By Vincent Trinh ’25
In an interview, Tyler once stated that his first track produced, “Earfquake,” was rejected by Rihanna and Justin Bieber. Despite this, Tyler said that “Earfquake” was going to be his biggest song to all of his friends during an interview with the 2022 Converse All-Star series in Paris. He went as far as to say, “I told Lionel and my friends this is gonna be my biggest song, [if] it’s not, I’ll give you my bank account and quit.” It did, in fact, end up being his most successful song on the Billboard charts since Igor won Tyler his very first Grammy. Igor follows the narrative of the original melancholic character of the same name, Igor, written by Tyler himself. Some critics have been keen to point out that Igor is based on Tyler’s likeness. However, Tyler has previously stated that Igor does not share any resemblance to him and is merely an artistic viewpoint.
Some general information about the album: The album is called Igor and is written and produced by Tyler the Creator. Some of the genres that Tyler incorporates into the album are hip-hop, funk, contemporary R&B, and Neo Soul. Some of the featured artists are Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Solange, Kanye West, and Jerrod Carmichael. In this album, Tyler tackles themes such as heartbreak, loss, and jealousy with his unique sound. The album was released on May 17, 2019. There are a total of 12 tracks — discluding “Boyfriend,” “Earfquake (credits version),” and “Best Interest”, which can be found only in physical copies of the album. You can listen to Igor on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and SoundCloud.
Album Cover:
Many reviewers have stated that Tyler’s sound can be somewhat comparable to a couple of other albums, including Blonde by Frank Ocean, Ctrl by SZA, and The Divine Feminine by Mac Miller. In my personal opinion, I found the same resonation in this album in Hawaii Part 2 by Miracle Musical. When put against other previous albums in Tyler the Creator’s discography, we can see his growth as an artist. Flower Boy has more pop songs and style compared to Igor’s more dark and aggressive tone, while Goblin shares similar tones of violence and disturbing lyrics.
Tyler the Creator is a fun and ultra-confident artist. This is reflected in Igor, Tyler’s 6th album in his discography, with endless creativity and egotistical image. Igor is aggressive, violent, and intense at times, yet simultaneously melancholic towards a failed relationship and the deteriorating mental state that remains from it. Tyler the Creator’s first track, “Igor’s Theme,” fills your ears with a punchy bass drone that lasts for 24 seconds. In those 24 seconds, I was immediately hooked. My throat closed up, bating my breath for just a moment while the shock swelled. It builds up great anticipation and suspense for when the song starts and the lyrics begin to pour in, flooding the gates of my soul. The sustained note reverberates through my head, making my soul tremble in terror. This stayed for the rest of the album and set the mood perfectly for the rest of the tracks. In my mind, the personality of this first track is intrusive, bold, unapologetic, and loud. This surprises the listener with something that, as far as I’m concerned, no artist has ever done before. It creates this wrap of sound that envelops your listening experience and pulls you out of the world and into the atmosphere of Igor. It transports you to the new dimension of music that Tyler’s character, Igor, lives in.
The album explores the themes of heartbreaks, loss, and jealousy with a confluence of emotions. Some of these emotions include fear, confusion, and melancholy, all accompanied by a wave of violent anger. Igor’s sound reflects this in every song, sometimes multiple themes at once. Tyler’s main use of R&B vocals is accompanied by electronic sound effects. With this combination, Tyler’s sound comes off as surreal, uncanny, hauntingly intimidating, and overwhelming. This innovative approach to rap music is overwhelming yet pleasant to the ears.
The overall sound of Tyler the Creator’s Igor can best be described as intense. Each track is layered carefully with concepts that are both pleasing to the ears and haunting. I found myself either losing myself in rhythmic bliss or being overwhelmed with spine-chilling themes. Even with these two disparate sides of his sound, Tyler manages to wrap them both in an intriguing narrative. Tyler’s sound reflects the emotions and thoughts of his titular character, Igor. The duality of his sound reflects the duality of Igor. Tyler’s protagonist feels a wide range of emotions that bleed into each other. This allows Igor, and the sound associated with him, to be both a sympathetic character and one to be feared. An example of this being established is in the songs “Running Out of Time” and “New Magic Wand.” The first song creates the perception that Igor is a person who is pursuing someone’s love, but feels like it isn’t enough. This paints Igor as someone we should root for and sympathize with as a protagonist. I think that we can all agree that the pursuit of love combined with upbeat tones tinged with sadness is more than enough to deserve sympathy. Yet, Tyler subverts this perception almost immediately after, pulling us back into the dark reality of Igor’s nature. “New Magic Wand” is a song that serves to show us the morbid parts of Igor’s mind. His violent and murderous thoughts are accompanied by blaring and unnerving melodies. His obscure sound is twisted into a more unsettling alter ego. Looking just a little deeper into the lyrics spoken during this song, Tyler’s lyrical skill truly shines. Igor speaks of killing his ex-lover’s girlfriend with an implied weapon with violent aggression. The more alienated we are from Tyler’s unconventional sound, the closer we are to the darker side of Igor. This is what I believe encompasses the uncanniness exhibited throughout the whole album.
