You’ve probably heard this, but Tyler, the Creator is rapping again. One of the predominant narratives around the release of his new studio album, Call Me If You Get Lost, is that he’s rediscovered a passion for the craft of rap that had diminished. A clip from Tyler’s 2014 interview with Larry King features the musician explaining that he felt creatively limited by the genre.
“I hate rapping, only because it puts you in this box,” he laments.
Obviously, creative limitations have never really been a problem for Tyler, who has been pushing boundaries (and buttons) since emerging as an object of ire and obsession in the late ‘00s. In recent years, Tyler has demonstrated considerable growth as a singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer. This all culminated in an ironic Grammy win for Best Rap Album with IGOR, which is likely his LP least steeped in traditional hip-hop sounds and cadences.
“Half of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment,” Tyler said following the win. “Like, oh, my little cousin wants to play the game, let’s give him the unplugged controller so he can shut up and feel good about it. That’s what it felt like a bit.”
But even as he’s chafed at the label and gone through phases of falling in and out of love with the genre itself, Tyler has always been a great rapper. His bassy, rumbling voice alone would make him a standout in the crowded hip-hop world, but Tyler has an underappreciated knack for tricky flows, and a penchant for highly rewindable lyrics (both for shock value reasons in his early days and more contemplative ones, too).
Aided by DJ Drama and appearances from 42 Dugg, Youngboy Never Broke Again, Lil Wayne, Pharrell, and Domo Genesis, Call Me If You Get Lost sees Tyler in peak form as a rapper. Though, as you’ll see from these choice performances throughout his career, he may have never left it.
10. “Trouble on My Mind” (2011) The steely drug dealer demeanor of Pusha T was a perfect foil for Tyler’s wackiness on this 2011 standout. The duo’s first and so far only collaboration is menacing but droll, like the antagonist in a Coen Bros movie.
Tyler’s second verse is particularly rewarding for Odd Future fans, with a pair of sly references to “Yonkers,” including some colorful bars about…dinosaur sex. It’s another masterclass of off-kilter references, including Tripp and Bristol Palin, Bushwick Bill, 2Pac and Free Willy. No one’s brain works like Tyler’s, and on verses like these it’s thrilling to hear him free associating in his hearty baritone.
9. “DEATHCAMP” (2015) Tyler’s homage to the frenetic pacing of N.E.R.D., “DEATHCAMP” opens his 2015 album Cherry Bomb at a full sprint and never lets up.
The track includes a major tip of Tyler’s GOLF hat to Pharrell (“In Search Of… did more for me than Illmatic / That’s when I realized we ain’t cut from the same fabric”). And “DEATHCAMP” showcases his biting with laugh-out-loud comparisons like “I’m going harder / Than coming out the closet to conservative Christian fathers” and a winking reference to his massive influence on the impressionable youth of the internet. (“In the meantime, brainwashing millions of minions”).
Cherry Bomb is a kind of bridge between Tyler’s wild early days and his more measured, vulnerable present, which means there are fewer jaw-dropping lines than on Wolf or GOBLIN, but we do get some endearingly brash bars in the form of “The blind n**gas used to make fun of my vision / And now I pay a mortgage and they stuck with tuition.”
8. “Telephone Calls” (2016) Tyler and A$AP Rocky have always brought out the best in each other musically, and one of Tyler’s most spirited guest verses comes on the thunderous A$AP Mob cut “Telephone Calls.”
Given the duo’s well-known interest in fashion, it’s fitting that Tyler spends his verse dressing down the competition. “Fuck the Gucci, fuck the Raf / And fuck the swag and all that other shit they wearin’ / Fuck the Rolls and fuck the ‘Rari / Fuck the Lambo’, Tyler only ride McLaren,” he snarls.
There’s a cascading quality to the way Tyler raps here, like a running back barrelling downhill through would-be tacklers. He’s not the kind of artist who feels the need to constantly show off the full breadth of his gifts, but it’s always a blast to hear him go this deep into his bag. Just as long as that bag isn’t Giuseppe, Louis Vuitton, or Raf Simons.
7. “Garden Shed” (2017) There was some dispute over lyrics to “Garden Shed,” what many view as the centerpiece of Flower Boy, but regardless it’s still a crucial entry in Tyler’s discography.
“Garden shed for the garçons /Them feelings that I was guardin’ / Heavy on my mind / All my friends lost / They couldn’t read the signs,” Tyler admits, which many listeners took to be an acknowledgment of queerness.
The song builds gradually and gracefully to Tyler’s rap verse, on which he acknowledges complex emotions that have lingered since adolescence, and the external pressures of heteronormativity. He also ends the verse by talking about how important it is for artists like him to open up about topics like this that were once taboo. “This is a crucial subject matter / Sensitive like cookin’ batter,” he says.
6. “Something to Rap About” (2020) Tyler’s appearance on Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist’s “Something to Rap About” definitely kickstarted some of the “TYLER IS RAPPING?!” discourse, and with good reason. Over a luxurious, languid beat–Alchemist works magic with the dreamy guitar chords of David T. Walker’s “On Love”–Tyler takes stock from the deck of the boat he hasn’t bought yet.
