"Flower Boy" by Tyler, the Creator

Favorite track: Foreword

Do people really UNDERSTAND how I BODILY needed this album to come out?

Flower Boy is a masterpiece and was completely fucking SNUBBED at the Grammy Awards!!! To this day, even though I love Tyler's evolution and settling into his new style, I still fully believe this is his greatest, most flawless album of all time. It's a perfect encapsulation of everything he had created up to that point. His extremely TYLER production of the Wolf trilogy are still there, elements anyway, but he clearly finally captured what he aimed to capture on Cherry Bomb in this album. And it must needs be said - I did like Cherry Bomb, quite a lot actually, but I feel like that was a very transitional work where he wasn't able to get the exact vibe he may have been going for. Flower Boy? It's the full realization of everything.

This general era of rap, right at the end of the 2010s, was so formative for me. For one thing, it's how I bonded with a really great friend (hey Alex!), and it also was a big part of the "weird sad bisexual black boy" musical genre. Understand that I mean this with so much affection... this kinda stuff is what helped me get through high school. I quite literally would skip around and frolic to the stuff on this album (have you HEARD See You Again?). This album had so many great memorable lyrics... "Tell these black kids they can be who they are" still is such a nice line.

I also can't get over the sunflower imagery! This was around the time I was really falling in love with sunflowers and having them all over the album art and release was so... soooo nice for me. This album coupled with that one splitscreen music video he did with Kali Uchis solidified me on orange being my new favorite color. The warmth also comes through his particular style of instrumentation, which I seriously can't get enough of on this album. It's just so beautiful, man!

I have a hard time picking out specific songs to talk about because they all just speak to me on different levels, you know? 911's beat changes are soooo good, I Ain't Got Time! deserved a music video, Lil Wayne's verse on Droppin' Seeds is a welcome surprise, Foreword is a perfect intro track, Glitter is just a song filled with pure joy, and Enjoy Right Now, Today gives me hope that life is going to be okay. The album being presented like you're on the road listening to the radio really just ties it all together. It's not like the songs aren't connected, but it makes it such a casual listen that you just wanna sit back and appreciate it as a journey rather than on a case-by-case basis. Every song brings something different to this album and I love it.

Also, can I just say - no skips!