Tyler the Creator, frontman of L.A. hip-hop convoy OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), won’t admit to it but I’m sure he understands his audience to be predominantly white, suburban, indie-teens-in-training. Let’s try to keep that in mind here, now that there seems to be a somewhat recognizable consensus on Tyler the Creator’s second full-length album and first major label release, Goblin on XL Records. From where I’m standing it seems like folks are a bit dissatisfied. Granted there hasn’t been too many local hip-hop acts with this kind of trajectory since the astronomical rise of Lupe Fiasco, the quizzical introduction of Wiz Khalifa and others, this record leaves a lot to be desired. The album is choppy, draining, and quite lengthy. Some of the standout tracks (“Yonkers” and “Sandwitches”) on the record feel somewhat superfluous since they’ve already been overplayed in various venues. Acknowledging that the songs were never officially released and that they’re serving to introduce Tyler’s work to new audiences—as Odd Future’s nursery YouTube testifies—the trailer can sometimes be better than the film.
Situating Tyler and Odd Future in a post-Columbine environment of widespread fear in the popular American imagination over the misogyny, violence, and greed misbelieved to be central to the history and mythology of the hip-hop genre, his music speaks to the many pent-up feelings central to his experience growing up in Compton. A hip-hop hotbed that has sparked artists in the line of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Coolio, and others (which for some, their gangster personas have been softened and shaped into lovable unthreatening Black family men starring in children’s movies), Tyler is somewhat of an antithesis to those feelings of comfort and security. Tyler doesn’t care. Perhaps it’s his naïveté or clinical insanity, but there’s an unsettling quality to his music that’s impossible to simply ignore or set aside as “just an artistic endeavor.” While the almost confusing aggressiveness in Tyler’s music can (and is) disregarded by most people as the nonsensical musings of a kid, there is a legitimate contempt to areas of society and people that have hated on Tyler as a person, history, identity, and youth. There is something gravitating about the discombobulating rage in his music. In my opinion, it represents the disgust of a society that demonized him and his culture, that is now emerging today as this figural and literal Goblin—the repugnant, annoying, mischievous creature from folklore. Dismiss him as you will (like I do, since I’m not really down with his “shock for shock’s sake” aesthetic choices), but it’s important to contextualize Tyler and OFWGKTA. We wouldn’t want you to get too carried away worrying about the children, Helen Lovejoy.
In terms of lyrical content there are only a handful of new subjects Tyler is complaining about such as the perils of fame (such as in “Nightmare” and “Golden”), and the sucks of romantic rejection in the emotional “Her”. Demonstrably, these two topics don’t deviate from the familiar, self-proclaimed, young emo trend he’s got going. This is not a point of damnation as most rappers do it, as some kind of conventional cachet. Where the album receives most of its criticism is of course due to its misogyny, homophobia, and violence—and rightly so. Its praises are received via its palpable passion and creativity. As noted in other reviews of the record, its best rhymes recalling the cleverness of Eminem, his beats taking cues from the minimalist approach popularized by the Neptunes, while also invoking a grittiness reminiscent of Black Moon, Gravediggaz, and early Wu. Agreeing with most of the abovementioned yet not being apologetic, I’ll add that when considered as a whole the album is much too scattered in form and in lyrical content. However, once considered piecemeal, there really are some bangin’ tracks. On the road to perdition, Tyler? I think you may have just won my pity.
The track “Radicals” seems to be quite revealing. In terms of his audience and the view that there is something important to be said about the origin of Tyler’s hype, (e.g. indie-blogs), they themselves (seem totally underwhelmed by it. Remember, Tyler opens his debut record Bastard with a condemnation of two hip-hop blogs; “Fuck 2DopeBoyz and fuck NahRight” he says. Hip-hop blogs seem only attach themselves to artists after they’ve gained exposure elsewhere. Now on the sophomoric Goblin, Tyler’s opens the third cut “Radicals” with, “Random disclaimer: Hey don’t do anything that I say in this song, okay? It’s fucking fiction. If anything happens, don’t fucking blame me, White America. Fuck Bill O’Reilly.” The hook for the track being, “Fuck the fat lady, It’s over when all the kids sing ‘Kill people. Burn shit. Fuck school.’ I’m a fucking radical.” Here the emphasis lies in “it’s over when all the kids sing.” Evidently this album is for the youngsters.
In the same vein, I think I’ll also provide a disclaimer of my own: While his acknowledgement of a “fictional” narrative does not dismiss him of misogynistic or homophobic language and behavior, his argument doesn’t seem to be come out of a rigorous critique of lived social experience—and if it is, it doesn’t appear so, it’s quite irresponsible. Perhaps it’s this precise detail, an uncaring and ultimately “fuck them all” attitude, that’s the source of his appeal—regardless of what he’s saying. As the larger hip-hop and music mainstream continues to be caught up with itself, I can see how Tyler’s uncompromising perspective can remain novel. So while, yes, the album deserves its fair share of criticism as all art does, there is a correlation between the indie-blogosphere and Tyler’s work on Goblin. Indie critics, you reap what you sow. You blew up an album made by a young Black kid from Compton who had a complex and culturally white suburban teenage audience to deal with. While this isn’t to say that his audience isn’t as diverse as some of the issues he raises, there is clearly some massive tension that has arisen at the poles of this “subculture.” We must recognize the difficulty in negotiating these perspectives and Tyler’s position within it. This is what has resulted in your disillusionment and subsequent negativity. What we need here is more thorough comprehension—a kind of fact checking, if you will. As Tyler says in your favorite track: “Oh, not again, another critic writing a report—I’m stabbin’ any blogging faggot hipster with a Pitchfork.”
Thanks go out to the homie and collaborator Luis Moreno on this one.
wod up