Tyler the creator
By the time Temple University director of athletic bands Dr. Matt Brunner finally listened to Chappell Roan’s music, many of the young adults in his life — students, band alums, even his son’s girlfriend — had already implored him to check her out.
When he did play the singer’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, he quickly realized why they’d been so adamant. “I started listening and I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is awesome. I absolutely have to do this,’ ” he recalls excitedly months later. “Everything about it just worked.”
By that, Brunner means Roan’s glitzy dance-pop tracks seemed tailor-made for a marching band — full of the catchiness and energy the format demands, plus the kind of melodies that begged to be amplified by high brass and drum line-ready percussion. Still struck by how fast the arrangement came to him, Brunner orchestrated a 10-minute halftime medley of the pop star’s music that his marchers eagerly learned in just three rehearsals ahead of the Owls’ September football game against Utah State at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.
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Their work paid off before they even stepped onto the field. “Some people said, ‘I’m coming to the football game just to see the show,’ ” Brunner says with a laugh, recalling how the student section later came to life doing Roan’s viral “Hot To Go!” choreography along with the band. With that energy behind it, Temple bested Utah State, 45-29.
Temple University Diamond Marching Band performs at the Temple Owls game against Utah State on Sept. 21, 2024 in Philadelphia, PA.
Ricky Swalm
That kind of stadium-rocking enthusiasm is exactly what motivates collegiate band directors all over the country — whether at major state schools like Temple; smaller, private institutions; or historically Black colleges and universities — to adapt current chart-toppers for halftime shows, stand tunes (keeping the bleachers hyped during timeouts and between plays) and pep rallies every year. Having evolved far beyond their 19th-century military band origins, marching ensembles are now key fixtures in the spectacle of college game days, tasked with engaging fans and generating the kind of hype that will inspire the team, reflect well on the school and, ultimately, manifest in more ticket sales. One of the best ways to serve that mission, the directors of seven different ensembles tell Billboard at the end of their 2024-25 football season, is to incorporate fresh pop music into their repertoires — a goal that’s easier said than done.
For starters, not all pop songs are created equal in the world of marching bands. Directors have numerous considerations to make when vetting potential selections, from crowd appeal — which many of them measure by surveying students, patrolling the Billboard Hot 100 and tracking Spotify streams as early as spring to determine what will be trendy in the fall — to whether they can secure the necessary licensing, budgeting anywhere from a few thousand dollars to five-digit sums for rights-buying each year.
They also must weigh if a hit has enough longevity to justify the time spent getting permissions and then arranging and teaching it to 300-plus marchers. Notre Dame director of bands Dr. Ken Dye still ruefully remembers a “Macarena” draft his ensemble never got to play before the dance craze fell out of favor in the ’90s. He also notes with a laugh that he tries to steer clear of tracks with inappropriate lyrics, to avoid repeating the time he received a stern email “from the boss” over a performance of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” Turning 180 this year, The Fighting Irish’s college marching band is the oldest in the United States and also represents a Catholic university. (So far, nothing has hit Dye’s inbox over the “motherf–ker” bomb in Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” which he paired with Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” for a 2024 halftime.)
But checking those boxes isn’t enough if a song doesn’t first have the musical foundation of a good marching band tune. University of Southern California (USC) band director Dr. Jacob Vogel says that compelling, stackable melodies; harmonies; basslines; and background elements are crucial ingredients, emphasizing how important variation is for filling stadiums with sound. “I refer to it as the enveloping nature of music,” he explains. “Why do people turn music on so loud in their car? So they feel like they’re inside of it. When I put our arrangements together, I want to make sure the band also has that enveloping nature.”
Fortunately, pop’s current crop of upbeat, melodically driven hits led by the likes of Roan and Carpenter offers those elements in abundance. But Vogel remembers two eras that definitely did not: the Adele-style power ballads of the mid-2010s, which were simply too slow for marching, and the EDM crossover phase before that, which was laden with dubstep dance breaks that band instruments couldn’t replicate.
