Tyler Okonma, better known as Tyler, the Creator, is a genre-bending, award-winning rapper, songwriter and producer. He will release “Chromakopia,” his eighth album, at 6a.m. on Oct. 28. However, the album’s rollout started two weeks before its release date.
St. Chroma
Okonma released the first snippet of music from the album on Oct. 16 with a video named “ST. CHROMA.” The song heard in this video is believed to be the first track on the album due to the caption of the snippets’ post on Instagram being “1. st. chroma.” Fans started to speculate on who could possibly be on the album, especially looking at lyrics like, “Can you feel like light? Inside, can you feel that fire?” Some fans claim they heard R&B singers Frank Ocean and Daniel Caesar feature on the track, while others think it was just Okonma’s vocals. In the video, fans were introduced to Okonma’s new persona, theorized to be based on the character Chroma the Great from the book “The Phantom Tollbooth” because of the video’s name and Okonma’s character’s ability to give scenes color. This new persona leads a line of silhouettes, thought to be the feature list of the album, into a shipping crate and blowing it up. Within that week, fans also changed their profiles to the green color featured on the album cover along with making their names the same font and style as the Chromakopia title.
Noid
Okonma released his first single from the album, “Noid,” on Oct. 21 with a music video being posted on Instagram and YouTube. Noid, short for paranoid, is a hard beat song with a rock guitars and a sample from “Nizakupanga Ngzo” by Zambian band Ngozi Family with lyrics in Nyanji, a Zambian dialect, that say, “When you come at my house, please be respectful. Because I don’t like talking too much. Talking too much breeds gossip” when translated to English. In the video, Okonma’s persona runs around and away from others that are perceived as his fans that crowd him, along with him getting attacked. The song reflects Okonma’s paranoia that has crept into his life because of his fame. This comes as a stark contrast to his last album, “Call Me If You Get Lost,” which centers around the lavish lifestyle he leads because of his fame.
CHROMAKOPIA Vinyl
A day after the release “Noid” release, another video titled “CHROMAKOPIA VINYL” released with Okonma’s persona in a monochrome room with his album cover framed on the wall, a record player and his new vinyl cover. He starts the vinyl, which shows more previews starting with a calm song which gives the vibe similar to his last album “Call Me If You Get Lost.” Then, the picture frame falls on the ground, and color floods the room with a harder rap song, similar to the vibe of some songs on Okonma’s album “Igor,” playing. Finally the record scratches, and the scene goes back to monochrome with a more soulful song playing.
CHROMAKOPIA Tour
Okonma released a video titled “CHROMAKOPIA TOUR” on Oct. 23, with soldiers marching out of the crate they were in in the first preview and into a plane. Okonma’s persona angrily grabs a few of the people in lines and starts checking passports before the camera turns, and he clicks the button three times before something behind the camera explodes, ending with the Chromakopia title with “THE WORLD TOUR” under it. The video announced that Lil Yachty and Paris Texas will open for his tour. On his instagram account, he also posted the video along with tour dates and information on the album’s website.
CHROMAKOPIA Release Date
That same day he announced the album will release at 6 a.m. EST on Oct. 28, with Okonma telling fans they can listen to “CHROMAKOPIA” when they wake up that Monday morning. In his instagram story, he also posted that fans in Los Angeles can go to a Chromakopia listening event at the Intuit Dome for $5 on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. PT, where he will be lip syncing to the full album. There is still information coming out about the album that may come up over the weekend, but fans are excited over the new release, along with the merch that is releasing soon with the vinyl. Tyler, The Creator fans even think he may have a chance at another Grammy, but they’ll be set to know once it releases on Oct. 28.
