The disjointed, polarizing rhythmic cadence of tracks like “Yonkers” feels broken and horribly erected, but compared to the accompanying video featuring dilated pupils and a cockroach petting zoo, that cadence seemed commonplace-comforting, even. But he’s almost never unsure of what he’s saying or how he’s saying it. Sometimes he spits vulgarities for the sake of vulgarity. Sometimes he lauds archaic, one-dimensional gender roles. Being a lights-out lyricist never seemed as important to Tyler as being a brazen provocateur. Despite being the founder, de facto leader, and sardonic big brother of the oft-excellent Odd Future collective, he was only ever kinda talented.
Up until Friday, Tyler was the kind of artist whose controversial aesthetic constantly usurped his talent, landing him in the less-than-desirable company of Marilyn Manson. I mention all of this because Tyler, the Creator is fucking with my invention. He shares this space with artists like Miley Cyrus, 2 Live Crew and Ted Nugent. His most popular song is antithetically titled “The Beautiful People”, which sounds like it should actually be called “We found these musicians at Costco and also I skipped my afternoon nap.” For these reasons, Marilyn Manson falls well below the Diagonal, which is decidedly not the dream. Almost like he thought he had to make shitty music in order to perpetuate this designation. Aside from his tangible aesthetic-his hair, clothing and makeup channel every nightmare I ever had as a kid-his music seemed deliberately bad. I always found his music incredibly difficult to listen to, because it seemed irrationally tethered to the prospect of being disruptive, vulgar and uncontained. The same can’t really be said for artists like Marilyn Manson, whose level of controversy overtly outweigh his talent. Other artists that fall into this category include but are certainly not limited to Madonna, Kanye West, Eminem. By his own design or not, Prince avoided the “holistically controversial” classification because he was a ridiculously talented musician. “Jack U Off”, is a controversial song title, but the musicianship that propels it forward is brilliant and fresh.
TYLER THE CREATOR FLOWER BOY REVIEW FULL
For every lyric about pockets full of horses, there was an equally brain-melting guitar solo. Which is to say: He’s right on the money, if not slightly above the line. The reason for this has everything to do with where Prince lands on the Talent/Controversy Diagonal. But when you look back on Prince’s career, his affinity for controversy is almost always the second or third thing audiences bring up. Everything he did and said comprised an erogenous undertone. If he wasn’t singing about sex, he was emphatically doing over-the-clothes stuff with his guitar. One of his career standouts is a song literally called “Controversy”. However, having more of one factor than the other will dictate how audiences classify that artist’s work. An equal amount of each factor lands an artist squarely on the Diagonal itself, which is the dream.
The rule for the Talent/Controversy Diagonal reads something like this: For musicians to get away with being controversial, they must be at least equally as talented. But his casual openness about his sexuality breathes out like a sigh of relief on the album: His admission seems to have given him permission to be more vulnerable and sincere about other topics.So I invented this thing called “The Talent/Controversy Diagonal.” I did this because I’m constantly mystified by how we classify artists with a contentious streak. Much like fellow Odd Future member Frank Ocean, Tyler hasn’t been explicit about how he identifies beyond acknowledging that he’s into dudes. On the other, Tyler’s had a history of carelessly throwing around slurs in interviews and lyrics, albeit in a jokey-enough way to not get himself into serious trouble.īut on Flower Boy, Tyler ditches his shock jock persona and dark, aggressive sound, instead opting for mellow, sun-soaked beats and lyrics that probe emotional complexities. Tyler has long been the definition of a #problematicfave: On one hand, he and Odd Future pioneered the current era of weird-is-cool, parlaying their music and fashion sense into a full-blown lifestyle brand that ushered alternative hip-hop into the mainstream. Stylistically and lyrically, Flower Boy shows us a softer, more thoughtful Tyler who seems to have moved past the vulgar, sometimes violent rhymes that made Odd Future and his early solo work famous. In fact, the reference is only in passing, buried mid-verse on “I Ain’t Got Time!” and again on “Garden Shed” when he says he “thought it was a phase.” While hip-hop media has been fixated on the line about “kissing white boys since 2004,” the truth is that Tyler, The Creator’s new album Flower Boy is much more than a revelation about his sexuality.