Hip-hop, band directors say, has always been case by case. Horns can’t mimic the spoken quality of rap, but they can do a track justice if it has a prominent instrumental — like Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which Southern University’s Human Jukebox covered this season. “ ‘They not like us, they not like us’; we wouldn’t be able to musically execute that,” director Dr. Kedric Taylor explains. “But we are able to musically execute ‘bum bum ba bum,’ ” he continues, singing the chromatic four-note string theme that anchors Lamar’s hit and got new heft courtesy of Southern’s screaming horn line.
Once songs are selected and parts assigned, directors and their staff can design field routines — an art form that, at times, is as straightforward as mining a song’s lyrics for ideas. Vogel’s students at USC formed a deck of cards while playing Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” at halftime, while Brunner, fully aware of a particular lyric’s cheeky double meaning, had his Temple marchers take the shape of a rabbit during Roan’s “Red Wine Supernova” after spelling out her first name. “I can play dumb,” he says with a laugh. “I figured that the people that knew about it would love it and the people that didn’t would be like, ‘Oh, that’s cute.’ ”
Temple University Diamond Marching Band performs at the Temple Owls game against Utah State on Sept. 21, 2024 in Philadelphia, PA.
Ricky Swalm
Other parts of the field plan are far less intuitive. Directors must always think mechanically about the relationship between drill and music to ensure that their bands’ sound isn’t compromised by the spacing, timing or direction of any on-field configurations. The list of errors to avoid is endless, as University of Michigan assistant director of bands Dr. Richard Frey illustrates: “Where you place the tubas relative to the melody ends up being critical. If the drums are on the 10-yard line, we’re in big trouble. If you’re backward marching at 172 bpm, the sound’s not going to be great.”
But that painstaking attention to detail pays off on game day, when the marchers finally get to show off their hard work and see how it fires up fans in real time. Their pop arrangements are usually mixed in with classic hits and school songs, but Auburn University director Dr. Corey Spurlin — recalling how the student section sang and danced to Carpenter’s “Espresso” throughout the 2024 season — can attest that the more recent tracks are particularly useful for engaging the crowd. And as long as collegiate marching bands can do that, he says, the ensembles, and not recorded music, will remain “the soundtrack of college football.”
“When people come to the stadium, you want that experience to be worth the investment,” Spurlin says. “Bands are the key cog in being the sight — and sound especially — of college football and making people feel like they’re part of the pageantry. The percussion, the brass, the woodwinds — that’s what we associate with the sport. You can’t get that in your living room.”
Incorporating popular music also helps bands promote themselves and their schools far beyond campus. Many of the directors interviewed here scored viral moments for their shows this year, and one group, Jackson State University’s Sonic Boom of the South, even caught the attention of an artist it covered: Tyler, The Creator, who retweeted a video of the band’s speaker-busting rendition of “Sticky” in November and wrote, “THIS IS WHY I ARRANGED IT THAT WAY … MY HEART IS FILLED.”
“That’s what arranging is all about,” director Dr. Roderick Little says proudly of the rapper’s reaction. “Music is such an important vehicle because it can be interpreted by different musicians a thousand different ways.
“I’m just happy that our program was the one to bring his vision to life,” he adds. “I hope that it brings about new opportunities for marching bands so we can continue to create this art form and ultimately provide opportunities for our students — because we have a lot to offer.”
This story appears in the Feb. 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Splendour in the Grass, one of Australia’s most prominent music festivals, will not be going ahead in 2025.
The decision to not return following the unceremonious cancelation of its 2024 event was confirmed by promoters Live Nation in a statement given to Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
“The festivals team has our full support to bring Splendour in the Grass back when they feel it’s right,” the statement reads. “In the meantime, we’re working on exciting new projects to support artists and the industry, while meeting the demands of music fans and look forward to sharing more in the coming months.”
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On the Splendour social channels, a separate, more casual message was simultaneously conveyed to its followers, apologizing for their silence and explaining they had “finally” taken the opportunity to have a “holiday”.
