A Music Love Letter — Flower Boy, Tyler, the Creator’s Modern-Day Masterpiece
It’s never too late to change, to be better. This is the main takeaway for me from Childish Gambino’s masterpiece of a concept album “because the internet”. The main questions that follow this are how can I change? Why do I want to change? Is it even worth it to change?
It is not often for me that I become obsessed with an artist or an album. In 2019 when Tyler, the Creator dropped his Grammy award-winning album “IGOR” I became an instant fan after listening to it. Moving back to his older work, I listened to “Flower Boy” his 2017 Grammy-nominated album. This album with its incredibly vulnerable and real lyrics and tones instantly pulled me into it. I would play this album front to back on my 40-minute commute drive to and from my work during my University placement year. It wasn’t until I listened to the Dissect podcast season on this album that I became aware of just how vulnerable and self-reflective this album was. It was a bold and marked move in Tyler’s discography and every time I listen to it encourages me to express my vulnerability. Doing so is not a weakness, it is a strength of my character, allowing me to grow and develop forming real and lasting relationships with those around me.
Men still struggle with the concept of being vulnerable with others, we typically shy away from showing affection and vulnerability, as it is seen as a weakness. However, in doing so we create a cage for ourselves, living in the idea that we are the only ones dealing with our intrusive thoughts and problems. This only makes the problem worse and it blocks us from forming deep connections and relationships with others. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable is to accept one’s current state. It is truly a freeing state of mind. By only admitting and accepting one’s inner thoughts can we really grow as an individual.
Coming up in odd future, Tyler, the Creator’s early public persona was loud, obnoxious and rule-breaking. It was these traits that brought him success in the first place.
Tyler’s first 3 albums followed a similar theme, containing often obscene lyrics that led to then Home Secretary Theresa May enacting a ban for Tyler on entering the UK. Then came along Cherry Bomb, Tyler’s 4th album. Although this was Tyler’s favourite album to make, it was at the time not considered to be Tyler’s best body of work, receiving sub-par reviews. This put Tyler on the back foot. In an interview before the next album was released, he spoke on the negative reaction to Cherry Bomb saying that after it was released he felt like nothing and he knew the next album had to be better. He then went on to release one of my favourite albums of all time “Flower Boy”
Flower Boy is an instant change from Cherry Bomb as it is the only album in which Tyler himself does not portray a character. The cover art is simple, a flowered field with a painting of Tyler in a simple white t-shirt and trousers. Also prominent in the cover art is his McLaren sports car, this is a metaphor used later in the album as a source of comfort and a means to hide his true self. What I find interesting about this album’s art is that we never see Tyler’s face. This album is incredibly vulnerable and at the start, Tyler is purposely hiding who he is to himself and the world.
Cherry Bomb opens with the bold intro ‘DEATHCAMP’. A boastful song about Tyler’s position in life, how he differs from his fellow rap artists and how good his music is. On “Foreword” the opening track of Flower Boy, Tyler opens with the lines:
“How many cars can I buy ’til I run outta drive?, How much drive can I have until I run outta road?, How much road can they pave until I run outta land?, How much land can it be until I run in the ocean?”.
Followed by:
“How much cooler can I get until I run out of fans?, How many fans can I have until they turn on the AC?, If the AC blow up, well then I’m TNT, I’m gone”.
This is a clear contrast from “DEATHCAMP” which contains the lyrics “Named my album “Cherry Bomb” because “Greatest Hits” sounded boring”.
A foreword in a book usually sets the stage for what will be coming in the future chapters and Tyler does this brilliantly here, having a reflection moment. Coming off Cherry Bomb, which was negatively received, he starts to wonder how much he has left and at what point will his career ultimately end. He follows up the Rex Orange County hook with the following lines:
“Shout out to the girls that I led on … And tryin’ their hardest to keep my head on straight. And keepin’ me up enough ’til I had thought I was airborne”
As a good forward should, Tyler’s second verse perfectly sets the central theme of the album: exploring his sexuality. Taking these lyrics on their own it is not obvious that this is what he is referring to, like a forward it leaves the reader guessing. He also touches on material possessions with the lines:
“Because I got a mansion, my mansion got some rooms. Them rooms got some windows and my windows got some views. Them views get some stares and my backyard does too. And if you walk to the bottom you’ll prolly see a pool”
This will become a central theme in the album, Tyler will use material possessions as most do to fill voids within him.
Flower Boy’s first proper track Where This Flower Blooms is a beautiful song, with hooks from Frank Ocean detailing Tyler’s childhood and rise to fame. We then move on to the most popular song “See You Again” which details his dream partner. He recounts falling in love with this partner, even to the point where he would give up all he has worked for to be with them: “Yeah, I’d give up my bakery to have a piece of your pie”. Listening to this song on its own, it could be a partner of any gender, but the song prefacing this “sometimes” is a short snippet where when asked what to play a male voice says ”the one about me”. This is the first hint of Tyler’s sexuality and almost seems on purpose; you have to listen to the album in full to understand the overarching narrative of the album.
