Midweek Music Review - Tyler the Creator: Bastard

Tyler the Creator
Bastard
[self-released]

Rating: 8.5/10

Hit the jump for the review.

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Even in his heydey, Eminem was always more terrifying to overprotective mothers and melodramatic conservative protesters than he ever was to the people who listened to him. There was a sense, when listening to a song like Marshall Mathers LP opener "Kill You," that we were "in" on the "joke." There was an implied fiction to the Detroit rapper's violence, and it was illustrated by the schizophrenic depictions of Eminem's characters, by cartoon sound effects mixed into the background, by friggin' soap opera references. All of it meant that Eminem's dangerous edge was at most an uncomfortable nuisance; the closest Mathers got to cutting truly close to the bone was Marshal Mathers' penultimate murder fantasy track "Kim."

19-year old Tyler the Creator hails from Los Angeles, California, and heads the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All collective, and the most immediate influence on the OFWGKTA group is definitely Eminem. They rap against ugly, grimy beats reminiscent of Marshal Mathers' darkest moments, they talk about rape and murder and anal sex with candor, and they spit words like bitch and faggot with vitriol and impunity. Hell, OFWGKTA member Earl Sweatshirt spits on a track "I'm the reincarnation of '98 Eminem." They don't shy away from the comparison, they invite it. But, here's the thing, on Bastard, Tyler the Creator's debut LP, he's just as terrifying to listeners as he is to the uninitiated. Hell, knowing the kid's story might even make him scarier.

Fear seems like a weird thing to mention in regard to a musician, especially in a complimentary fashion, but fear is a big thing for Tyler and the Odd Future gang. On Bastard especially, it seeps into the music and drips out of it, like a wild animal with blood dripping from its jaws. The production on Bastard is stark and bone-drenched, where dissonant piano chords dance with ugly synth lines or where drum samples trip over themselves around Halloween score atmospherics. It's purpose is nothing less than putting you in the middle of Psycho's shower or Carrie's prom.

But the truly terrifying thing about Bastard is its absolute lack of levity. Eminem's rape threats were easy to shrug off because of their Bugs Bunny scope, but when Tyler spits "When I rape I bitch I hold her down and get my best nut" on "Assmilk" there is no wink and nod to the audience like Em would have given us. Instead, it's the opposite; the fractured synth arpeggios and close-mic'd vocals say in no uncertain musical terms: "This shit is real."


I'm not trying to argue that Tyler and his Odd Future buddies actually kill and rape women. But Bastard's entire purpose is to make what Tyler's talking about seem true. Race relations get mutilated perfectly down into "Got all the black bitches mad 'cause my main bitch vanilla" on "French" or "Drunk white girls are the only way I'll get my dick sucked" on "Bastard," and the way Tyler presents them makes their truth seem self-apparent. It's when Tyler turns that critical eye to horrifying subject matter that things get fucking uncomfortable. On "French" Tyler kidnaps Goldilocks, steals the three bears' porridge, then locks Goldy in a basement and rapes her and records it. The sheer wordplay that Tyler rocks to tell this little tale is otherwordly impressive, the sheer detail that Tyler drops into his messed up fairy tale is distressing.

Listening to Eminem, listeneres never really got the impression that he hated with quite the fervor he was projecting. It's what made him eventually palatable to the mainstream. But Tyler's hate seems genuine. His rape and murder fantasies are a sick joke, but they come from a place of true anger, at a rap blog world that ignores his crew, at an absentee father (about whom he raps Bastard's finest line: "Fuck a deal, I just want my father's e-mail/ So I can tell him how much I fucking hate him in detail"), at just fucking everyone. It's that hate that makes Bastard such a difficult listen. But it's also that hate that makes Bastard so engaging and, ultimately, what demands everyone's attention.