“The rest of the festival team have still been busy cooking up some awesome new things for music lovers in Australia, but Splendour needs a little more time to recharge and we won’t be back this year,” the statement read. “Think of it as a breather so we can come back even bigger and better when the time is right. Lots of other huge events on the horizon so keep an ear to the ground in the coming months – we can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on!”
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Established in 2001 and held each year in Byron Bay, a picturesque beach town on the most easterly tip of Australia, Splendour is a destination event, the most popular mid-winter camping fest in the country. Names such as The Cure, Sonic Youth, Childish Gambino, Tame Impala, and Tyler, the Creator have all headlined the festival across its lifetime.
In 2024, the festival was canceled just weeks after it announced Kylie Minogue, Future, and Arcade Fire as headliners. “We know there were many fans excited for this year’s line-up and all the great artists planning to join us, but due to unexpected events we’ll be taking the year off,” a statement from organizers read at the time.
Three months later, the festival’s co-founder Jessica Ducrou, announced that she was exiting her role as co-CEO of Australia’s Secret Sounds Group, the producer of Splendour and a slew of live music brands.
Earlier in 2023, Secret Sounds’ other long-running festival, Falls Festival, announced it too would be taking some time off, though no updates have been provided since.
Having recently wrapped up a successful year with the release of his critically-acclaimed Chromakopia album in late October, Tyler, The Creator now has more praise coming his way, this time from proto-punk veteran Iggy Pop.
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77-year-old Pop took the time to heap praise upon Tyler on his Iggy Confidential radio show for BBC Radio 6 Music. In his raspy voice, Pop recalled how he and Tyler had previously worked together on an ad campaign for Gucci alongside A$AP Rocky.
“I’ve always liked Tyler,” Pop began. “I did a day’s work with him once, and he would do what it takes to get attention. He’s also a genuine all-around song, dance, writer talent — a genuine old-school talent with a new-school approach.”
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The pair’s previous collaboration came about in February 2020, with Gucci seeing them team up with A$AP Rocky to promote their menswear collection which served as an ode to the archetypical rockstar.
“Male elegance can be unpredictable and strange,” Gucci’s Creative Director Alessandro Michele told Forbes of the campaign’s idea. “The result is a group campaign with three men who I believe had fun too.
“There is always this image of eccentricity, because they are in fact eccentric themselves,” he continued. “A certain type of fun is also portrayed and the idea of how one’s obsession with appearances can create a kind of common ground that can become a sort of brotherhood. It was beautiful to see these three men together, seemingly different but very similar.”
Pop’s description of Tyler – “a genuine old-school talent with a new-school approach” – seems to be apt, with the younger musician recently seeing some of his biggest successes to date with the release of the soul, jazz, and hip-hop blending Chromakopia.
Tyler’s eighth album, it became his third consecutive record to top the Billboard 200, while opening track “St. Chroma” became his first to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart.
Previously, his top-performing songs on Streaming Songs, which began in 2013, had been “Earfquake” and “Wusyaname” (the latter featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Ty Dolla $ign), both of which peaked at No. 3 in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Notably, this latest success was accompanied by the single “Noid” being found in the No. 2 position.
“We bet our lives on it a long time ago,” says Christian Clancy. He’s seated on a couch in a cozy corner of his Los Angeles home next to his wife and business partner, Kelly Clancy, surrounded by plants. Getting into artist management “was never something we talked about,” Kelly says. But nearly 15 years after starting their small firm, 4 Strikes, it has continued to punch above its class, becoming one of the mightiest forces in management today. And Tyler, The Creator has been there from the start.
Before founding 4 Strikes in 2010, Christian and Kelly worked at Interscope Records in the early 2000s (most recently as head of marketing and marketing manager, respectively) alongside the label’s roster of hip-hop greats, including 50 Cent, Eminem, G-Unit and Dr. Dre. “There was no better place and time to learn the business,” Christian says. But by 2010, they’d decided to strike out on their own. Kelly departed the label first, in 2005, and she admits, “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do next.” Christian “burned out” on the music business and, five years later, left, too.
