Igor: an essay on a love story

Igor: an essay on a lovestory

Tyler, The Creator dropped his 5th studio album on May 17th titled: IGOR. This album has 12 songs with guest appearances from Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Solange, Kanye West, and Jerrod Carmichael, along with backing vocals from Santigold, Jessy Wilson, La Roux, CeeLo Green, Charlie Wilson, Slowthai, and Pharrell. This project has received nationwide acclaim by debuting at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 beating out DJ Khaled’s Father of Asahd. Like all of Tyler’s albums it was all wrote and produced by him. Like his clear influencers, Pharrell and Kanye, Tyler has shown that he is a talented rapper produce. Some of the songs on this project we can hear the impact that Kanye and Pharrell have on Tyler. This article will not be about Tyler, The Creator’s past projects or the history of Tyler. This will be solely about IGOR. Like Tyler’s disclaimer he put out before the release of the album; I am only going to critique and explain my take on IGOR as a stand-alone project.

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Let’s start with the project as a whole. IGOR was a romance story, with a well felt out plot of more singing and love song writing then rapping. The instrumentals were more soulful than hip-hop, the content was more R&B than Rap. The whole plot of the story before we go into a deep dive into it: Tyler is in love, then he gets his heart broken, and then the aftermath of a broken relationship. In other words IGOR is the soundtrack of a relationship that started and ended. The emotion shown by this album through the song writing and instrumentals allude that these are genuine feelings that Tyler had, which we have never seen or heardfrom Tyler before Flower Boy; which is called artist growth or growth in general. This album is one of those projects that if you start it you must finish it all the way through, playing each song every time because it flows like a story. You wouldn’t just read one chapter of a book is all I am saying.When listening to the album the first time it was a hard listen because I am an avid fan of Tyler’s, even though he gave us the disclaimer, and this isn’t anything like any of his other albums. The second listen I paid attention to the story. The story of lovers. The start of the album is not the beginning of a relationship but it is a moment of crisis in the relationship, a breaking point with confirmation lyrics from one of the starting songs EARFQUAKE, one of my favorite songs, stating “don’t leave, it’s my fault” and followed wby the next song I THINK where we are exposed to how Tyler feels about the relationship which is in fact that he

“This album is one of those projects that if you start it you must finish it all the way through”

is in love, stated by the hook. EAR- FQUAKE is one of the bangers of the album with the feature by Playboi Carti who uses his famed baby voice that suits the song very well. I THINK had a heavy Kanye/Pharrell type beat but with Tyler’s signature distorted low 808s that complement the low fi melody of the song. Then we see that Tyler thinks that he is too late when trying to fix his relationship with the song RUNNING OUT OF TIME and then proceeds to beg his lover not to leave him in NEW MAGIC WAND. At this point in the album we see that this relationship is a rollercoaster and that the feelings might have been one sided on Tyler’s behalf, and that this is a toxic relationship that he must leave. Then we transferonto the point in the relationship when Tyler comes to a realization that this is a one-sided relationship with songs like A BOY IS A GUN* and PUPPET. Tyler realized that he was being used emotionally. Both A BOY IS A GUN and PUPPETS were high points in the album with Kanye featured on PUPPETS, a well-executed feature. A BOY IS A GUN* had one of the best sample usages on the album with the sample being Ponderosa Twins Plus One’s song Bound, which was also sampled by Kanye on his song Bound 2. Although PUPPETS had the Kanye feature the next song was the most Kanye like song on the album which is WHAT’S GOOD. WHATS GOOD sounded like it could have been on Kanye’s Yeezus album. This song was the most rap song on the album with Tyler still showing us that he can still go bar for bar with many of the rappers in the game right now. When Tyler wants to he can rap his ass off, this song told us not to get it twisted. This is also the pre-breakup song that will finalizes the end of the relationship with the ending dialogue being “I don’t know what’s harder, letting go or being ok with it” then we transfer into the actual break up song GONE, GONE/THANK YOU with the hook

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repeating “my loves gone”. Then what comes next is the aftermath of a toxic relationship, with Tyler completely out of love with his once romantic partner with the song I DON’T LOVE YOU ANY- MORE and then Tyler asking for closer with the track ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?, which is one of the slower songs of the album. This song was one of the most melodic of the album and a great ending to the story.

The album as a whole was a work of art and a stroke of genius from the flower boy himself. I can say confidently that Flower Boy was the album that established Tyler as an artist that needs to be taken seriously and that can give us a story but IGOR cemented that; put him in a top tier of artistry with the likes of Frank Ocean. The Project is a need to listen, 9/10. Thank you Tyler for a wonderful project and cant wait to see where you go after this.

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