For those unfamiliar to Tyler, The Creator, he’s a rapper who’s seven albums stretching from 2009 to 2021 have solidified him as one of the most popular artists of American twenty-first century music and rap culture. His seven albums are also extremely different from each other. Early in his career with Bastard and especially Goblin—which flashed tracks like Yonkers and Tron Cat that had controversial lyrics—his music started off in a weird gray area that could be called Alternative Hip Hop, but it was something else for sure.
As the 2010s progressed, Tyler, The Creator held onto that Alternative sound a little bit with his album Wolf, but Cherry Bomb brought a different, unique sound to his discography. It felt more pop leaning, but still featured hard rap such as his track “RUN”, displaying that Tyler still cared to flash the fast flow. His popularity was really always with him after his music video from Yonkers came out where he ate a cockroach, but I believe it picked up a considerable amount after Flower Boy came out in 2017. I think it managed to capture people who hadn’t really heard his music yet because this album wasn’t as niche, and instead could be projected to a broader audience. R&B fans, rap fans, and even indie fans could be gravitated towards what Flower Boy had to offer. That same rap flow from Cherry Bomb’s “RUN” could be heard with the song “I Ain’t Got Time!” on Flower Boy. However, you also see tracks such as “Garden Shed” which featured Estelle’s god given vocals and a softer, mellower sound, joined in by echoey guitar chords.
Tyler’s two latest creations are CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST and IGOR. IGOR is believed to have a meaning behind it. Fans and reviewers such as Shawn Cee after release conspired about its relevance to Tyler’s life and him seeing himself as the character Igor, first shown in 1974, in the film Young Frankenstein. The other pieces to understanding the story are tracks such as “I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE” and “ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?” appear at the end of the album and clue us in to realize that he’s illustrating one of his relationships in this album. To make it clearer, the track “RUNNING OUT OF TIME” features Tyler singing that he’s running out of time to make his potential lover love him.
CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST is more of a mystery to me as I haven’t really given it a true listen ever. I’ve frequented “RISE!” and “LEMONHEAD” as they stuck out to me as my favorites on my first listen, but I didn’t give it a good fair listen all the way through. He does feature new collaborations on this album such as YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Brent Faiyaz, however a lot of his old friends found their way back into his new work. Tyler does that best. Whatever and whoever he wants, he goes out and gets. He’s a perfectionist in creating the perfect song for him, something Kali Uches alludes to in Illegal Civ Cinema’s 2017 documentary, Cherry Bomb The Documentary.
The documentary
This freaking documentary has done what no other movie, documentary, or piece of film has ever done to me: Firing me up and making me want to create something the second I stop watching it on the couch. I don’t only love the album Cherry Bomb, but the actual filming of this documentary and how it makes me (and probably you) feel. I truly mean this with every fiber in my being when I say this: Go watch this and you will feel more inspired, creative, and fired up then you might ever feel. If it doesn’t make you feel that way, then I’m sorry for you. Because that’s what it did for me and every year I revisit it now for that exact reason.
The documentary is easy to guess what it’s about and I’m happy I don’t have to summarize it like a movie review–it’s a documentary about the making of his album Cherry Bomb. Filled with the antics of Tyler and his friends, countless clips of studio sessions, and Tyler’s guide on how he felt while making each song, Cherry Bomb The Documentary is the full package.
Illegal Civ opened each track from the album before unpacking how it was created by making a cool little animation or video for it. My favorite one was for “Brown Stains” where they had the little chattering walking teeth bumping around on the screen and they stop with the teeth bearing “Brown Stains” on each tooth carrying a letter. Each song’s creation and backstory was really awesome to see because as a listener, we almost never get to see what it was like for the top artists to make their song step by step. We saw Tyler working with real violinists and guitarists all the way up to the big stars–Kanye West, Charlie Wilson, Lil Wayne, Pharrell Williams, and Hans Zimmer. We were framed with his set from his own festival Camp Flog Gnaw where frequently the documentary flipped back to, showing him performing the songs to a 30,000+ audience. We got to see a few behind the scenes of music videos he shot for songs on the album and small guest interviews that talked about Tyler and what was going on in that respective time.
That was a vital piece to the documentary that was nailed–Tyler, The Creator was not sensationalized or glorified. They did not make him bigger than he is and looked to show him completely naturally because everything in the video was so raw. In the beginning of the entire documentary he’s licking vomit, maybe from a dare or just for the hell of it, but that’s pretty raw and Tyler. They shoot him working in his unfinished house and clips of his first tries from the studio. The whole experience as a viewer is amazing and makes you feel like you want to go out and do something with your life because Tyler, The Creator is working so hard and arduously to go out and make an album that is perfect to him.
The bits and pieces of his life were an awesome addition to the documentary and weren’t necessary. The documentary was about his creation of the album, not necessarily the antics of his life. However, we still got to see his friend’s 3rd annual christmas party and fun little videos of Tyler with A$ap Rocky. It added another angle to Tyler, The Creator the person, as well as the rapper and songwriter. It made me realize as I was watching that making something great takes longer than expected and is balanced in a way where you’re not always working on it. He was messing around with his friends and doing all the fun rapper stuff whilst working on the album and letting his thoughts and ideas come to mind.
The whole documentary is so beautifully rambunctious and off the rip. Cherry Bomb’s style and diversity in tracks is only to credit to the long, dedicated Tyler, The Creator and the process he chose in order to make it shown in the documentary. Beyond Tyler and his album, the documentary transcends to show appreciation for the creation of any work. Something appreciated by myself, heading into my computer and typing to talk about whatever it is that I want to talk about.
P.S. Tyler, seven years later and I can tell you personally, Smuckers is legendary and has been for a while now.