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That same year, a former Interscope colleague, David Airaudi, introduced the pair to a young, charismatic and carefree (almost to a fault) rapper who changed the course of their careers — and lives. Christian and Airaudi started managing Tyler’s collective, Odd Future, with Kelly joining soon after. “Tyler reinvigorated what was inside of us,” Christian says. A year after marrying in 2006, the Clancys welcomed their daughter, Chloe, and just a few years later launched their management company from their home. When Odd Future split in the mid-2010s, the couple started managing Tyler on their own. “We put our whole lives on it,” Kelly says. “It felt like a family from day one.”
The 4 Strikes roster has just four full-time staffers (including the Clancys) and has remained trim from the start, currently boasting five artists: Kevin Abstract, Romil and Matt Champion, who together comprise what Christian calls “the Brockhampton sector” (referencing the trio’s former group); the estate of Mac Miller, whom the Clancys managed before his untimely death in 2018; and, of course, Tyler — “and Tyler’s 147 businesses,” Christian jokes.
“We trusted and believed in [Tyler] along the way,” he continues. “I can’t tell you how many times I’m like, ‘Bro, you’re tripping.’ Turns out, he wasn’t tripping. But I always say, ‘I’ll listen, and if I disagree with something, I’m going to say, “I think you’re crazy” ’ — And then after I say that, I’ll jump off a bridge with him.”
What do you remember from when you first met Tyler?
Christian Clancy: [He was] staying on his grandma’s couch, eating Wendy’s.
Kelly Clancy: Three dollars in his pocket.
Christian: He’s still the same dude.
Kelly: He’s still that kid who’s full of wonderment. He gets excited about the smallest things and then can look at something, like a 10-year anniversary [of his own Camp Flog Gnaw festival in November] and stand onstage and go, “Holy s–t.”
Christian: He’s self-aware. As he’s gotten bigger, he realizes he knows less — and respectfully, that’s rare in a business when you’re typically surrounded by yes men, which he isn’t. And then your ego takes over. And the beauty of him is he’s open to new ideas, thoughts, discussion, perspectives. Doesn’t mean he’s not confident as f–k. He’s wildly confident, but there’s a big difference between confidence and ego based on fear.
Christian, you said early in your career that your job is to give artists the best opportunity to succeed without compromising. How have you done that?
Christian: Well, that has a lot to do with the people you work with. When you surround yourself with people who know who they are, that becomes easier. Tyler had a great ability to seemingly know and believe that he’s going to get to the top of the mountain. If you remove fear, you’re free. You’re not going, “Well, what are they going to think?” Like, f–k all of that and be true to yourself. I actually learned that from Rick Rubin. If you’re honest and confident, it’s pretty hard to lose. You may not win big, but you will for f–k sure have respect.
What are some key decisions you two have made to help Tyler climb that mountain?
Christian: The decision to [sign] with Sony, who gave us the freedom and full creative control and [ability for Tyler to own his] masters and all the things that were imperative to ever doing anything like that. We’re huge [Sony Music Entertainment CEO] Rob Stringer fans. He gets it. Betting on ourselves with [Tyler’s clothing brand] Golf Wang. Betting on ourselves with the festival that was supposed to just be a zipper ride in the middle of Fairfax Avenue and the city was like, “Oh, hell no.” And [us saying], “Well, let’s go figure it out ourselves.” All the way down to [lifestyle brand] Le Fleur now, most of those answers are going to be betting on ourselves. If you don’t know something, that’s OK. Go find the people that do and question everything and build your own house in whatever shape you want. It might not work. But so what?
Tyler is still hitting new peaks in his career: Following its October release, Chromakopia became his longest-running No. 1 album with three weeks atop the Billboard 200. How does that mentality of betting on yourself help drive his continued success?
Christian: Well, he’s got the best trajectory in music as far as I can tell, from [2011’s] Goblin to now. No. 5, No. 4, No. 3, No. 2, No. 1 — and then a [two-week] No. 1 [with 2021’s Grammy Award-winning Call Me If You Get Lost] and then three weeks at No. 1. He doesn’t lose fans. He grabs the next generation.
