The Four Hundred: ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’ encompasses Tyler's growth
Tyler The Creator - Aaron J. Thornton
It’s in your face, it’s giving 2000’s energy and it’s ready to show you just how much Tyler, the Creator has evolved from his work since Goblin, his first solo album, and even recently, Flower Boy crafted in 2017.
His newest project, Call Me If You Get Lost, which was released mid-June, gives his fans a hard-hitting mixtape with a lineup of features and gritty lyricism that makes this album a standout amongst his stacked discography.
From being a young skater collaborating with Odd Future to make some mixtapes, Tyler has now reached superstardom with his genre-bending sound and quick-witted verses that keep him original and fresh on every album.
Goblin let fans know that Tyler wasn’t here to play with his demonic-sounding “She” featuring Frank Ocean and his 2013 release of Wolf. Tyler made his statement that he isn’t trying to confine himself to just the rap category.
Tyler told Spin in an interview that “Talking about rape and cutting bodies up, it just doesn’t interest me anymore. What interests me is making weird hippie music for people to get high to.”
Camp Flog Gnaw, a festival entirely curated by Tyler developed in 2012, presents sounds that are deemed “hippie music,” with this year’s lineup featuring Clairo, Solange, Brockhampton, Omar Apollo and FKA twigs. Featuring hip-hop, electronic, alternative rock and more, Tyler invites a variety of artists that mirror his inclusion on his albums as well.
His last album released in May 2019, IGOR, which credits Solange, Kanye West and Al Green revealed a romantic side to Tyler. It earned the #2 spot on the Billboard 200 and was later nominated for Best Rap Album in 2018.
Within its first week of release, Call Me If You Get Lost claimed seven of the top 10 spots on the U.S. Spotify chart and according to Hits Daily Double, it generated 117.5K from track sales and streams.
Tyler had tweeted that he wanted a Gangsta Grillz tape in 2010, something that is hard-hitting with underground sound and featuring DJ Drama. That is exactly what he accomplished in his newest album, plus more.
Lil Wayne, 42 Dugg, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Uzi Vert, and Pharrell Williams are just a few of the many features on this star-studded album, giving Tyler the opportunity to adapt and produce each song with the versatility of the guests he invites and his own lyricism.
We’re introduced right off the bat to Tyler Baudelaire in the opening track “SIR BAUDELAIRE”, Tyler’s alias for this album and a concept that is common for him; his last being the name of his album, IGOR, a soft artist with a bleached bowl cut and pastel blue suit.
Narrated by DJ Drama, we hear heavy influences of 2000’s R&B throughout the album especially in tracks, “WUSYANAME” and “LUMBERJACK,” with slow-jam melodies and Drama rapping in the background.
The album transitions between tracks smoothly, almost as if it is one long song telling a story. He embellishes his introspection with talk of Rolls Royces, thick passports, and traveling to Geneva, but slips in his reality despite all the luxury.
“Black bodies hanging from trees, I cannot make sense of this/ Hit some protest up, retweeted positive messages/ Donated some funds then I went and copped me a necklace/ I’m probably a coon, and your standard’s based on this evidence,” Tyler raps in “MANIFESTO.”
He alludes to the racial injustice that has been the center of focus again in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, and he expresses his anger at the decades-long racism that cursed his ancestors and continues to curse him.
“That ain’t in your religion, you just followin’ your mammy/ She followed your granny, she obeyed master/ Did ya’ll even ask her? Questions, it’s holes in them stories,” Tyler raps.
And while many of the tracks spit brash insults and sick statements, Tyler still shows his softer side like in “SWEET/ I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE,” where he invited Brent Faiyaz and Fana Hues to croon on this synth-y ballad.
“You and I, we fell in love/ I read the signs, ain’t know what it was/ But God gotta know he might have peaked when he made you,” sings Tyler, before he expresses true infatuation in the chorus singing, “Well, they should call you sugar, ‘cause you’re so sweet to me.”
But that is shortly contrasted with his bass-heavy production of “JUGGERNAUT” featuring Lil Uzi Vert and Pharrell Williams. It brings back his arrogant rhymes and beats from his 2015 release of Cherry Bomb but with a freshness that not only shows Tyler’s versatility but Pharell’s as well.
The album ends with Tyler telling a tale of a relationship that ended as quickly as it began, and the ultimate fall of a couple who could not be for the sake of eachother’’s wellbeing.
The track, “WILSHIRE,” the longest track of the album at eight and a half minutes, allows Tyler to be real with his fans. He aims to show the raw reality of his social, personal and romantic life and how it all pertains to what he raps about.
Call Me If You Get Lost is an amalgamation of the many faces of Tyler and the fluidity he presents between each of his personas or past albums.
He continues to prove with every project that he’s a decade-defining artist who doesn’t fear the abnormal, knowing very well that his music spans genres and is the forward-looking sound that we all are looking for.