TYLER THE CREATOR – Goblin (XL Recordings)
By Melissa Krenek
A rollercoaster of evil that no moral ear can
deny
From the first drilling sound, the listener knows they are
hearing something unique, fresh, and quite unsettling. By
the time the off key piano sets in, the room becomes uncomfortable,
the hairs stick up, and the peculiar ride goes from disturbing
to horrifying. This image describes just the first awkward
beat to the sophomore release by Tyler, The Creator entitled
Goblin. Unfortunately this feeling does not stay throughout
the album; instead it goes back and forth between sick fantasies
and diseased reality. If the album kept the bizarre pace and
unsettling feeling that the first track greets the listener
with, Tyler would have made the perfect album. Though flawed,
Goblin paints a picture that is nonexistent in hip-hop today,
and will live on for years after its competition. It also
stands with a hard fist in the air for the Odd Future team
as being the beginning of the end for any other group in the
scene today.
Tyler begins the album with a bang, the first track starting
the constant battle between Tyler and his therapist. Similar
to his freshmen release, Bastard, Tyler seeks to tell a story
with his music, making the album a fifteen track horror story
of fictional aspirations. The title track, “Goblin”
is the perfect introduction, showing the raw yet vulnerable
Tyler speaking to his therapist, who seeks to understand the
angst of the nineteen year old masochist. As stated before,
the beat embodies the feeling of the song, disturbing and
draining. Tyler introduces himself as the depressed, angry,
suicidal character and holds this persona throughout the album.
The energy of this hate fest continues into the first single
off the album, entitled “Yonkers.” “Goblin”
leads into this song beautifully with the therapist asking
Tyler about his experience in New York City, a story that
the listener can’t wait to hear, and is not let down
by its shocking storyline.
Back in early 2011, Tyler created controversy with his video
for “Yonkers,” a metaphorical nightmarish vision
that shows what the music industry can do to a struggling
artist. The video shows Tyler bleeding, throwing up, and eventually
hanging himself, cutting the song short and leaving the viewer
with a lone image of Tyler’s legs hanging limply. In
this song he blatantly insults many stars of the hip-hop industry,
including Young Money, B.O.B, and Bruno Mars, the latter quite
brutally. “And Stab Bruno Mars in his goddamn esophagus/
And won’t stop until the cops come in.”
After the power of the first two tracks, Tyler hits his listeners
with a disclaimer, one that is monotonous and unnecessary.
This hit to the ego was hinted at in “Goblin,”
where he vocalizes the obvious. “I’m not a rapist
or a fucking serial killer,” a nice footnote but not
needed since any mature listener can see his lyrics are fictitious.
Unfortunately, the media backlash must have gotten to the
budding lyricist, since his next track “Radicals”
states (and restates) the obvious: “Hey, don’t
do anything that I say in this song, okay?/ It’s fuckin’
fiction/ If anything happens, don’t fuckin’ blame
me, white America, fuck Bill O’Reilly.” This first
line kicks off the feel to rest of the song, forced and uninspiring.
It is called “Radicals,” but there is nothing
radical about apologizing, and though the words “I’m
sorry” will never grace Tyler’s lips, the constant
explaining of his crude demeanor serves as a mea culpa.
The next track, entitled “She,” featuring fellow
OFWGKTA member Frank Ocean, proves that this genre of music
can have a pseudo R&B feel to it. With a feel good beat
behind it, “She” sounds like an R. Kelly song
gone wrong, in a good way. Without listening to the lyrics,
one might think it really is a love song, until some lines
that just can’t be ignored, such as : “Gorgeous,
baby you’re gorgeous/ I just wanna drag your lifeless
body to the forest/ And fornicate with it but that’s
because I’m in love with you…cunt.”
Once hearing this line, the listener realizes that they are
actually listening to descriptions of assault instead of love,
but the song does not lose its catchiness after this dim realization.
In fact, this fictional tale will be stuck in the heads of
many after listening. Especially the chorus provided by Ocean,
which holds the same catchiness as his own single “Novacane”
another pseudo love long that tells a fictional story of love
gone wrong. After hearing the fornicating lyrics, a closer
listen reveals that this love song is a stalker song: “The
blinds wide open so he can/ See you in the dark when you’re
sleepin’…./ Ain’t no man allowed in your
bedroom/ You’re sleeping alone in your bed/ But check
your window, he’s at your window.” And if none
of that sells as a stalker’s anthem, here is one last
line “I just want to talk and conversate cause I usually
just stalk and masturbate.” (Great rhyming, though conversate
is not a real word.)