Kelly: Also in a world where you have access to everything immediately with the emergence of TikTok and the way that our brains are constantly receiving information and we’re just like in this swiping generation … to create a world which you can step into and you know exactly [what it is] when you see a color palette or the silhouette of his hair, I think it cuts through. And he’s been doing that [with] every album. Like when the guy came out in a blond bob wig, a suit and loafers [for 2019’s IGOR]. When he sent us the photo first, I think we looked at each other like, “All right…” In the genre he’s in, you don’t do that without utter confidence.
Christian: Even if you didn’t get it, you respected it because we all want to be that confident. It’s interesting because Mac [Miller] was a lot like [that]. Mac had a way of reinventing himself in subtle ways in his trajectory of albums. And his was a vulnerable confidence, and there’s a similarity there, which is, again, rare where you have artists that have the gall to f–k it and not worry about the results. Trust in it.
Kelly, you posted on Instagram that “most people just will never know” what Tyler went through to get Chromakopia out. What did he go through?
Kelly: There was a lot of pressure — this is not him, this is just me speaking — from the last album. His trajectory has always gone [upward]. Looking at the landscape of music and things that were really successful and knowing that he doesn’t fit in these metrics or a lot of the tentpoles that artists look at as validation for what they’re doing in their career … Tyler never creates from that place of trying to match those. So a lot of times, he’s left off a lot of lists that I believe … I get frustrated because I know he should be on all of them. Obviously, I’m protective, too.
Christian: That’s starting to happen now.
Kelly: But it’s felt like it’s always been this upward battle, which I wouldn’t change at all, but all that said, now that he’s becoming much more of a household name… I just think the process of him getting this done, truly no one will really understand. Tyler’s a unicorn in that he literally does everything — like, everything. That guy is producing everything. When he has an artist come in to be a part of the song, he already knows the cadence of how he wants them [to rap or sing]. He’ll take what he thinks is their superpower and weave it into what he’s doing. He’s instructing the horn players. Thinking of the visuals, being in the edit room, this dude touches everything. So I do want him to have that recognition. He’s never going to be the guy to ask for it.
From left: Christian Clancy, Tyler, The Creator and Kelly Clancy photographed November 20, 2024 at Quixote Studios in Los Angeles.
Luis Perez
Kelly, you once said that your mother being a teacher helped shape your management style. How so?
Kelly: Being a woman in the industry at the time when I started, it was a much different landscape than it is now.
Christian: It was a f–king boys club.
Kelly: It still exists in different forms now. But her being essentially a single mom and a kindergarten teacher and never feeling like my brother and I were without gave me such a strong foundation. And then when I became a mom, it was incredibly valuable. I’m incredibly protective of my squad and that showed itself in so many ways over the years. I think it’s why it’s always been important for us to maintain a small company, because it allows us to serve in a way that’s not transactional. Like, we’re a part of some of them having their first kids, we’re in the hospital. Buying their first homes, renting their first apartments, these huge life milestones and being able to [be there] for them. Tyler, he’ll joke to Chris and I every now and again like, “Man, if you guys ever got divorced, I don’t know what the f–k I would do.” It’s like, yes, we’re partners in a business, but I feel like we’re also representative of a relationship. What does a relationship look like? Those things are really impactful, especially when you’re meeting [artists when they’re] at a younger age.
On the 2012 Odd Future song “Oldie,” Tyler calls you, Christian, a father figure. Is a familial touch necessary to be a successful manager?
Christian: I don’t take that for granted. Some of the people we work with don’t have an immediate father. And so you also take on whatever they think of their father, for better or worse. Is it necessary? No. Is it maybe helpful? I don’t know. We learn just as much from them. Tyler taught us so much about the metrics that weren’t being monitored by record labels. There were no cultural metrics. There were just [Broadcast Data Systems] and SoundScan and these things that sort of missed this whole thing that was happening. We learn so incredibly much from the people we work with. Mac, the way he looked at life. It’s an amazing two-way street.