The mood being assembled throughout the whole album is captivatingly dynamic. Tyler’s original character, Igor, expresses a plethora of emotions to varying degrees. The multiple shifts in tone all flow into each other rather naturally. A brief description of this tonal shift is from expressing unrequited love to having violent ideas in the face of a failed relationship to trying to let go but not being able to. A brief description of this tonal shift is from lovelorn to furiously melancholic to clinging to love in the face of the conclusion of a relationship.
The pacing of the album feels organic as Igor’s melodic varieties meld into each other in a way that weaves a satisfying narrative wraps around an emotional rollercoaster of a ballad. The themes are organized in an order of falling into an unrequited love to realizing they weren’t the one and struggling to let go. The transition from “I Don’t Love You Anymore” to “Are We Still Friends” is thematically transformative. The narrative progresses, leading Igor, and the album, closer to the conclusion of the story.
The lyricism of Igor can be heavily dissected for its psychological fluidity. Each song contains its own lyricism of emotion or theme. Tyler can shift from different parts of his character’s mind and the lyrics reflect this. An example of this is in the song “A Boy is a Gun” where Tyler uses his lyrics to convey frustration with incessant swearing and aggressive statements. He sings, “You’re so moth*****kin’ dangerous,” resonating with Igor’s unapologetic exasperation. Yet, in a different song, Tyler presents the listener with a more vulnerable and desperate side of his character. The lyrics of “Are We Still Friends?” demonstrate how Igor has reached a point where his lovelorn sorrow begins to fade out. In the face of this impending conclusion, he expresses great desperation to return to his love by asking to ‘still be friends.’ He sings “Don’t get green skin, keep contact. Don’t say ‘Goodbye, smell you later,’ Nah, I can’t. I don’t wanna end this season on a bad episode. ” Now that the aggressive feelings are further away, Tyler’s protagonist Igor struggles to face the end of his love story.
One important aspect of Tyler the Creator’s lyricism is his use of brief narration featuring Jerrod Carmichael. Carmichael’s narration provides much-needed thematic context to each song on the album. His narration consists of an isolated recording of Carmichael stating phrases that embody the thematic shifts in Igor. This is the cherry on top of a carefully crafted masterpiece.
Tyler the Creator has shown in this album that he has a penchant for creating the most beautiful bridges to his songs. The bridges on this album make the listener eager to hear the next one and enhance the listening experience. They are hooking and breathing variety into the songs, widening the scope of the album’s overall soundscape. While the chorus for most of the songs are memorable and infectiously catchy. Flowing well, the tightly produced chorus allows the sound effects and instrumentation to work harmoniously and accompany each other seamlessly.
This whole album has been such a beautiful and memorable experience for me, but there is one track that stands out in particular in the back of my mind. “New Magic Wand” is a track that stands as both the odd one out and the crown jewel of Igor. The track contains heavy, hard-hitting lyrics that are explicitly morbid. Tyler sings about the consideration of murder to his ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend. This is exemplified in the lyric, “She’s gonna be dead, I just got a magic wand. We can finally be together.” The song is overall harrowing and gut-wrenching with its disturbing context. The short quote that introduces us to the song’s themes iconically states, “Sometimes you gotta close a door to open a window.” This quote, which has become synonymous with the whole album amongst fans, encapsulates the basis for which Tyler expresses the thoughts of Igor in “New Magic Wand”. Narratively, Tyler has used this metaphor to explain how and why our protagonist has adopted this violent alter-ego. In brief, Igor feels that his extreme plan of killing his ex-boyfriend’s girlfriend will open new opportunities for him. He is desperate and turns to his aggressive nature for the answer. This is the highest point of Igor’s character development when it comes to pure resentment for his ex or ex’s lover. This added context only adds to the pure terror of the whole track.
My experience with Igor was just as multilayered as the album itself: it had me in tears, while at the same time passionately vibing through every track. Tyler’s sound is infectious and left such a lasting impression on me that I found myself playing the songs in my head during the most mundane of days. Every lyric and beat feels authentic and raw. Tyler’s creative expression of heartbreak tugs at your heartstrings, leaving you in shambles by the end of every single track. The seamless weaving of an accompanying narrative guides you through Igor’s metaphorical room of mirrors. Everywhere he looks, he can only see himself for better or worse. The listener similarly finds Igor’s touch in Tyler’s music. This album brings Igor to life and seals his fate in a neverending loop of heartbreak. The same note that abrased our ears in the first track is brought back in the final track. Now, the note has shifted to be almost conclusive to the musical motif. However, Tyler intentionally designed the album in a way where the final note is resolved by the note in the first track, meaning that the story will never truly end in a tragic twist of irony.
It is this satisfying design philosophy that makes it so I can never get tired of Igor. This is the sound that will never bore me, surprising me with new details and nuances with each listening session. Igor is a timeless masterpiece that manages to ooze with detail and authenticity with every listen. This album has become and will be my favorite album of all time. There has never been an album that could take me on such a beautiful journey and transport me to a whole new dimension of music like Igor.… I give this album 5 stars out of 5 stars. It doesn’t get better than this, people.
The Raider Press 