Tyler, The Creator | 2017

Genre: Hip Hop, Alternative Hip Hop, Jazz Rap, Neo Soul

With the album Flower Boy, Tyler, the Creator explores personal identity, loneliness, and self-discovery. The album cover painted by Eric White depicts Tyler surrounded by sunflowers beneath an orange sky, while the alternate cover by Tyler himself places a bee-covered face against a warm color palette. Bright colours, cars, and flowers became extensions of the music itself, helping transform Tyler into an increasingly sophisticated creative brand. Featuring Rex Orange County, Frank Ocean, Kali Uchis, A$AP Rocky, Jaden Smith, Estelle, and more, Flower Boy drifts away from Tyler’s prior sharp sound in favor of layered neo-soul and dense vocal harmonies carrying much of the record. 

Tyler’s production is dense without becoming overwhelming, with layers of strings, keyboards, basslines, guitar, and vocal harmonies constantly appearing around the edges of the mix. “See You Again” and “Boredom” takes a relaxed approach, while Kali Uchis’ restrained performance complements Tyler. The contrast between emotional unease and production defines much of the album. Flower Boy is frequently euphoric, yet Tyler spends much of it isolated. Cars, wealth, and material success tend to appear throughout the record, but they rarely provide genuine satisfaction. The resulting tension provides the project depth, questioning how the idealized summer afternoon repeatedly returns to boredom, insecurity, longing, and loneliness. Subsequently, rather than preserving the persona that had made him famous, Tyler risked alienating parts of it by revealing personal versions of himself in the album Flower Boy. Consequently, the speculation ultimately expanded his audience, rather than shrinking it. Songs such as “See You Again” is perceived that it would continue finding new listeners, demonstrating how streaming-era audiences can detach individual tracks and give albums long afterlives. This longevity also illustrates a change in modern music consumption. Flower Boy also demonstrates how Tyler is progressively acknowledged in not just music, but also in fashion and visual designs as parts of the same brand ecosystem. The rollout itself relied heavily on Tyler’s existing audience rather than conventional advertising. Four tracks (Who Dat Boy, 911 / Mr. Lonely, Boredom, and I Ain’t Got Time) were released ahead of the album, serving as a prefigure of the album. 

However, brief interlude and transitional tracks tend to feel more functional than essential. Yet these weaknesses have only a subtle impact as Flower Boy succeeds primarily as a complete artistic statement. The album still remains relevant not because of a temporary trend, but because the album captured the formation of the artist, creating his own world. 

Favorite tracks: See You Again (feat. Kali Uchis), Who Dat Boy (feat. A$AP Rocky), Boredom (feat. Rex Orange County & Anna of the North), 911 / Mr. Lonely (feat. Frank Ocean, & Steve Lacy), Glitter