What’s the key to maintaining an artist-management partnership?
Christian: I was fortunate enough to learn from Eminem and Paul Rosenberg. That’s who I came up with. I’m not a big fan of the word “manager.” I’ve always preferred “partners” because that’s what I really look at it as. The artists who change managers all the time, I mean, maybe it’s necessary. Although I do know, many times, it’s hard to look at yourself and it’s easier to point the other way. So the manager is right in the line of fire if something doesn’t work. And they may have just been carrying out what your vision was. For us, the family thing is what works. It’s up, it’s down. It’s good, it’s bad. It’s thick and thin. Once it feels transactional, it’s lost that bond — then you’re just the manager.
What are you two most proud of in your own careers?
Kelly: I’m really proud that we’ve managed to, by design, keep a small company. Not folding into a larger company. That becomes convoluted because it’s hard to superserve artists like Tyler, with like-minded goals, when you’re in a bigger company. [When] we started, it was just Chris and I working out of our home. So to be able to maintain that feeling that resonates with Tyler and all the artists we work with, I’m really proud of that.
Christian: We could have the opportunity to work with somebody [else] that would hypothetically bring a bunch of money, but at what cost? I don’t want the headaches and hospital visits from stress. We’ve really managed to surround ourselves with like-minded people and to Kelly’s point, there was never this drive to be some big company. That sounds exhausting. And the fact that we don’t hate each other. We’re married, for f–k’s sake. This isn’t supposed to work, not for that long.
What grounds you?
Christian: Can I tell you one fun fact? I can’t remember the last time I missed an Eagles game. We [once] watched a meaningless Eagles-Giants game in a tent in the Serengeti at four in the morning. No joke. We got Wi-Fi, there’s a lion roaring and I’m locked into an Eagles-Giants game that meant nothing.
Kelly: We try to go every year to Lincoln Financial Field [home of the Philadelphia Eagles], but this year we couldn’t because…
Christian: F–king Tyler.
Has it gotten easier or harder to carve out personal time over the years?
Kelly: Harder.
Christian: Definitely harder. This year? Impossible.
Kelly: This is the first year — and Tyler and I joked about it — we didn’t go f–king anywhere. Everyone was doing s–t in the summer and all of us were just in L.A. like, “F–k.”
Christian: Waiting on this f–king dude.
Kelly: We’re planning our vacations around artists. We’re planning our personal lives around our work lives.
Christian: Well, you try [to plan]. It’s a year-to-year question. This year’s a f–king mess — a beautiful mess.
This story appears in the Dec. 14, 2024, issue of Billboard.
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Vince Staples, from what can be gathered from interviews and podcast appearances, isn’t a man who enjoys the unwavering intensity of the so-called white gaze, creating sonic soundscapes with a certain demographic in mind. During his set at this year’s Camp Flog Gnaw with Tyler, The Creator at the helm, Vince Staples flipped a crowd participation moment into an opportunity to bark on white fans in attendance.
Vince Staples, who enjoyed a solid 2024 on the creative side with the warm embrace of his eponymously named television series on Netflix and his latest studio album Dark Times, was on hand for the annual Camp Flog Gnaw festival in Los Angeles, now in its 10th year.
During his set, Staples, 31, paused his set to ask the crowd a particular question.
“Do y’all really like f*ck with that real n*gga sh*t,” Staples asks the crowd, which was comprised of several white fans who responded favorably to the shoutout but what came next was a classic retort from the talented Long Beach rapper and actor.
“A bunch of white people saying they like real n*gga sh*t”” Staples said. “It’s perplexing.”
Staples also called the crowd “stupid motherf*ckers” before launching into the rest of his set.
Vince Staples was one of the many standout acts at Camp Flog Gnaw with Erykah Badu, Action Bronson, Madlib, Sampha, Doechii, ScHoolboy Q, and more, including appearances from Sexyy Red, SZA, and others. There was also a segment of the festival dedicated to the memory of the late, great MF DOOM.
