Picture this: It’s October 16th, 2024. You open up Instagram and see a new sepia toned video posted by rapper Tyler, the Creator. Curious, you keep watching.
A masked man, who you assume to be Tyler, leads a line of men marching behind him. He then moves out of the line, and points the line of men into a shipping container. When the last person walks into the container, Tyler presses a button in his hand, effectively exploding the container and turning the world into colour. The last thing we see is a green background with black text reading CHROMAKOPIA.
Image: Tyler, the Creator, Sony Music Entertainment from Wikimedia Commons
The day after that, Okonma revealed the cover art for his eighth studio album, Chromakopia, as well as a release date: October 28th at six in the morning. A mere eleven days after the announcement.
Despite the album releasing on a Monday morning, Chromakopia received over 85,665,784 on it's first day on the Global Spotify Chart, making it the biggest hip-hop release on Spotify of 2024, and the sixteenth biggest release of all time on Spotify.
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Apply NowChromakopia: My Thoughts
Image: Tyler through Wikimedia Commons
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Tyler, the Creator's Chromakopia is one of 2024's best albums. From the themes found in the tracks, to the promo used in the days leading up to the release, I found everything about Chromakopia to be amazing.
Tyler, the Creator's music has always been great, and Chromakopia is no different. Okonma combines elements of his previous work, like 2017's Flower Boy, while still being able to take a different approach than his old albums. He combines the old with the new, keeping listeners on their toes for the whole fifty three minutes.
Every track is a new revelation about Okonma: from his paranoia surrounding fame, to growing up wondering about his father, we learn more and more about the inner-workings of Okonma's mind as we progress. Despite these tracks all being unique in their own way, the album still feels cohesive with it's overall themes.
Visually, it's almost like Chromakopia is a turning point in Okonma's career: in contrast to 2021's Call Me If You Get Lost and 2019's Igor pastel colour palettes, Chromakopia has been mostly monochromatic, showing a new sense of maturity aesthetically.
Chromakopia has been positively received by both critics and the general public. Metacritic has given the album an overall score of 85 based off of sixteen reviews from critics, and Rolling Stone has given the album four out of five stars in their review. However, some critics have also given the album mixed reviews, with AnyDecentMusic? and Pitchfork each giving the album a 7.7/10 and 7.6/10 respectively. Nonetheless, Chromakopia has been getting great reception from not only critics, but fans too:
And they're right; every listening experience with Chromakopia is better than the last.
“Noid”
“Noid” is the incredible single off of Chromakopia. Short for paranoid, the song dives into Okonma’s fears surrounding fame. The track gets us personal with Okonma’s fears, putting the listener in what his thoughts are like.
The track samples “Nizakupanga Ngozi” by Ngozi Family, a Zambian band. In “Noid,” both the backing track and a verse are used throughout the song. Despite varying translations, all translations of the verse have roughly the same meaning: if you come over, be respectful or we will be problems.
The verse adds onto the song, showing more of Okonma’s paranoia. Not to mention how catchy it is!
The track is enjoyable, and has an upbeat and memorable rhythm that’s hard to forget. Ngozi Family’s electric guitar in the background also ties the whole song together: like the ribbon on a Christmas gift. In the age of “deep” songs, it feels like everyone is trying to sound overly profound, leaving listeners trying to decipher the lyrics rather than enjoying the music. However, that’s not the case with “Noid.” Though you begin to realize the depth of the lyrics the more times you listen to the song, it's not something that needs to be done to enjoy the song to its full potential.
What Now?
Image: PoJay through Wikimedia Commons
Whether or not you're a fan of Tyler, the Creator, I definitely recommend giving Chromakopia a listen. Though some might think Chromakopia is too different from Okonma's previous works, that doesn't make it any less of a great album.
Okonma certainly has a busy era ahead of him: between the “Chromakopia: The World Tour” tour, his pursuits in the world of fashion, and whatever else there's in store, there's no doubt we'll be seeing more of Tyler, the Creator in the next year.