Igor - Tyler, The Creator
A synth heavy pop hip-hop album that tells the story of a love triangle, from the perspective of the jealous third-party.
Setting the Scene:
Tyler, The Creator entered the music industry as a founding member of the group Odd Future. At the time, he was a teenager known for his loud personality and outspoken rap verses. He was arguably the face of the music group Odd Future, and as the group gained popularity, Tyler subsequently rose in popularity as well. The first several albums that Tyler released were similar in that they had aggressive tone and lyricism, but Tyler started to move towards a more alternative hip-hop sound after releasing Wolf in 2013. From here, there were hints of jazz and melodic verses on the 2015 release, Cherry Bomb. In 2017, Tyler began to put his personal emotions into his music more openly and this led to the release of Flower Boy. On the album, Tyler subtly announced that he was either bisexual or homosexual, and the tracks themselves had more of Tyler’s singing then other projects he had released up to that point. Leading up to the release of Igor in 2019, Tyler’s sound had gone through a transformation. He didn’t sound like the young teenager who rapped controversial verses anymore, now he was reflecting more on himself and releasing more contemplative tracks. Tyler stated that his upcoming album was going to be about being in love and released a note on the day of release asking readers to give their full attention to the album and put away distractions.
Personal Thoughts:
In the twelve years that Tyler, The Creator had released music up until Igor, I had enjoyed some of his songs but none of his full albums other then Flower Boy. Even for that album, I still was not the biggest fan of some songs, but I thought they did work with the whole album as a part of a greater whole. The piece that immediately jumped out to me about Igor was that it was Tyler’s first concept album. His sound had started trending towards being more my style with Flower Boy and I was excited to see how this album would turn out given the context.
From the opening distorted bass note on “IGOR’S THEME,” it feels like the start of a play. I can imagine the curtains drawing back every time I hear it and this feels like a true intro to a theatrical performance. Throughout the course of the song we are slowly hyped-up to meet the focus of the album, the title character, Igor. We are told at the end of several verses that someone is coming:
“Runnin’, runnin’, runnin’, runnin’,
Uh
Heaven, heaven (Ooh)
He’s coming”
Until his name is shouted at the end of the second chorus:
“(Got my, got my, got my, got my eyes)
Igor”
From here, Tyler begins to tell us about this love story between him, a man that he loves, and the man’s current girlfriend. Over the course of the album, we see Tyler debate whether or not to profess his love to the man in a relationship and eventually, we see him deal with the feelings of rejection, which is where the character of Igor gets introduced. The way Tyler tells this story is theatrical, emotional, and vulnerable and I think everyone should give it a shot because of how unique and great of a story is told here. I hope this gives you a taste of what the album has to offer, and entices you to listen to more if you haven’t already. Check out some of the album with three of my favorite tracks below, and let me know your thoughts about Tyler, The Creator’s first concept album.