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Tyler, The Creator had outdone himself yet again. His latest album CHROMAKOPIA has debuted number one on the Billboard 200 chart.
As per Billboard, the Odd Future collective founder has secured the top-selling album according to the music industry’s leading trade publication. His newest effort has sold 299,500 equivalent album units over the course of the week ending Oct. 31.
Not only is this Tyler’s best sales performance yet for a new album but the selling window was shorter as the LP was released off-cycle (albums are typically released on Fridays). Additionally, this also marks his strongest performance on online streaming platforms.
Originally announced in October, CHROMAKOPIA is largely inspired by his mother Bonita Smith, and the life lessons she told him as a child. Later on, he would better appreciate this information which prompted him to make this concept work.
During his album listening party, Tyler revealed that his goal was to give the world insight into his life prior to his time in Odd Future.
“But the album now has turned into me taking a bunch of sh*t my mom told me as a kid. Now that I’m 33 all of that stuff is like, ‘Oh, that’s what the f*ck she was talking about. Oh, I’m not the guy that I was at 20.’ Like, oh sh*t, people are getting older. Folks having kids and families and all I got is a new Ferrari.”
Thus far the album has been largely embraced with favorable responses from critics and his fans alike. CHROMAKOPIA is his third album to chart number one on the Billboard 200 chart. Tyler, The Creator also won Grammy Awards for “Best Rap Album” for both IGOR in 2020 and Call Me If You Get Lost in 2022.
You can check out CHROMAKOPIA below.
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Tyler, The Creator teased his seventh studio album CHROMOKOPIA around two weeks ago via social media, stirring up excitement among his devoted fan base. Releasing early Monday morning (October 28), CHROMOKOPIA is currently a hot topic of discussion on the X platform with fans giving their early reviews.
The release of CHROMOKOPIA was unexpected by fans of Tyler, The Creator, and the unconventional but eye-catching rollout immediately grabbed their attention. After the release of the well-received first single “Noid,” along with a video for the track, fan anticipation was notably high across several channels.
With a Monday release, Tyler, The Creator is seeking to disrupt the usual Friday music drop schedule, intending to have fans sit with the project for ht entire week and not compete with the dozens of releases.
During our first listen to the album, Tyler’s layered production and his comfortability between R&B inflection and straight-up rapping showcase the entire scope of his artistry. There is a theme we detected early, which materializes in the aforementioned “Noid” single, which sees T wrestling with the trappings of fame and the paranoia it inspires in him.
Continuing his big bag money talk from CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, T delivers a few boasts highlighting his financial position but as he has demonstrated from his debut studio album, T’s production style has only evolved to a level where he has few peers, especially of his generation.
Another refreshing angle of the CHROMOKOPIA is Tyler’s mother appearing across the album encouraging her son to keep his wits about him, just as she did on T’s previous album on “MOMMA TALK.”
The album tackles several themes, including abortion on the track “Hey Jane” and the curse of false bravado that T examines on “Take Your Mask Off.”
On X, the reactions to CHROMOKOPIA are still pouring in and we’ve shared some of them below.
TYLER, THE CREATOR. CHROMAKOPIA. OUT NOW. pic.twitter.com/3kh0APtkAY
— Columbia Records (@ColumbiaRecords) October 28, 2024
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Click here to find the album at your preferred DSP.
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Source: San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images / Getty
One of the culture’s most beloved creatives might be finally working with the world’s most popular streetwear label. A SUPREME x Tyler, The Creator drop might be on the way.
As reported by Highsnobiety, the New York-based company looks to be partnering with the face of GOLF le FLEUR. On Tuesday, Aug. 13, SUPREME posted some photographs of him sporting their signature box logo t-shirt. The “See You Again” MC is pictured wearing a hunting hat with the ear flaps tied up with what seems to be a silk-printed scarf slightly protruding from the collar. “Tyler, The Creator for Supreme, 2024,” the caption read.