His verse is celebratory, but doesn’t turn a blind eye to the uphill battles Tyler has fought to stake out a place for himself in the worlds of music, pop culture, and fashion. “We get dressed in some Gucci or Lacoste, shit, it’s amazing / We look like Polo ads but skin is darkened,” he raps. Plus, the performance is all the more impressive after Tyler lets it slip that he did the whole thing in one take.
5. “Yonkers” (2011) In some ways, the actual rapping on “Yonkers” was overshadowed by its striking black-and-white video and controversial lines about B.o.B, Bruno Mars, and Pitchfork. But with the dust settled, it’s easy to see why the song is so central to Tyler’s myth-building.
It’s filled with absurd imagery (Tyler lusts for “Green paper, gold teeth, and pregnant golden retrievers”), pitch black references to Stevie Wonder’s blindness and school shootings, and shoutouts to both the Odd Future crew and Tyler’s various alter egos.
The third verse may just be the standout, opening with the wild couplet “They say success is the best revenge / So I beat DeShay up with the stack of magazines I’m in,” and concluding with some pointed lines about his absentee father.
4. “OKRA” (2018) After the massive critical and commercial success of Flower Boy, Tyler felt like he had earned the right to talk a little shit. “OKRA” is like a victory lap in one of his beloved McLaren cars, as he tells Timothee Chalamet to “get at him,” and flexes about Grammy nominations, a five figure luggage habit, and his lucrative relationship with Goldenvoice, who organize Coachella as well as assisting Tyler with his Camp Flog Gnaw festival.
The booming, bass-heavy beat is a perfect canvas for his rapping, equal parts nimble and knotty. Tyler has always had a penchant for clever internal rhymes, and he opens “OKRA” with an impressive display: “Check my bankroll, ayo, 400K for vehicle / Paintjob look like ashy ankles on Django, interior look mango.”
3. “Golden” (2011) The final track on the regular version of Goblin is one of Tyler’s most gutting, a final throat-clearing in the form of a therapy session with his Dr. TC alter ego. By 2011, Tyler’s life had changed dramatically, but as many artists find, the fame brought as many problems as it solved.
Tyler’s voice hits a new level of gravelly here. He’s always been able to emote well through his raps, but there’s a beleaguered quality on “Golden” that really lets you into his mind. The first verse ends with a true gut punch—at the time, Odd Future and its fans were in the midst of the “Free Earl” movement, which stemmed from Earl Sweatshirt being sent to a “reform school in Samoa.” A weary Tyler draws the distinction that no matter how much the Odd Future faithful clamored for Earl’s return, they would never understand the pain on his level.
“N**gas saying ‘Free Earl’ without even knowin’ him / See, they’re missing a new album; I’m missing my only friend,” he says.
2. “Rusty” (2013) Every once in a while, Tyler hits us with a one-liner that showcases his incredible wit and comedic timing. In the span of a single sprawling verse, he brags that he’s “harder than DJ Khaled playing the fucking quiet game,” laments the zombification of hip-hop fashion (“These fucking rappers got stylists cause they can’t think for themselves”), and refutes some of the vitriolic criticism against him (“Tyler’s not even a violent name / About as threatening as stained windbreakers in hurricanes”).
On “Rusty,” Tyler also wrestles with the growing divide in his fanbase. He sees them as divided into two factions, those who want more violent music like “Tron Cat,” which features some of his most twisted lyrics about sexual assault, and those who prefer his sweeter, sensitive side, represented by the lovers-at-the-lake imagery of “Analog.”
Not a lot of artists are willing to have these kinds of existential conversations about their songs in their songs, but Tyler always has. At the end, he realizes that what his fans really want is unfettered access to his psyche. “Fuck buying studio time, I’ma go purchase a shrink / Record the session and send all you motherfuckers a link,” he says.
1.“November” (2017) Tyler begins the first verse of “November” in distress. He wonders whether those in his inner circle, like his longtime manager Christian Clancy and even his accountant, are fleecing him, and if his social media antics have overshadowed his desire to “make classics.”
Pensive bars like these highlight what an inflection point Flower Boy was for the former firebrand. In addition to reckoning with his sexuality, he takes stock of his place in the music industry at large, coming up on a decade since changing the hip-hop landscape.
The song is a showcase for Tyler’s underappreciated technical gifts. He uses his rich deep voice to bend syllables, making “Ladera” rhyme with “Bank of America,” and clever lines tumble forth from his lips in rapid succession, ending with a line about his own halcyon days of summer 2006. “November” is one of Tyler’s most mature songs, it feels like the kind of record that all of his skills had gradually been building towards. (Though Flower Boy was one of Tyler’s most melodic record to date, it still featured some of his sharpest rapping on tracks like “I Ain’t Got Time!” and “Where This Flower Booms,” as well as, of course, “Garden Shed.”)