It’s been nearly two summers since Tyler, The Creator released his critically acclaimed album, “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST.” I remember listening to the project in its first week; I was in my brother’s car, holding a pair of old tennis rackets and practically sticking to his leather passenger seat from the humidity. We headed over to my highschool tennis courts while listening to “LEMONHEAD,” a track that showcases Tyler’s immense talents in creating gritty production. The album is filled with hype tracks like this that could promote any incompetent tennis player such as myself to play just a little better. The album, at other times, beautifully follows Tyler bathing in the sun in Geneva and Paris, while I was sweating it up on the cracked varsity courts.
Fast forward to Spring 2023: Tyler released a deluxe edition of the album, “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: The Estate Sale,” with a lengthy EP’s worth of bonus tracks recorded during the “CALL ME” sessions. Despite being songs from Tyler’s reject pile, this collection of eight tracks is some of his richest and most unique work in a while.
Something I immediately noticed about the new material on “The Estate Sale,” is that it stands without the ideological weight of many tracks that made it on the 2021 release. The original album has an unrelenting intensity to it, as Tyler spends most of the album meticulously curating images surrounding his wealth or crafting bold statements for his newfound audience, creating a personally unrelatable and largely unengaging album experience. The additional deluxe edition tracks position themselves much closer to Tyler’s psyche, showcasing his passions lyrically within a much more casual and personal framework.
Speaking to the original album’s intensity, DJ Drama’s bombastic, nasally adlibs throughout the project have admittedly not grown on me much since the original project’s release. Drama reappears on the new “Estate Sale” and his contributions are just as mixed. Drama’s booming voice can add quite a bit to any of the upbeat tracks on any album, but his interjections have always felt rather awkward on the softer cuts, as DJ Drama really only has one volume and is unable to match the emotional range of Tyler.
Something I’ve noticed about listening to Tyler, The Creator is that I’ve enjoyed his music the most when it’s released in times when the world isn’t watching him so intently, or when he doesn’t want us to. His 2017 release, “Flower Boy,” a beautifully produced and endlessly relatable album, came after the critical failure of “Cherry Bomb.” The period leading up to his 2017 release arguably being Tyler’s moment of least cultural relevance since his career began.
Additionally, a lot of the tracks and demos not tied to any project that he’s released exclusively on YouTube are some of his most fun and enjoyable music releases, such as “”ZIPLOC” and “ROSE TINTED CHEEKS’.” Albumless singles like “OKRA” and “POTATO SALAD” also show a side of Tyler that is both hungry for success but relaxed at the same time. “Estate Sale,” released with minimal fanfare, fits nicely within this category of Tyler releases.
Spanning eight tracks, Tyler begins the “Estate Sale” portion with a brief thank-you to his fans on “EVERYTHING MUST GO,” a track draped with soft vibraphone tones. This is followed by the exciting, self-produced, “STUNTMAN,” a track with welcomed Pharrell Williams influence, sounding like a mix of the producer’s work on Clipse’s “Grindin” and Rihanna’s “Lemon.” This song also features Vince Staples, whose nasally, chilled-out flows are highlighted in the cruel but funny line, “No, you can’t be my girl, bitch, are you dumb?” It’s a miracle that Staples’ unique brand of humor has not linked up with Tyler’s on a song until now.
The second track, “WHAT A DAY” features a beat by legendary producer Madlib, whose power as a vibe-setter in the hip hop world is simply unmatched. He makes use of a chilly female vocal sample to create a completely haunted hook on this track. Meanwhile, Tyler raps in his deeper register, reflecting on his career and achievements.
“WHAT A DAY” is followed by “WHARF TALK,” which features the flirty lyrics, “Bring some fiction, and a nightlight/ Record player and your top five.” It’s a bubbly track that has one of Tyler’s better vocal performances and a brief but enjoyable A$AP Rocky appearance.
“Estate Sale” continues with a bouncy beat on “DOGTOOTH” and goofy inflections
from Tyler as he raps, “If you don’t know my grandma name we ain’t really dogs.” “DOGTOOTH” is followed by “HEAVEN TO ME,” which features a gospel sample and one of antisemite Ye’s better producer moments in the past few years. Tyler raps about a wholesome future where he’s teaching his future son how to do bike tricks and going to the Opera with his future wife. In the final verse, Tyler embraces nostalgia, discussing teenage dreams and freedom.” It’s a beautiful track both sonically and lyrically.
The penultimate cut, “BOYFRIEND, GIRLFRIEND” is an enjoyable pop track demo, and then “Estate Sale” ends with one of Tyler’s most honest and sobering tracks he’s ever released, “SORRY NOT SORRY.” He raps about his messy relationship with his mother, his friends and even the lovers he hid from the public. Tyler continues his apologies, saying sorry to Mother Earth and also for being pretentious (an admittedly accurate descriptor of Tyler). He finishes the track with forceful raps about his path from poverty to great success. The song feels heartbreaking yet inspiring, and it’s a surprise such a defining track didn’t make it on the original album.
I’ll admit that a lot of my interest in Tyler has waned since it’s incredibly high point after the release of 2017’s “Flower Boy.” That being said, it’s been hard not to keep musical tabs on Tyler, The Creator these past six years. He created strong visual markers for his next two releases in “IGOR” (2019) and “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST,” trading baseball caps for wigs and wigs for ushankas, switching up his sound each time as well.
Tyler has also just been an intensely intriguing human being over the years whenever he’s in public, whether it’s his interview with Stephen Colbert where Colbert accuses Tyler of touching his butt, his flirtatious freestyle on Flex or his trio of interviews with professional Canadian weirdo, Nardwaur. Despite all of these memorable moments in his music career and his public appearances, “Estate Sale” is the most interesting Tyler has been in years.