few songs from Tyler’s past (some of which are arguably lustful if not terrifyingly creepy but that’s another conversation). Part of the album’s theme and story focuses on Tyler chasing after a female while Tyler has the money to buy anything his heart pleases like several Rolls Royces and a couple houses he cannot by the heart of the woman he is in love with who is seeing another man. WusYaName introduces this story as Tyler flirting with her and it continues through subtext in other songs before being thrown into the air via Sweet/I Thought You Wanted to Dance & Wilshire as he struggles to move on. The album also contains 2 interludes one talking about Tyler reflecting on his success and feels blessed to finally come up prior to turning 30 and another which contains an adorably (and comedic) recording of Tyler’s mother expressing her proudness of her son’s success as well as her will to protect him despite his age and fondly reminisce defending him against those who would bully him before it transitions over to Rise where Tyler takes the time to stunt on his haters the most prominent of them all is record producer DJ Khaled who expresses frustration against Tyler since his previous album Igor managed to topped the charts and block his album Father of Ashad from No. 1 list. The record producer even threatened to sue Billboard for this. Tyler merely took this in stride and looked at the best of the situation noting he is truly a success if he managed to dethrone an album containing a bunch of A-list Rappers and hip hop/Pop legends like Cardi B, 21 Savage, Big Sean, Chris Brown, Future, Meek Mill, Justin Bieber, Beyonce and Jay Z. T even takes the time to further throw shade at Khaled when his “mysterious shit” managed to succeed commercially. While he doesn’t mention Khaled by name the message of the song and it’s intent was widely clear, Tyler even begs his haters to stay and keep giving him attention just so they can watch him get even better and prove himself an unstoppable force as well as look incredibly stupid when he does prove to be a success in his own way.
The song juggernaut also recruits Lil Uzi Vert and his idol Pharrell Williams (both of whom he collaborated with in the past) for this banger. The outro of the entire album which is beautifully constructed and contains the same vibe comparable to Igor and Flower Boy (with a dash of Cherry Bomb thrown into the mix). One particular lyric feels powerful because Tyler always keeps winning and even makes sense of his Ls because come on you rarely see people actually dressing like him and buying his shit (or at least black people for the most part). Tyler even winds up winning another grammy whilst on tour for the album (this time for an album deserving of the category).
Comments