Review: Tyler, The Creator – Wolf

Tyler, The Creator

Wolf

Odd Future, RED, Sony

Street: 04.02

Tyler, The Creator = Nas + Necro + MF Doom

With Wolf  being Tyler, The Creator’s third album, it is apparent that he has been hard at work. While still keeping with the Odd Future “fuck the world” mentality, Tyler has created an album that shows his progress as a producer and lyricist, the discomforts that fame has brought him and his growth as a person. Production on Wolf sticks with Tyler’s original formula—simple, flawed and strange.

No longer is he talking about “threesomes with a fucking triceratops” or telling stories about killing girls and dumping their bodies in lakes. In “Awkward” and “IFHY” he talks about a love interest and how he is unable to properly maintain his emotions. In “Answer” he addresses his father —who abandoned him and his mother when he was a kid— and feelings over his recently deceased grandmother.

That’s not to say that he has completely forgone his old ways of song making. The album is still littered with tracks like “Trashwang”, “Domo 23” and “Jamba” that are blatant jabs at mainstream radio rap and inspired by the days of Goblin. Wolf should be taken for what it is— a young artist who is growing, finding his own niche in the music world while trying to have fun. –Carl Acheson