It sets the tone for a record that distinguishes itself from its competitors by the way in which Tyler informs you of his pampered lifestyle, fleet of expensive cars and healthy bank balance. He pauses the backing track underneath Lumberjack – a lurching, hulking beast of a tune, heavy on distorted drum breaks and vinyl scratch samples – to take stock and recalls his mother’s heartwarming and endearing reaction to his Grammy win for Call Me If You Get Lost’s predecessor, 2019’s vibrant and acclaimed Igor (“It was a beautiful moment”), then launches into the track’s fabulous hook, another swollen-headed boast: “Rolls-Royce pull up, black boy hop out”. “Keep your Patek, I spent that on art,” he huffs on Lemonhead, taunting his peers, whose own respective oeuvres obsess over their innumerable purchases from the Swiss watch manufacturer. “Hotel concierge know me as that spaced-out nigga with the chunky airs”. “New car doors, they lift open,” he says, with the flat nonchalance of a bored jetsetter, on opening track Sir Baudelaire. From the off, recruiting DJ Drama as master of ceremonies, the album’s constant presence, it is an album that gloats with magnificent relish. It’s not necessarily that they’re gratuitously materialistic and self-obsessed that’s the issue, it’s more that they don’t formidably convince you of their wealth and boundless hedonism: at present, merely rattling off a bunch of luxury sports cars in your esteemed possession and the selection of prescription drugs you’ve boldly decided to ingest recreationally – before predictably bedding a slew of attractive ladies, no less – without creatively and wittily expressing those facts seemingly constitutes a modern rapper’s modus operandi.Įnter Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost. From Camp Lo to Kanye, living lavishly has long been a hip-hop lyrical mainstay, yet today’s crop of rappers leave much to be desired. Like all competitive sports, the increasing influence of vast quantities of drugs and money on rapping has brought with it worrying precedents. Like his peers, he can certainly rap lengthily about his possessions and wild lifestyle, but audibly far better than any of them, as this follow-up to 2019’s Grammy-winning Igor shows – sonically omnivorous and lyrically intriguing where they are overfamiliar and lazy ★★★★★
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