Flower Boy Signaled A New Era for Tyler, The Creator
A noticeable difference in style for this artist
Flower Boy officially signaled the bloom of Tyler, The Creator as an artist. Being entirely produced by Tyler himself, the album feels deeply personal as we travel through the emotions of a lonely artist. Admittedly, I took me a while to warm up to this album. Upon my first listen on its release in 2017, I was shocked by how different this version of Tyler was, compared to the one I used to listen to on his infamous Goblin and Bastard albums. The once abrasive, and almost offensive, rapper had changed — and perhaps, for the better.
The most amicable way I can explain this transition is how Tyler begins to process his emotions. In the earlier era, he would speak to a sort of narrator/therapist in a sarcastic and even angry tone. This anger could arise from sexual frustration in relation to his sexual preference, his performance as an artist, the weight of fame, or a plethora of other things we couldn’t begin to imagine. In these talks with this “therapist”, Tyler would lash out often and pull a nonchalant, abrasive front. See songs like “Goblin”, “Yonkers”, and “Nightmare”.
Then something changes. In the same time frame as the release of Flower Boy, it becomes accepted public knowledge that Tyler is part of the LGBTQ+…