The next song is very different from “see you again”, “who dat boy” is a braggadocious song with A$AP Rocky, highlighting the successes of both rappers including their material possessions. The yin-yang theme of vulnerability and bragging between songs is not done by accident. After opening up in the previous song on such a vulnerable topic, he quickly moves on to hide behind his material wealth. When thinking of ways that I do this, I reminded myself of how often I open up about a vulnerable or thoughtful topic and then quickly add a joke after to make it sound less serious, or perhaps worse using my mental health struggles as the joke. It’s a mask we put on, and this one that Tyler uses is no different.
Interestingly, just before the interlude before “see you again” we hear Tyler step into a sports car and rev the engine — a metaphor for the comfort of material possessions and how currently in the labrum he is hiding behind them. Just before the start of the next song “Pothole” we hear him hit an obstacle. Not unexpectedly, the next song details times in his life when he has been betrayed by close friends around him who did not always have his best interests at heart. The most interesting verse in this song is the second one which ends with the lines:
“Find somebody who love me and raise a couple of lizards. But my vehicle’s good for now, that’s in a couple of miles”
This appropriately moves us into the next song “Garden Shed”. This is probably one of the most beautiful, open and vulnerable songs of all time. Just before the song starts, we hear Tyler stop his engine, get out of the car and step into a shed. He is stepping out of his comfort and his mask and facing his thoughts and feelings head-on. The shed here represents a closet, aligning with the closet that queer people are said to be in before they come out. A shed here is interesting, if you were to visualise a garden, often beautiful, a shed is often the ugliest part filled with old tools, pots and soil. But at the same time, a shed is what we use to take care of our garden. Tyler must first enter his shed in order to prepare himself such that he can create or improve his garden.
The song starts off as an instrumental, slowly building and building like rising dough to the end which contains one of the most vulnerable rap verses of all time. Tyler raps about his attraction to men, and how he suppressed this all his life:
“Garden shed, garden shed, garden shed, garden shed. For the garden. That is where I was hidin’. That was real love I was in. Ain’t no reason to pretend. Garden shed, garden shed, garden shed. Garden shed for the garçons. Them feelings that I was guardin’. Heavy on my mind. All my friends lost. They couldn’t read the signs”
Coming from an artist who used to make homophobic jokes, this is a huge shock, but as I inferred above, often we make jokes to distract others and more importantly us from our insecurities. This song represents a shift in Tyler’s mindset. He has faced these thoughts by himself, within his shed. Now he must face the outside world, by confessing his feelings to his crush.
In the next few tracks, we again see the yin-yang nature of Tyler. Even though he has confessed his suppressed feelings towards himself he still goes back to material possessions as comfort and to hide himself from the world. “I ain’t got time” follows the song “Boredom”, 2 juxtapositions of themselves. Boredom details the listener about Tyler’s struggles with loneliness, and just before “I ain’t got time” we hear the starting of Tyler’s sports car, a signal of Tyler starting to hide again behind his possessions. As you can imagine, this is an upbeat song, with braggy lyrics much like who dat boy. However, what is interesting about this song is that he is much more willing to brag about his attraction to men, showing the personal growth in Tyler throughout this album.
Moving onto the final 2 songs of the album before the outro, we start to come to a culmination. “November” is a retrospective song where Tyler reminisces about his “November” — a happy nostalgic time in his life. He raps from his current mindset, going over his troubles and worries, wishing he could go back to his November.
“What if I’m hustling backwards? What if my accountant ain’t payin’ my taxes, fillin’ his pockets? And IRS show up asking me questions I couldn’t answer ’Cause I was too busy tryna make classics”
This song ends with Tyler speaking to someone, who we perceive to be his crush asking to play him a song he wrote him. He ends by leaving a message.
The final song “Glitter” before the outro as the title suggests is a sparkly song, detailing Tyler’s love towards his crush. Unfortunately, his crush will never hear this song as due to technical reasons the message could not be sent. Nevertheless, Tyler has publicly confessed his feelings. A huge step, regardless of whether his crush would ever hear them or not.
We are finally thrust into the outro “Enjoy Right Now, Today”. An instrumental outro, this song does exactly what the title suggests, it gives you this warm fuzzy feeling making you dwell on the present. It’s rare that songs do that, often they will make us reminisce on the past or wonder about what our future holds. After mustering up the courage to tell his crush how he feels and the disappointment of this not being heard, Tyler simply shrugs this off choosing to enjoy now rather than dwell on the situation. Every time I listen to this song it makes my worries go away for a little while, instead choosing to focus on the joy I find in living in the present moment.
Conclusions
Overall, this album is a whirlwind for Tyler, and we see huge personal growth for an artist over the course of 45 minutes. It is truly a testament to his artistry. If you were not aware Tyler produces and writes his own songs. I often find that when an artist does this, the control that they have over the music allows them to craft such an intricate and masterful collection of songs. Flower Boy to me represents complete vulnerability, Tyler is letting his deepest feelings and thoughts out to the public for the first time. It is bold, and risky but pays off so well. He no longer wears a mask in his album and becomes a truly authentic version of himself.
It is a masterpiece of an album and has encouraged me and I’m sure many young men like myself to confront their feelings and allow them to rise to the surface. Only when we are vulnerable, accept our feelings and let our flowers bloom can we become truly authentic versions of ourselves.
