Since the beginning of his career in the 2010s, rapper Tyler, The Creator has directed his own music videos under the name Wolf Haley. Much like the music itself, videos for early singles “French” and “VCR” from his debut mixtape Bastard were crude and unpolished. The former is a brashly edited collage of skateboarding clips and shots of Tyler and his fellow Odd Future members reciting lyrics to the camera; the latter creates a loose narrative of Tyler attempting to seduce a sex doll in a dingy basem*nt. Both videos lacked production value and technical finesse but his vision was there; Tyler knew exactly what he wanted to put on screen and figured out early that the best way to hold an audience’s attention is to force their eyes open himself. Advertisem*nt
Music
Tyler, The Creator Is the Artist of the Decade
Ross Scarano
Both 2009’s Bastard and 2011’s Goblin open with a framing device in the form of Dr. TC, a fictional therapist giving Tyler space to vent his problems. Bastard, in particular, is too concerned with shock tactics and repressing feelings to hone in on an actual story, but TC exists to bridge the gap between listener and artist. His questions and comments keep what little story there is on the rails, ensuring Tyler isn’t spewing poison into a vacuum. The conceit is similar to the one that drives the 2005 action film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which uses a marriage therapist to ground the story of a couple who learn that they’re both professional assassins. Advertisem*nt
Watching the video for “She,” where Tyler plays a ski-mask-wearing stalker fantasizing about assaulting a new neighbor, and hearing him unpack the stresses of his newfound celebrity with his shock-rap tendencies on a song like “Nightmare” brings to mind the work of filmmaker Harmony Korine. Korine made a name for himself as the screenwriter of the 1995 film Kids, an unflinching look at how teenagers in then-modern New York navigated sex, drugs, and the AIDS epidemic. Much of Korine’s directorial work, films like Gummo and Spring Breakers, leans into realistic and potentially problematic depictions of the sex lives of teenagers. Tyler, similarly, luxuriates in fantasies of assault and violence as unchecked catharsis, and Tyler and Korine’s profiles flourished because they have consistently courted controversy. Advertisem*nt
By the time Tyler’s 2013 sophom*ore album Wolf came around, he would unironically embrace the twee visual aesthetic that Wes Anderson had already spent 17 years perfecting in films like The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom. Pastel colors, symmetrical shots, and suburban teenage angst became hallmarks of both his music and his videos.The self-directed double video for Wolf singles “IFHY” and “Jamba” begins in a dollhouse, complete with Tyler and model Brandi Bondoc in horrifying doll makeup. Tyler’s juvenile lyrics about what he’d do if his partner left him for someone else (“Make sure you never meet again like goddamn vegans”) dovetail with shots of toy Tyler antagonizing her and breaking down the bathroom door to get her attention. In the much shorter “Jamba” portion of the video, Tyler and rapper Hodgy are driving around a suburban neighborhood with the camera fixed on the hood of their car for a perfectly symmetrical shot of the duo in the front seats.
Wolf is also the last Tyler album that enlists Dr. TC and it has a more accessible story told with a more cogent narrative: It’s the story of a love triangle between teenagers at the fictional Camp Flog Gnaw, combining his own twist on the Anderson aesthetic with Superbad-style teen awkwardness. Advertisem*nt
Music
Tyler, The Creator Would Like to Reintroduce Himself
Shaad D’Souza
Pre-Flower Boy, Tyler’s albums were a mix of the aggro DIY energy he displayed in his earlier work with the more thoughtful aspects popping through as he continued to mature. This contrast plays out when the videos for two other Cherry Bomb singles, the serrated “BUFFALO” and the lounge jazz chill of “FIND YOUR WINGS,” rub up against each other. Flower Boy’s tonal shift brought the pendulum to the other side, with warmer sounds and visuals dominating a Tyler project for the first time. It’s surreal to see an artist go from the stark minimalism of “Yonkers” to the all-singing, all-dancing Broadway musical-style visuals of the video for Flower Boy single “SEE YOU AGAIN,” but by the late 2010s, Tyler had found his cinematic voice, one as zany as it is sentimental. Advertisem*nt
Tyler’s latest album Call Me If You Get Lost maintains his passion for cinematic language. Self-directed promotional video “BROWN SUGAR SALMON” opens on yet another meticulously crafted symmetrical shot and draws out a cringe-humor exchange with two waitresses over a missing dinner special. Once again, Tyler directs all of the album’s videos with Perez as cinematographer. Both here and on the album, Tyler is referred to as Tyler Baudelaire, another persona that isn’t exactly a persona. With frequent appearances by legendary mixtape host DJ Drama, Call Me mixes the hunger and flash of Pharrell Williams’s 2006 Gangsta Grillz mixtape In My Mind: The Prequel with Tyler’s well-established romantic twee angst to surprising effect.Call Me isn’t as singular a project as IGOR—there’s a tug-of-war between gaudy travelogue flex raps, thoughts on his controversial beginnings, and a handful of love stories—but its grasp of theme could’ve only come from an artist who’s been working at their craft for over a decade. Tyler’s work has never lacked in confidence, but the layered beat switches of a song like “MANIFESTO” and the sweeping off-center camera shots in the video for “WUSYANAME” show that his skill and vision have come a long way. Drama’s presence and humor, which Tyler has admired since at least 2010, adds extra flair to Call Me, the equivalent of dropping Fast & Furious-era Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the middle of Wes Anderson’s 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Tyler has always been master of his domain, but on CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, his auteur vision and appreciation for film have crystalized into an aesthetic unlike any other in rap. He’s spent the last decade giving shape to his own universe, one where DJ Drama and Pharrell Williams can stand next to Napoleon Dynamite and McLovin.
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