Tyler, The Creator
Goblin

Tyler, The Creator, real name Tyler Gregory Okonma, known by many pseudonyms (Wolf Haley, Thurnis Haley, Ace and another 3858930 monickers), is currently considered by experts and non-experts alike, alongside a few others, as one of the most brilliant products recently produced by the American Alternative Rap scene. Goblin is his second album, released in 2011, following his successful debut Bastard (2009).

21-year-old, Californian from Ladera, Tyler is a young rapper completely outside the rules! Together with his collective Odd Future, or OFWGKTA or OFWGKTAMDVISOSLAPVATTELAPESCA, he is radically (not accidentally) shaping new rules for American Rap music. Producer, rapper, and jack-of-all-trades for his music and the collective mentioned above, he stands out for his approach to music: sick, twisted, melancholic, and abstract, with references to b-movies, soft porn, the most famous serial killers, and made even more remarkable by the visual contribution conceived by Tyler himself, on music videos, artworks, promotional photos, and clothing. All this is even more sensational when you consider that Tyler, as previously mentioned, and all other members of Odd Future are youngsters, barely adults or still teenagers, and that in just over 3 years, by exploiting the internet (as happens nowadays) and spreading a dozen albums/mixtapes/EPs, they have gone from unknowns to the number one reality of the American underground.

Back to our protagonist, he is an anomalous rapper within American Hip Hop. The illegitimate son of an orgy between Pharrell Williams/N*E*R*D, Eminem, MF Doom, Erykah Badu, raised on bread and jazz/funk/soul/soft-electronic and the albums of the aforementioned artists, possessing a deep and sometimes very gritty voice tone and a versatile and sharp flow, Tyler manages to blend old school American influences with his own unique and particular way of interpreting Rap; forget about rap filled with Gucci, Lamborghini and gold grills and get ready to clash with the pure malevolence of a youngster who, despite being an emerging artist, has such class and character to really darn those who don't respect him and those who don't care for him, while at the same time being capable of taking home the award for best music video of 2011 at the MTV Video Music Awards for the famous single Yonkers, which today surpasses 57 million views on YouTube.

Starting from Yonkers, which could be taken as a true manifesto of what Tyler, The Creator is, I want to begin analyzing the music of Goblin. Minimal beats, heavy percussion, sometimes metallic and rocky bordering on industrial (I wouldn't mind seeing him rap on Current 93), sometimes suffocating and repetitive ticking; airy and melodically disturbed synth attacks that become persistent and at moments dramatic; constant rebellious interventions of piano and classical instruments, almost as if to turn the composer of Goblin into a mad puppeteer who knows how to emotionally engage those listening to his music and, at the same time, how to frighten them and remind them of all the violence of television and everyday life, which, although no longer frightening, is grotesque and impossible to ignore. Tyler, The Creator is the chronicler of all this but not only. He is able to offer glimpses of his life, of how he is slowly being unwillingly sucked into this world. The success, the money, the concerts, the interviews he doesn't want to do, never having known his father and the little time he now has, now that he is in contact with success, to be with his mother and friends, who he almost now sees as colleagues and "partners" in the bittersweet world of the music biz. As in the previous Bastard, also on Goblin, the fictitious dialogue between Tyler and his therapist, Dr. T.C., in reality, Tyler himself, continues in what turns out to be an amusing and dark self-narration to himself and to those who listen, by the Ladera rapper.

The title track that opens the album is a polished block of cement, heavy and badass, that encompasses sparse melodies on which Tyler appears self-assured, defiant, and provocative, with no holds barred. He would like to crush the world with his hands! 

The same feelings appear on "Yonkers", certainly catchier than the song that precedes it but always in its own way violent and very direct. Tyler's anger, the alleged bouts of misanthropy/misogyny calm down in those episodes flavored with melody such as "She", the third single from the album, a sweet and enveloping description of the author's softcore fantasies in an almost R'n'B flavor (also due to the participation of Frank Ocean), "Her", where Tyler lets us know that amid so much hatred he too can fall in love, and "Analog", a strange attempt of an afternoon summer song where the singer invites to an afternoon at the lake in the company of sex, music, and drugs. In contrast, it's interesting that Tyler approves the Straight Edge philosophy and, in a novelistic way within the lyrics, paradoxically reveals the opposite, the fantasies, and forbidden dreams of what is a poorly hidden inner alter ego, perverse and malevolent. 

An inner alter ego with a name: "Tron Cat", as the title of track number seven. Undoubtedly the meanest song of the bunch! To be listened to exclusively with great headphones for the power of the synths, it is the writer's favorite song of the album because it is both energizing and entertaining. Following the same path are "Radical", an anthem to rebellion and not imposing rules, "Fish", an emblematic celebratory episode of the notorious serial killer Albert Fish, "Transylvania", anti-feminist garage-step assault, "Sandwitches" featuring Hodgy Beats, which was chosen as the first single of the album, and the already programmatically titled "B*tch S*ck D*ck", a mockery of today's American rap. A bit out of the chorus are "Window", "Golden", "Nightmare". Melancholic, airy, and dark they fuel the gloomy and mysterious aspect of the album, they are three songs I would listen to in the rain, on dark days. There's also an instrumental "AU79" to underscore Tyler, The Creator's innate compositional abilities.

Taken as a whole, "Goblin" is a devastating album, particular and light-years away from today's American scene (Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka Flame for example) and to this writer, it was the rap album of 2011. It's disorienting and cynical, and the cold, aseptic (only Death Grips, which I will review soon, manage to be more violent) and at the same time emotional progress of its songs will entertain and intrigue you, especially if you have the insight to listen to it deeply and continuously until you capture the hidden nuances and the deeper meanings of the lyrics of its singer.

The devil doesn't wear Prada, I'm clearly in a fucking white tee."