At this point, the best way to see Tyler the Creator – aka Tyler Okonma, Doctor T.C., Mr. Lonely, Samuel, Tron Cat, Wolf Haley, Igor, Mr. Baudelaire, Morgan Freeman’s son – might be as a Pokémon or a modern-day Michelangelo. Since 2009, approximately every other year, Tyler evolves into a brand-new persona, each inevitably informed by its predecessors. In refining the eccentricities of each, chiselling away from his vast musical capabilities, perhaps Tyler is finding his “David”. His David, however, isn’t as concrete as a slab of marble; it is a malleable and metamorphosing artistic entity.
But how did Mr. Okonma go from Wolf Haley to St. Chroma? From a raging perverted homophobe to an honest, sexually fluid, and super fashionable pop-cultural icon? With each new album and new alter-egos, Tyler grapples with deep turmoil expressed in earlier albums. From internalized homophobia, his alienated father, relationships, or parenting, each lyric seems to be a new step self-discovery and acceptance. Tyler has given us a unique and rare vulnerability, one in which we are so tangibly granted access to his personal growth.
Tyler’s debut, the transgressive self-released 2009 album Bastard, first introduces Tyler’s alter-egos and started the “Wolf trilogy”: an exploration of the ambiguously named Wolf Haley’s conversations with his therapist Doctor T.C. These conversations, which continue throughout Goblin and Wolf, showcase Tyler’s severe mental health struggles, culminating in disturbing fantasies of rape, murder, necrophilia, and cannibalism to name a few. These themes are most notably apparent in Bastard and Goblin:
“Sarah”, Bastard: “I want to tie her body up and throw her in my basement / Keep her there, so nobody can wonder where her face went”;
“Fish”, Goblin: “Slip it in her drink, and in the blink of an eye I can make a white girl look ch**k”;
or the infamous line from “She”: “I just wanna drag your lifeless body to the forest / And fornicate with it but that’s because I’m in love with you, c**t”.
Wolf continued the story of Wolf Haley along with introducing other alter-egos like Samuel or Tron Cat. The aggression was lightly diluted, though lyrics like “I wanna strangle you, ‘til you stop breathing” still linger. Perhaps being banned from Australia, New Zealand and the UK was his sign to tone things down, though hopefully it was personal growth.
Bastard, Goblin and Wolf are commonly separated from Tyler’s later projects, as the manifestations of the alter-egos were far more destructive and overtly provocative. Additionally, these alter-egos thankfully weren’t embodied in the same manner or extent as Igor or Mr. Baudelaire. However, his discography is as a whole an intertemporal exploration of his personal life. There isn’t a solid distinction between these different eras and alter-ego’s as they are ultimately all part of Tyler; they have all melded “T”. “T” may manifest himself through St. Chroma or Mr. Lonely, yet the essences of Wolf Haley, Samuel, and others, still persist.
This is demonstrated through the paralleling production and narrative styles across discography. Whether that’s through using the same opening drums on “PILOT” and “I THINK”; responding to issues regarding his absent father in Bastard with “Like Him” from Chromakopia; or exploring his sexuality in “Judge Judy” in conversation with ‘VCR/Wheels’, his alter-egos are always in conversation. Moreover, he directly talks between different alter-egos and characters in songs like “Hey Jane”, “Nightmare” or “Answer”. This form of communication is inherently what Tyler’s music is all about.
Although there are a few constants within Tyler Okonma – he loves bikes, lakes, and cars (specifically BMWs) – his alter-egos are far more complex. Despite changing name and form, Tyler harbours the themes and thoughts of his past and reimagines them with each song. Samuel’s drug dealing influenced aggressive, defiant, and “f*ck the world” attitude emerges in songs like “WHAT’S GOOD”, “KEEP DA O’S” or “Rah Tah Tah”. Meanwhile, Wolf Haley’s romantic, self-reflective, and often self-pitying tone is evident in “FUCKING YOUNG/PERFECT” or “PUPPET”. Every alter-ego have, to various extents, become idiosyncratic to Tyler’s music. Over the past 15 years, Tyler, The Creator has embraced his alter-egos, using them to emphasise what he needs to communicate. Whether calling out for his father’s attention or navigating his sexuality – one often stigmatised in Black male communities, and even more so within Hip Hop – these alter-egos become vehicles for his self-expression. He uses them to unite and reconcile with himself, and who he wants that self to be.
Image Credit: “Tyler The Creator / Odd Future Tokyo Live” by dat’ is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.