Mark’s Pick of the Week: Wolf by Tyler the Creator

            Tyler seems pretty self-aware.  He is talented and certainly successful in a number of different industries.  He has won awards for his videos, has a tv show, works as a graphic artist, sells a line of cloths for fellow social outcasts.  This isn’t even getting into the media empire that is OFWGKTA that he fronts, which has since become one of the most successful rap group of the decade.  Tyler does these things because he likes to do them (at least that’s what he says, and I have learned to take everything Tyler says with a grain of salt.)  He had a rough time in high school, and did all these things to escape the rough reality he had.  A lot of us probably did that.  Unlike the rest of us, people took notice and his hobbies became a career.  Getting paid to do what you love is great…unless you stop loving them, and I think that’s kind of where we have found Tyler on this album.

            “Wolf” is (apparently) the prequel to his other two albums Bastard (which was great), and Goblin (which was better). We are treated to Tyler’s (referred to as Wolf throughout the album) story about his confrontation with Sam (another one of his personas) over Salem a girl they both have feelings for.  The story is pretty cool, but luckily your enjoyment of the album shouldn’t have to hinge on it.  The individual songs themselves have a lot of emotional weight.  Throughout we have references to Tyler’s troubles at home (his absent father and deceased grandmother) and his disillusion with rap and fame in general (his fans, his haters, and insecurities).  So it’s pretty obvious by the set up that he isn’t exactly happy with his present circumstance.  So what does he do with it?  A lot actually.

            Take “Colossus”, not necessarily my favorite track, but one that pretty much sums up where Tyler feels his life is at. He is at Six Flags, and a bunch of fans come up to him wanting pictures.  They all tell him how he helped them or relate to him, and he can’t bring himself to tell them to leave him alone.  His fame and the music that these people are relating to make him feel like an outsider.  He can’t do normal stuff like ride the roller coaster without it all getting in the way.  It’s an interesting problem since his music pays his bills (he mentions his new wealth several times in the album.)  However, as any fortune cookie can tell you: Money doesn’t mean happiness.  We also have the track “Answer” which goes through a list of people Tyler wishes he could call, but wouldn’t answer his call for various reasons.  He has this phone (which you could also take as wealth and fame), but he doesn’t have anyone he would want to call who would actually answer his, so what’s the point? 

            All the serious emotions and stuff like that aside, Wolf brings the fantastic singles like the last 2 albums.  “Domo23,” “Rusty,” “Jamba,” and “Trashwang” in particular are just some really fun headbangers that are just as home on your party mix as this concept album.  Also the leader of OFWGKTA brings in the cavalry in force in this album.  Basically any member of the group you could ask for shows up at one point or another.  Hodgy Beats, Earl Sweatshirt, and Frank Ocean are three personal favorites, but there are plenty more old and new faces to enjoy.

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            Tyler is a great rapper.  He may say he’s not a good rapper, and he’s much more into jazz, and even if the last is true the first certainly isn’t.  He is just as good at the old violent, and silly stuff that was his bread and butter back in the day.  However, he is just at good at weaving in references to classic songs, comments about his old music, his public persona, previous events in his life, and other pop culture stuff.

            I don’t think Tyler is blaming anyone in particular in this album.  Instead, I think he’s trying to grasp the situation in the best way he can, through music.  On the first listen it may seem a bit self loathing, but I think it’s less about pointing out what’s bad, and just pointing out what is.  This album has quite a few ups and downs, and that’s how anyone’s life is regardless of who you are.  Tyler managed to make an album that was an appropriate follow-up to his last 2 releases, and it seems to get better with every listen.  I can’t wait for the follow up in 2015!

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