While the clothing brand didn’t share any more details, Tyler left a comment saying, “MR. GREEN HAT REALLY,” which is a reference to not only his lyrics on “Session” from Bastard but also his history of wearing green SUPREME hats during his Odd Future days. The following day, posters with the same visuals appeared on the streets of London.
Tyler, The Creator has seemed to thrive in the fashion industry. Back in February it was announced he designed a menswear collection for Louis Vuitton. Prior to that, he and A$AP Rocky were the face of a 2020 Gucci campaign. At this time there is no release date on the Tyler, The Creator x SUPREME drop.
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Source: Astrida Valigorsky / Getty / Megan Thee Stallion
Megan Thee Stallion is not missing any opportunities to bless a concert stage this summer.
Fresh off of ripping the stage at Kendrick Lamar’s victory lap, aka the Pop Out Concert, Tyler, the Creator, broke the bad news to his fans on social media that he won’t be performing at Lollapalooza and Outside Lands music festivals.
“i hate saying this but i have to cancel [my performances at] lollapalooza and outside lands. i made a commitment that i can no longer keep, and that bums me out knowing how excited folks were,” the 33-year-old Hip-Hop star told his follers on X, formerly Twitter.
He continued, “i made a commitment that i can no longer keep, and that bums me out knowing how excited folks were. that is not sexy at all. please please forgive me or call me names when you see me in person. love.”
As for the reasoning for the pullout, the Chicago music festival said, “Tyler, the Creator will not be able to perform this year,” while Outside Lands claims he can no longer perform due “to personal reasons.”
Those excited to see the “Yonkers” crafter this year, Lollapalooza and Outside Lands, are understandably disappointed in the news.
Lollapalooza & Outside Lands Wasted No Time Finding Replacements
But both Lollapalooza and Outside Lands didn’t waste any time filling in the massive void Tyler, the Creator left.
Megan Thee Stallion, currently twerking across the country with GloRilla on her Hot Girl Summer tour, will fill in for Tyler at Lollapalooza while Sabrina Carpenter takes his spot at Outside Lands.
Thee Stallion also just performed at Bonnaroo in Tennessee.
While it may seem like summer concerts and music festivals aren’t as popular as they used to be, ask folks like Jennifer Lopez, who had to put their tours on ice; Megan Thee Stallion is currently living her best tour life.
We love to see it.
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Spring cleaning isn’t over yet. Tyler the Creator’s luxury brand, Golf le Fleur, will be having a sale on Saturday (May 11).
Select items from the brand will be half off, Tyler posted on X on Friday. Golf le Fleur’s Spring Cleaning Sale launches at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET.
With over a decade of experience as a designer, Tyler, the Creator brings a refreshing style perspective to the fashion world. The Los Angeles native’s brand features a fusion of streetwear and high fashion pieces, including vibrant graphic tees, footwear, luggage, nail polish, perfume and accessories.
While some of the cheaper items such as the Flower Logo T-Shirts ($85) and LeFluer Converse ($120) could be getting a 50% discount, there’s also a chance that you’ll score deals on some of the higher-priced pieces, maybe even the Sunseeker Letterman Jacket ($1,000) released last month, and the Pearl Cardigan ($595).
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Gold le Fluer coats ($1,050), sweaters ($595), sweater vests ($500), collared shirts ($320) and trousers ($450) hats ($130-$225) and scarves could be on sale as well.
In other Tyler, the Creator news, the rapper will headline Lollapalooza in August alongside SZA, Stray Kids, Hozier, The Killers, Future and Metro Boomin, Blink-182, Melanie Martinez and Skrillex. The lineup will also include Sexxy Red, Reneé Rapp, Victoria Monét, Kehlani, Norah Jones, Kesha, Dominic Fike, CAAMP, Tate McRae, Deftones, Faye Webster, Jungle, Two Door Cinema Club, Killer Mike, Vince Staples, Kevin Abstract and Chappell Roan.
Tickets are available at Seat Geek, Vivid Seats, StubHub, Ticketmaster and Lollapalooza.com.
Click below to shop the Golf le Fluer sale on Saturday at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET.