Hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well.
As you guys know, on this channel, for a minute, I was taking a bit of a break, a siesta, a rest, if you will, as post list week and through the holidays, the music industry tends to slow down a bit. While that was the case for a lot of artists and a lot of people, there was one man who definitely did not take a break, and that is Tyler, The Creator.
If you remember, he had a pretty big 2024 with the release of his latest album, Chromakopia, which was a huge success for him, artistically and commercially. And he has seen fit to do a bit of a victory lap as we are entering into 2025 by doing a freestyle over a beat from another huge W in 2024, Kendrick Lamar's GNX album.
Yeah, he is free styling over the instrumental from the track "Hey Now", which if you guys remember, starts off like, "Hey, now, say, now, I'm all about my yen." One of my favorite tracks from that record, hands down. I am going to sample the freestyle and see what it's got. Let's go.
I wonder if Tyler reproduced this beat himself, which he most definitely has the talent to do, or if he actually hit up Kendrick and was like, 'Hey, could I get that beat? Could I put some heat on that beat?' Either way, it's cool that he did this. Let's see where this goes.
"Hey now, say now, I’m all about them bands / Shit I'm on, bitch, you wouldn't understand / Hey now, say now, I'm all about my guap / AP, Richie, hmm, not on my watch"
Okay. All right. That's a wildly unexpected approach on the delivery side for Tyler. I feel like between Call Me If You Get Lost, and also Chromakopia, he has very much been in rap mode as of late, but he's really been sticking to that tried and true deep, gravelly register that we know him for. And this obviously is very much the opposite. He's got this boyishness to the register that he's delivering with. And on top of it, he's really speeding through the flow. It's kind of reminiscent of that rushed talk, rapped flow that guys like Blueface and some Midwest rappers right now are popping off on. But in his own weird, funny Tyler, the Creator way.
"Oh my God, I'm really that guy."
He sounds almost like a cartoon version of himself. It's funny.
"Lil’ Bunny Hop out, you seen me at Thе Pop Out / Pandemonium screaming like thеy brought Pac out"
Okay, all right. The popping Ps on the microphone? Where is the microphone windscreen? I mean, I suppose there is a rawness to that that is in line with a lot of tracks on GNX, so I suppose it does make sense. But it's cool that he was able to throw together such a compelling freestyle and music video here in such a quick and efficient way. He's really just doing it fast, moving fast and loose.
"Hey now, say now, I'm all about them bands / Shit I’m on, bitch, you wouldn't understand (Ugh) / Yeah, uh, I'm the suspect, baby, I don't play victim / I’ll buy that n***a building just to evict him"
Again, this is really interesting that he sounds so animated, just like a weird character of himself in a way. Also that sit down like Oprah line is pretty funny. He is coming at this with a lot of odd and eccentric charisma, and I would be interested to hear him rap more in this style and in this register on future stuff.
"Oh my God, I'm really that— (Man, turn this shit the fuck up) / I was up at Westchester dodging all the high beams / Gardena swap meet, shopping bogus Ice Cream"
Okay, he went crazy on that transition. He's going all in on this instrumental.
"All these women is a habit / Boyfriend's mad 'cause they thought I was a f— (Hey now)"
Hey now, hey now, Hey, now. Boyfriend's mad because they thought I was a friendly guy? One more time. It's interesting that Tyler continues to make the waves and see the success that he does while being as open about his sexuality as he is. Not something you would typically be celebrated for as a rapper in the past, but Tyler continues to defy tradition.
"You will never be the main guy, you're a plus one (Ugh)"
You will never be the main guy. You're a plus one? It's brutal. It's a read.
"Hand claps? Congrats? Never said to me (Put them shoes on) / Put him on a Pro Club, that n***a dead to me (Lose my number, n***a) / Stop with that fake shit, stop with that fake shit / Stop with that fake shit, just stop with that fake shit (Fake shit)"
Wow. I'm impressed at the energy, the fact that he's really going all in on this, and on top of it, just making it clear, making it known more than he ever has at any point in his career, then I feel like he's coming for that top spot.
I mean, you could have an argument about whether or not he actually is that guy, as he states in this freestyle, but he clearly wants to be that dude, even if he's not that dude currently. And between his records, his branding, and everything else that is under the Tyler, the Creator umbrella, he's clearly going for it.
And it's interesting he's using this Kendrick Lamar beat as a means of drawing attention to that argument, drawing attention to that perspective, which I mean, for sure, Tyler probably has a lot of respect and admiration for what Kendrick Lamar does, and has done artistically. But by that same token, I feel like him using this instrumental is a slight challenge in a way, as it can be when you're sliding on somebody else's instrumental.
But yeah, as we get further into the Tyler, the Creator story arc, he just seemingly digs further into his emotions. And as he does that, he just will very aggressively flip to the other side of that conscience this fence, if you want to call it that, and just become a full-blown flexitarian, which I know there are a lot of Tyler fans that really only prefer one side of that coin.
And I guess we'll see from here whether or not it continues to balance out. At least for right now, it's reassuring to see that even with Tyler having such a big W under his belt with Chromakopia having been released, I don't know if he's going to be going into 2025 silently, at least not completely.
I'm going to leave it there. Thank you guys very much for watching. What did you think of this freestyle? If you gave it a spin, does it mean anything to you? Does it not?
Anthony Fantano, Tyler, the Creator. Forever.
What do you think?
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