Portrait of Tyler, The Creator. March 2nd, 2025. Photo Credit: Joseph Higgins/Flickr
Released on Oct. 28, Tyler, The Creator’s new deluxe album, “CHROMOKOPIA +,” record was issued in accordance with the near-first anniversary of the original album that dropped on Oct. 29 of last year.
With the squeaky-clean sendoff the original album had, fans eagerly awaited the release of yet another project. However, these presumptions proved to be optimistic as Tyler found himself in widespread controversy before the album’s drop.
Users on X uncovered a heap of posts on the platform detailing racist remarks from the rapper dating all the way back to 2011.
All of the unconcealed posts from Tyler have since been deleted and wiped from the app, but one user commented that the acclaimed hip-hop act could potentially have “one of the worst digital footprints in history.”
Another user posted a collage of bizarre images of Tyler, including of him dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan costume and doing a Nazi salute.
Investigations into Tyler’s past such as these are no stranger to the internet’s most populous talking spaces. Mass backlash to his early-fame antics can be traced back to 2015, when public media pressure resulted in his banishment from the United Kingdom.
It seems that with the landing of each new Tyler, The Creator project comes a mass influx of fans who are unaware of his past insensitive conduct. What makes this occurrence even more morally ambiguous is the added nuance of Tyler’s former identity as a surreal satirist.
Through observation of many contributions to his associated Adult Swim show, “Loiter Squad,” his brand of subjectively “try hard” style of satire is obvious.
Given this fact, the line between his satire and genuine thoughts is almost impossible to distinguish from one another; the full context needed to uncover Tyler’s true intent is blurry at best.
With this on the minds of his fans, another point of discourse arose.
To some, “CHROMOKOPIA +” is barely even a deluxe—rather a marketing ploy by Tyler to cover up his waves of controversial X posts.
This idea was born from the fact that the deluxe only contains one additional song added to the original track list. With the new track being removed from the album in its last moments before official release, it left many fans questioning its publication in the first place.
The supplementary track, “Mother,” itself is a fairly decent outing by the rapper—one that sees him dive into a number of experiences linked with his childhood homes.
However, its specification as an entirely new project could operate as a domino effect that sends ripples throughout much of mainstream music.
Single-song efforts being hoisted as new albums is most likely the exact result that label executives are clawing towards. It effectively minimizes the product while still being marketed as a state-of-the-art, innovative piece of music.
This effect has already staked a claim on artists such as Taylor Swift, whose massive 36 total rereleases for her 2024 album “The Tortured Poets Department” barely differ from one another.
The sad reality is that the artists behind this endless deluxe trampling barely have any say on their own output. Many of these musicians are locked for years behind sky-high label demands that can’t be fulfilled without sacrificing some level of consistency behind their art.
Tyler, the Creator, has become yet another victim of music’s commercial labyrinth. If this is truly his last project for a few years—like how he’s claimed—he’s leaving us as the furthest thing from a ‘creator’ that he could be.