Tyler, The Creator, is a hip-hop artist with 5 studio albums under his belt, Goblin, Wolf, Cherry Bomb, Flower Boy, and most recently IGOR.

Out of these albums, I prefer his most recent two albums Flower Boy and IGOR. What stands out to me from Flower Boy is actually the features from the album, such as Frank Ocean and A$AP Rocky, with the most unexpected being Rex Orange County. Rex was a relatively unknown artist before this album, but with his singing on The intro track “Foreword” and “Boredom,” I became a fan.

IGOR is his most ambitious project taking many liberties that work out really well in forming a very enjoyable and cohesive album. This album has a long list of credits, with Solange appearing in the background of many tracks and artists such as Kanye and Playboi Carti having a verse on some of the songs. What makes this most enjoyable is how refreshing it is, as it is not really a rap album, with most of the album being composed of singing instead of rapping.

The album is essentially a love ballad about breakups; this can be seen on tracks like RUNNING OUT OF TIME.

The song seems really raw, with Tyler giving a really great vocal performance over a beat that constantly changes with heavy use of synth and bass. The song works with the heartbreak theme leading up to the next track, NEW MAGIC WAND, which is a major change from this track as NEW MAGIC WAND seems aggressive and very forward, almost pleading, the chorus repeating:

“Please don’t leave me now.
Please don’t leave me now (Don’t leave)”

One pretty interesting line from this track is:

“Eyes are green; I eat my vegetables.
It has nothin’ to do with that broad”

This plays off and references a line from the 2000 track “Green Eyes” by Erykah Badu, where she describes a jealous person with green eyes.

In the song, Tyler is the one with green eyes, highlighting his jealousy.

Throughout the album, in both NEW MAGIC WAND and RUNNING OUT OF TIME, Tyler refers to masks (this is not a reference to covid-19 masks or the pandemic). In NEW MAGIC WAND, the line is

“Grab our supplies, no need for masks, bust through the door.”

In this case, the lack of a mask highlights his non-malicious intentions, and in RUNNING OUT OF TIME, Tyler again refers to a mask; in this song, however, he tells himself to take off his mask and stop lying to others, possibly showing how he was fake and hiding his true emotions.

Many fans have concluded that this album is Tyler, The Creator’s way of coming out of the closet.

He has been very controversial several times with his comments on the LGBT community and being edgy such as in old tweets. However, this album with many references and allusions to Tyler’s sexual orientation, such as a reference to call me by your name in the track I THINK shows a different aspect of the artist.