After years of experimentation, Tyler, The Creator flawlessly achieves the music he has been trying to get at for his entire career. While most of Tyler’s early music hasn’t stood the test of time, he finally blooms on what is arguably his most personal album yet — Flower Boy.
“What song do you want to hear?” asked the radio DJ “The one about me…” are a few of the only lines on the 36-second track “Sometimes...” Flower Boy, which dropped July 21, shows Tyler opening up his problems socially, mentally and his sexuality are the manifest of the album. This can be seen especially in “Garden Shed” where he talks about his sexual identity.
In the opening track “Foreward,” Tyler begins to tease his sexuality in the second verse — “Shoutout to the girls that I lead on/For occasional head and always keeping my bed warm/And trying they hardest to keep my head on straight.” The clear reference to being with women in an effort to ignore the lingering thoughts of his bisexuality. He also shouts out the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the song, and mentions the tiresome fight for racial equality in America. He even asks the listener how many more riots and protests are needed until black lives matter in the country.
The beauty in which Tyler talks about his sexuality in this album might have came as a shock to most of his listeners, but then it made a lot of sense. For years, Tyler has referenced his sexuality but everyone just chalked it up to Tyler just being Tyler, as the rapper is known for never being serious. No one even took this 2015 tweet seriously until Flower Boy came out.
I TRIED TO COME OUT THE DAMN CLOSET LIKE FOUR DAYS AGO AND NO ONE CARED HAHAHHAHAHA
— Tyler, The Creator (@tylerthecreator) April 13, 2015
As previously mentioned, this theme is referred to heavily in “Garden Shed.” Track seven of the album is where this sexuality is revealed “ Garden shed for the garçons/Them feelings I was guardin’.'” French for boy, the use of “garçon” in the song seems to confirm his bisexuality rather than hiding his feelings.
“Garçon” could be a shout out to Frank Ocean’s “Comme des Garçons” from his visual album Endless. He talks about the struggle to open up to his friends has been hard when he raps, “All my friends lost/They couldn't read the signs.” Even Tyler phrases that he had hoped this was all just a phase that he would get over, but accepts that it’s far more than a phase - it’s who he is.
The production of the album is by far the most impressive of any Odd Future member. Tyler produced the entire album himself which further proved his genius as an artist. Tyler took a sample of Bel-Sha-Zaar’s 1969 “Introduction” — a song for belly dancing instruction, for “I Ain’t Got Time!”
Flower Boy is the album that Tyler needed to drop. Tyler has matured since his 2009 release Bastard. Tyler become vulnerable about who he truly is, and encapsulates being yourself in 46 minutes. So go on out there, get lost in the lazy summer that Flower Boy creates and “Enjoy Right Now, Today.”
Rating: 4.5/5
