‘Chromakopia’: The Champion of 2024 Rap Albums

Like a Funkadelic spaceship landing in the middle of a city block, Chromakopia (2024) arrived at just the right moment. Through my tumultuous times and my moments of introspection, the alien who exited the spacecraft turned out to be a familiar face. Tyler, The Creator has fashioned a work that is lightyears ahead of other piddling rap albums.

It’s the only rap album I didn’t skip once this year. With crushing drums and lilting synths, Mr. Okonma has surpassed all expectations and provided a soundtrack to the interesting few months and years ahead.

Let’s start off with the lighter fair. The track “Sticky” is a rambunctious ode to situations which become precarious and call for us to mount up and prepare for the divisive and trying times in a splendid and comical way alongside Glorilla, Sexxy Red, and Lil’ Wayne.

There’s also fun to be had on the track “Judge Judy” which positions the listener in the way of knowing that some levity about sexual relationships might shine through in life.

“Hey Jane” is probably Tyler’s most ambitious, personal, and transcending song of his career. It places him as looking at an older woman he impregnated and posits whether he should be a father or not. Then, he flips the whole thing around and talks from Jane’s point of view in a touching and wise manner.

Though it came late, this album could represent my whole 2024. Through personal challenges with family members to continuing my celibacy, the chapters to this novel/album resonate with crispness and clarity.

As I look back over my year, I consider it profound that an album could encapsulate all of the different emotions and I could have an ecstatic connection to the work. It astonishes me that there is a sonic device known as Chromakopia that reassures me that there is more to explore out there.

With each listen of the album, I find a new horn or a stressed word or some innovative cadence that drives me to want to create stories of my own.

The whole package is a gift. The monochrome and the colored commercials (or music videos, don’t argue with me) display meticulous attention to the ideas housed in Tyler’s head. He has mapped out an entire world that allows for everyone to be in it and own it for themselves.

What he does best is produce and write rhymes that challenge, distort, troll, upset, and release. Powerful as his bars show themselves to be, he takes it a step further with the visuals of the masked man. In addition, “Take Your Mask Off” is a pointed measure to show your true self. It doesn’t condone falsehoods or pretenses. It guides the listener to a plane of letting everyone know it’s okay to be yourself. And more. It provides an opportunity for men and women to “find [themselves].”

What is a mirror to “Hey Jane” stands as a monumental testament to the fact Tyler, The Creator lets go of his inhibitions on “Like Him.” In the past, the artist has made stabs at his absent dad and to the degree that this is hip hop, it’s well-tread ground. This time, a mature Tyler seeks to find some sense of understanding why his father was not in his life. He speaks over piano chords that burst forth like blossoming flowers.

Chromakopia delivers on the promise that there is a depth to his oeuvre that permits any human being to better understand the way of the world. Now, I have a wonderful, loving father whom I respect, love, and like. Tyler The Creator never experienced this. It’s like looking into a microscope into his life and world. It is something I could never relate to in this life. As I peer into the apparatus, I can see the inner dynamics of a young man tortured not by fame or having money but about never knowing his paternal parent. That struck me.

In a year where my relationship became strained with my dad, all because of my doing, I knew that there had to be a work which would speak to the relationship of father and son. I found it in this playlist. From the beginning of the year, I searched for an album that actually shot white star clusters to brighten the battlefield which was 2024.

For all of the drama and misdirection that played over these past few moments of my life, this set of songs cut deep into my psyche. As someone with bipolar disorder, it’s always refreshing to know that there is an outlet in the world of art to quell the raging forces of darkness.

I know that 2024 wasn’t a banner year for the Saunders clan. We’ve had hiccups and blunders and terrors all around us. Yet, when one acknowledges the fact that there is no God in the sky to govern or oversee actions by humans and nature like Tyler, The Creator, I agree with this. Now, this artist is no Objectivist, but he could possibly become one. If he relinquishes his inclinations toward the subjective and embraces the truths of life, he might even come out with an even better album. Although, I think that would be a massive endeavor to try to top this work.

From the mind of someone with Tyler’s talents, there could be an album praising the wonders of Ayn Rand’s philosophy. I know I had to rely on her work this year without a doubt. If Tyler, The Creator ever penned an album complete with the principles of “the philosophy for living on Earth” he would elevate.

This album completed a shift in my thoughts. It brought into focus my own understanding of this year and what I can do differently in 2025. I can only anticipate all of it.

Tyler, The creator knows how to blend levity and harshness all in a few lines. It is to his credit that he is able to do this and do it with bravura.