The storytelling continues with the location shifting from
an unsuspecting girl’s bedroom to Dracula’s unforgiving
lair. The track is called “Transylvania,” a comedic
and realistic description of Dracula’s agenda if he
were walking around in the 21st century. Tyler disguises his
voice to sound more evil than usual, complete with screams
and old school organ playing in the background. The lyrics
follow the same disrespecting female pattern with some new
creative twists, the most refreshing being “Bitch is
it hard to handle?/ I don’t want a bride I just want
bone marrow.” The song ends with the inevitable doom
to the female victim accompanied by her new home located in
deep but still waters. The song causes the listener to chuckle
more than scream, which makes the screaming of “Golf
Wang” at the end highly appropriate, but also highly
irritating.
“Nightmare” brings the friendly therapist back,
accompanied by another eerie piano track. The song personifies
death as Tyler himself. This death impacting the fictional
girl he speaks of, the relationship with his family, friends,
and himself. Though mostly a pity party, one line grabs the
listener by the throat, and feels somewhat uplifting: “Ain’t
kill myself yet, now I already want my life back.” The
song ends with Tyler giving the therapist the name of his
inner demon, who is called Tron Cat, a perfect segway into
the next track, entitled “Tron Cat,” which unfortunately
is nothing special.
“Her,” though a simplistic beat and message, can
be the most romantic that Tyler will ever seem. There is no
discussion of rape, stalking, or murder; just a lonely guy
in love with a girl he will never have. He throws in profanity
to keep up with appearances, though the lyrics prove that
Tyler can have a heart. He admits to wanting walks on the
beach and cheesy date movies.
Tyler, Hodgy Beats, and other members of OFWGKTA caused a
ruckus on the Jimmy Fallon show back in February while performing
the next track, entitled “Sandwitches.” This song
serves as a Wolf Gang anthem that explains what Odd Future
is truly about - killing their competition, which they certainly
showed through their peculiar set arrangement including masks,
zombie women, and gnomes.
The next two songs after “Sandwitches” seem insignificant
to the first half of the album. “Fish” tells the
story of a fictional fisherman who enjoys catching fish, a
metaphor for raping women, naturally. “Boppin Bitches”
is nothing special, just an advertisement for men seeking
women for fellatio with a psychedelic dance beat behind it.
After the interlude of comedic perversion, “Window”
brings the listener back to the reality of the situation:
Tyler’s dissent into evil. The therapist is back, and
there is an intervention with many other members of Wolf Gang.
Each member says their piece, with Tyler finishing the song
off in rebuttal, one that ends with bullets blazing and bodies
sprawled across the room. Like any good movie, Tyler’s
violent and life changing scene is followed by an instrumental
piece, meant to give the listener time to think about what
has just happened. It also leads up to the fifteenth and final
track, “Golden.” This is the finale to the whirlwind
that is Goblin, and wraps the whole story into a neat, horrific,
blood soaked package. Tyler throws his final pity party, and
becomes so enthralled in his own pain that he needs to be
sedated. Tyler realizes during his drug induced sleep that
his therapist, Dr. TC, is actually Tron Cat, the demon he
has been fighting all along. The dramatic song comes to a
close with the doctor admitting this in his demonic voice
while Tyler’s voice finishes the doctor’s sentence
with a proud “Me,” realizing they were the same
person.
After the blood coagulates and the tears dry, Goblin becomes
something more than a B horror movie with buckets of blood
and no plot. It holds more meaning in its slashes and curses
than most albums out today in any genre of music. From a music
lover’s perspective, it is a creative and unique album,
and from a woman’s perspective, the same opinion arises.
Though eighty five percent of the songs are demeaning towards
women, they are works of fiction, and should be perceived
as short stories, not real opinions on the proper treatment
of females. In reality, all rap stars degrade women, though
most of their rhymes originate from reality. What is worse,
stalking and killing a woman in a fictional story or talking
about sleeping with dozens of “hoes?” If anything,
though one is more drastic than the other, they are cut from
the same cloth. Another point can be made with horror movies
of today and the popular technique of porn and gore. Movies
like Hostel glorify this torture porn but when Tyler speaks
of his fantastical rendezvous’ it is seen as controversial
and demeaning. This double standard in media boils down to
money. It is okay for Eli Roth to degrade women in his films
and Snoop Dogg to have girls on leashes, but when an indie
rapper opens his mouth it is unforgiving. The fact that OFWGKTA
has a female member proves that not all women gasp at these
horrific tales, but embrace them for the beauty of the words,
not the actions.
If Tyler’s next release, entitled Wolf, is even half
as gasp-worthy as Goblin, then listeners are in for a treat.
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