Tyler, the Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost
Rap/Hip-Hop – Released June 25, 2021 – 16 songs, 53 mins
*****BUZZ PICK*****
ROZ
I've been in the Tyler fan club for quite some time - I first stumbled into his work after listening to the Kanye-backed Yonkers off of Goblin, then immersed myself in Wolf for all of 2013 and onwards. Barring his experimental album Cherry Bomb, I've enjoyed his mix of abrasive lyrics, creative production and signature voice that has spanned his entire career. To top it off, I saw him at the Osheaga Music & Arts festival in Montreal back in 2016 and he was damn good live too. So now for the question: does Call Me If You Get Lost hold up?
This album has a multitude of highlights that I could go on forever about, but I will shoot for brevity where I can. SIR BAUDELAIRE (Tyler's alter ego throughout) starts the album off strong and introduces DJ Drama, who offsets Tyler's rhymes with his trademark quips and one-liners. Drama takes us into CORSO next which is chock full of amazing flow and the signature gruff voice that Tyler brings to the table on all of his albums. The giant 808 kicks blended with crispy drum breaks and piano chords accentuate the content of Tyler's raps, which speak out about his mental health while also contrasting it with his own fame and success; a common theme throughout the entire album.
LUMBERJACK was a major standout for me, with its mix of hard lyrics and an even harder beat. The wordplay is absolutely unreal and the drum breaks play off of the anxiety-inducing piano arrangements perfectly. HOT WIND BLOWS displays Tyler's great taste in sample selection and features a (surprisingly still good) Lil Wayne - that's some good nostalgia. Speaking of sample selection, MANIFESTO, RISE, and JUGGERNAUT all go hard (but I'll let them speak for themselves). MASSA has to be the heaviest track out of them all, with Tyler going into detail about his journey out of his home city and about pulling his mom out of a homeless shelter when he started finding success with his music. He also speaks on the weirdness of Cherry Bomb which helped me understand why I felt the way I did about it (and has me thinking about revisiting it one more time).
Not only did this album hold up to my expectations, it exceeded them. Call Me If You Get Lost took my favorite aspects of Tyler's old discography and perfectly combined it with his new sound - the hard and heavy lyrics of Goblin/Wolf stretched over Tyler's new and improved production elements that have spanned across Flower Boy and Igor. It still blows me away that in this current climate of popular albums having what seems like a million writers and producers attached to it, Tyler still maintains that sole producer credit for a majority of his tracks - this guy is a true talent and is at his best right now. With his seemingly unlimited potential and constant upward growth as an artist, I really can't wait to see where he takes us next.
Overall Rating: 9.3/10
Favourite Song: MASSA
LUNDI
Hello? Tyler? I’m lost. I’m trying to review rap music again.
Bunny Hop aka Tyler Baudelaire aka whatever DJ Drama calls him throughout the album, is back with Call You Me If You Get Lost. A premier face on the rap scene brings the crazy and weird to a full EP with elements that seem like it’s an old school mixtape.
I leaned on some pals to support this review as it immediately stood out to me that the mixtape element gave this album a live feeling and I wanted to know if that was a popular gimmick to use. Turns out it used to be but since being used on almost every rap album in the early 2000’s it’s fallen to the wayside. Tyler incorporating this throwback is so great and I absolutely love what it brings to the record. It submerses you in the album and makes you feel like you’re there. I can easily picture the live show every time I listen.
Aside from the backing support CMIYGL is very well produced and as will be a tradition for this writer, any rap album that isn’t mumbled or completely auto tuned gets support. The features on the album are also excellent as Tyler, the creator offers up rappers with new skillsets and unique things to say throughout the collection of tracks.
The album feels playful yet broaches serious subjects. It’s concise and never misses the point. The mix tape style is the cherry on top.
Overall Rating: 8.2/10
Favorite Song: HOT WIND BLOWS
REID
Tyler, The Creator is a star. Fresh off the release of CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST and headlining Lollapalooza 2021, his momentum is at an all-time high. And he’s not your everyday rapper who can just rock a freestyle. He has a streetwear clothing line, ‘Golf Wang’, his own annual music festival, ‘Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival’ and he also helped create three TV shows. Busy guy. Despite all this, he’s a relative unknown to me. I picked up his 2013 release, Wolf, on CD years ago but it just didn’t stick. Hopefully this week’s buzz pick is different.
CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST has a bit of everything. It’s more like a mixtape-style than a bunch of singular beats and freestyles. The skits, songs and interludes all flow together and that’s how Tyler wanted this collection listened to. I believe he played the new album in its entirety, from start to finish, in his set at Lolla (I didn’t listen to the full concert to confirm). Let’s extract some of the ingredients that made this album so diverse. The mixes are special. HOT WIND BLOWS and MASSA are my favourites and while they’re great on their own, the songs before and after help create a mood that lifts them higher. I’m a sucker for a flute. From the ‘blow the speakers outta your car’ bucket we have LEMONHEAD, LUMBERJACK, and JUGGERNAUT with bass-heavy rap tracks. From ‘features’ we get an abundance of artists from Lil’ Wayne to Pharrell Williams to Brent Faiyaz to a handful of others with varying styles. From ‘hype and hardships’ we get a one-minute skit from his MOMMA and DJ Drama yelling before and throughout every other song. At number ten, we find the nine-minute long SWEET/I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE compilation, which I really enjoyed straight from the ‘Jesus of Suburbia’ playbook. I could go on. Tyler, the Creator grabs something from just about every cupboard on this one.
Despite all the praise, CMIYGL is not an album I’ll come back to often. I appreciate the hell out of its direction and the incredible effort that went into its creation but at the end of the day, it’s not a style I love. On my ideal musical menu, several of the listed ingredients wouldn’t make the cut.
Overall Rating – 7.7/10
Favourite Song – HOT WIND BLOWS