Tyler The Creator, at the height of freedom with his 8th album, “Chromakopia”

Always surprising, this American of Nigerian ancestry. Tyler The Creator lives up to his name. The rapper, producer and director, but also fashion figure, mixes styles with virtuosity. Soul, r’n’b, jazz, gospel, rap, trap and rock adorn the 14 tracks of his album, ranked number one in nine countries. Revealed in 2014, at the age of 22, he became a hip hop star of the same size as Kendrick Lamar and won the Grammy Award for best album in 2021.

With ChromakopiaTyler The Creator, real name Tyler Okonma, now 33 years old, makes a resounding return with confusing titles, like “Noid”, under Zamrock influence. The voice that we hear there in the Bantu language, he took from a Zambian rock record from 1977. More than borrowings, inspirations, there are above all characters in this atypical artist. He called himself “Baudelaire” on the previous album. And “Igor” even before that. His music, rich in colors, resonates like the synthesis of his multiple faces. Wearing the traditional Amasungu, symbol of different lives in Rwanda, black mask, he talks about schizophrenia on the song “Take Your Mask”

In this album, Tyler The Creator rehashes his favorite themes. Introspective and egocentric, his texts only speak about him: loss of his Nigerian father who died at birth, uprooting, fear of living in a world of telephones where everyone wants to shake his hand. Success and paranoia, he is always halfway between disillusioned observation and vindictive outbursts, between vehement and sensitive pieces like on “Hey Jane” about his romantic setbacks.

Esthete and genius of alternative rap, Tyler The Creator is at the height of his creative freedom and proves it with this hyper-careful mille-feuille record, where djembe, percussion, triangle and mariachi trumpets remarkably collide. No doubt, he is ahead of all other American rappers.

Tyler The Creator is on a world tour and is giving two concerts at the Accord Arena in Paris on April 27 and 28, 2025.