The long-awaited album drop from Tyler, The Creator has finally made its entrance. The album was officially released on October 28, 2024. His discography dates back to 2011, with his first album named Goblin. Tyler gained popularity from his music records and being in a group called ‘Odd Future.’This was a group of rappers, designers, and filmmakers. Some other well-known artists from the group are Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt. Even though his popularity has always remained strong, this new album has brought a new strain of popularity. This could be drawn from the strong social media and internet presence the album had. On the day of release, Chromakopia went beyond a staggering 85 million streams on Spotify, making it the biggest hip-hop album release of 2024. Not only has it broken this record; the album dethroned Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poet’s Department” with the most amount of streams for an album this year.
Fans of Tyler were stoked for the new album, as his last release was in 2021. He first hinted at the album in an Instagram teaser on October 16th. Fans went crazy, and soon it was all over the internet. If you were to scroll on any social media app, you would most likely run into something about Chromakopia. Senior Mabry Boudouris considers herself to be a big fan. “When I heard that he was dropping a new album, I was super excited,” she commented, “All of my friends immediately started talking about buying tickets to his concerts.” However, Tyler and his team found creative ways to promote the new album. Tyler continued to release snippets of new songs and music videos on his Instagram page, but there was still more to come. There was a semi-truck traveling around the country, and it would stop at various spots. Fans would go to take pictures with the truck. On Instagram, there would be new snippets of songs that would be released. This helped to build even more hype around the new songs. An especially exciting part of the songs was trying to guess what different music artists would be featured on the album. Fans had guesses ranging from Daniel Caesar, Frank Ocean, and even Kendrick Lamar. Another way to promote the album was to create merchandise. Fans could buy different merchandise packs that could include a hat, sweatshirt, and a shirt. These packages would come fully decked out in the Chromakopia theme. Tyler’s last big event was a listening party in LA. This event would be the first time that the album would be performed and played fully. Tickets cost a staggering amount of $5, and those who went ranged from average civilians to A-list celebrities. These celebrities included: Jaden Smith, Kim Kardashian, North Kardashian, and many others. The final step was Tyler announcing a world tour. This had fans stoked and ready to battle on sites such as TicketMaster and SeatGeek.
Why did this album become so insanely popular? Tyler had always been popular, but the new album sparked growth for his fanbase. This popularity was clarified, “Everybody loves his sound, it’s creative and different,” Boudouris began, “It’s not just rap but it also includes other elements that help to create his unique sound.” He’s able to incorporate rap, creative instrumentals, audio clips of people speaking, and more. This isn’t the only explanation for this crazed phenomenon. “Everyone has been waiting for him to release for a while,” Boudouris explained, “He hasn’t dropped anything in a while and doesn’t publicize his life or new potential music much.” It has been a big year for music with the pop industry flourishing. Having a new hip-hop/rap album drop was big news for fans of this genre and helped to generate hype with a different popular artist releasing music. Even those who weren’t fans before wanted to give the album a try. “It was on every social media, and my friends kept talking about it,” senior Alex Hmielak said, “I figured that I would give it a listen to see what everyone was talking about.” People like Hmielak were another factor when building up hype and streams for the album. “I don’t really listen to this kind of music,” Hmielak commented, “but I liked some of the songs and would add them to my playlist.” Hmielak had listened to Tyler before, but never put as much thought and interest into the artist until now. Even though many new fans were born, the old fans were truly the most excited. Mr. Buckley, a teacher at RHS, has been a Tyler fan for a while. “I grew up with him and watched him grow,” Buckley reminisced, “It’s been cool to see how far he’s come in his career.” Even with many of his original fans being a bit older, his albums and music are still popular among the newer generations. The albums can still resonate with younger generations and evoke similar feelings. “I think Tyler is so popular because of who he is,” Buckley shared, “His music is relatable and he’s known to be a funny and good person.” Even with his fun and good personality, fans keep coming back and find his music so amazing for a different reason. “Many of his songs and albums create a story,’ Bourdouris explained, “All the songs fit together and create this storyline with a beginning and end.” In this new album, there are even references to past songs and albums. This creates more love for the songs among fans and credits Tyler with being so creative.
