Tyler, the Creator - Scum Fuck Flower Boy (2017)
Ah, man, Tyler and I have a lot in common, you know? We're about the same age, grew up with a lot of anger inside, and also attempted and failed to keep a hip-hop group alive, so, in a way, I feel like I grew up with Tyler, as I'm sure a lot of us do, but here's the thing that really fucks me up about Tyler: His production before has been some straight fucking trash. FL Studio presets, the same dreary synthesizers plaguing tracks, and it just wasn't really complimented well by the general "If only you could see inside of my head.. You would see that I'm fucked up.. You wouldn't guess that from my nonstop rape jokes.." shit that got really old really quickly. I felt like I had matured more than Tyler did, but I was still a bit weary of his Odd Future comrades. I mean, it's 2017 and it feels like nearly all of those guys are the exact same people they were in 2011, for better or for worse, but regardless, I found myself gravitating more towards Earl Sweatshirt's music, but it was a bit jarring because he seemingly became depressed overnight and never came out of it. With Tyler's work, you get a feeling of progression, but it took five solo releases to get here as a respectable adult, so unless you have a shitload of angst, you probably won't get into anything pre-"Cherry Bomb" and you probably won't get into that album because of the shitty mixing. The point I'm trying to make is that Tyler's disappointed me a lot in the past, but he progressed mentally and musically, slowly and slowly by the album, and where he's at right now is enough to get an 8/10 from Anthony Fantano.. But I'm not as easily impressed as Anthony Fantano. #SHOTSFIRED #sorta #IguessIjustwantedtosaysomethingedgy
Alright, all jokes aside, I like this album. I do. I feel like he's really progressed not just as an artist, but as a person, and I can honestly say that him coming out as bisexual really surprised me, given what a homophobic past he's had, but that didn't change the music one way or another for me. I know I'm being hypocritical by writing this, thus furthering me talk about this issue, but I feel like too much of the media surrounding this album has been about him coming out as bisexual, and helping build up hype for the album, but truthfully, it doesn't even slightly fucking matter. His sexuality doesn't matter to anyone except him, but we're getting all of these fucking awful articles about how it matters, and it's like.. Just let the guy live his fucking life, dude, on this album, he decided to let you in on a very personal thing in his life, and all of these websites are milking the fuck out of it. I don't know, this doesn't have much to do with the album, it was just some shit I wanted to get off of my chest about how Tyler's been treated because of it.
People keep praising this album as being beautiful, but I don't really hear that. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or rather, in this case, in the ear, but no matter how much he's expanded his library of sounds, I spend too much time in FL Studio to not recognize when he's using stock/presets. I think the worst case of him using presets comes in the final track "Enjoy Right Now, Today", but Tyler's always used presets, so I don't know just how much I can fault him for it now, five solo releases into his career. Dude's put in a lot of work, and I can respect that heavily, but a lot of this album feels a bit.. Scattered. When a track like "Who Dat Boy (feat. A$AP Rocky)" or "I Ain't Got Time!" kicks in, it contrasts against the rest of the album, and of course you can say "Oh well that's just the SCUM FUCK from the album title" but if that's the case, then a solid 80-90% of this album is the Flower Boy. I feel like this album's musical vibes should've been spread out a bit more evenly, especially when Tyler's rapping has never been better, so we could've gotten some really gritty tracks out of it to blare in the whip when we don't feel like blaring the chiller tracks.
I feel like I grew up with Tyler, in a sense, as I'm sure a lot of you do, so hearing him go from making "French! (feat. Hodgy Beats)" to "911 / Mr. Lonely (feat. Anna Of The North, Frank Ocean & Steve Lacy)" is pretty incredible, and makes me feel like I'm watching an old friend from high school finally get to a comfortable spot in their career, but there's still things I just can't shake about this album: The production and general mastering of this album can feel a bit muddy, some sections of songs don't do anything for me, and Tyler just isn't generally isn't even nearly as good as Earl Sweatshirt at convincing you he genuinely feels and believes what he's rapping about, but it's good, and I can genuinely say that I like every track on here for the first time in.. Holy fuck, that's the first time I've -ever- been able to say that about any of his releases. Regardless, I don't really get what all these dudes are saying when they talk about it being beautiful, a masterpiece, or whatever else, but I think I can see where they'd think that: When "November" kicks in, I remember -my- November, and how I wish I died at the end of it, so I never experienced anything else. Tyler and I can relate to each other once again, as we face the monster known as adulthood, but he's still just one of those guys I knew as a teenager that I don't have a whole lot of interest in spending more than an hour or two with, which, yeah, I know that's a negative thing to end a positive review on, but it's true. Plenty of unique sounds on this album, nice little production tricks, songwriting, etc.. But he's still got a little ways to go before I can say "Yeah, I'm a Tyler, the Creator fan" without feeling like I just admitted that I collect "Naruto" VHS tapes at a ten year high school reunion.
7/10
________________________________________________________
Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
