Everyone got to always like, ‘Oh, this is what I’m working on, this is who’s on the album, this is the track list, this is coming out in eight months.’ Just shut the fuck up and put it out when it’s ready.” I think now people feel obligated to always let everyone know what the fuck they’re doing, and I hate that. Like a lot of new recordings from hip-hop artists these days, Igor dropped in the world without much notice in advance, and as one music critic told Billboard, “I think the lack of build-up actually helped Tyler here.”Īs Tyler told Complex, “I hate people who hype shit for months in. (Don’t forget, it’s a much different music industry these days, and you chart equivalent sales in an era where we don’t have much physical media anymore.) Igor is Tyler’s first number one album in the US, and he sold 165,000 equivalent album sales the first week. Yet this was what’s being described as a “hidden guest list” for the album. Hip-hop albums usually have all-star guests, and Igor is no exception because it includes appearances from Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vest, Solange, Kanye, Jerrod Carmichael, Santigold, Jessy Wilson, La Roix, CeeLo Green, Charlie Wilson, and Pharrell. It was the first new release from Tyler the Creator since Flower Boy, which was released in 2017. Igor is Tyler the Creator’s fifth album, and it dropped this May. That curiosity, people lose that, because they think they know everything.” As he told Fast Company, “My core is to explore. It’s an album, a whole piece of work, not a grouping of singles. In other words, Igor is an album that Tyler recommends that the listener dive into in its entirety. I believe the first listen works best all the way through. This is not Wolf…Don’t go into this expecting a rap album. On Twitter he wrote, “This is not Bastard. Notable releases from Tyler include Bastard, Goblin, Wolf, Cherry Bomb, Flower Boy, all the way up to today’s Igor, which he promised was a much different album than you’d previously expect. In fact, 12-full length albums came out into the world by 2011. Out of this collective came The Odd Future Tape in November 2008, and like a lot of hip-hop artists these days, the tunes and albums came fast and furious. The Odd Future Group was what’s known as a “rap collective” of artists, and this group of talented hip-hop artists “was one of the first birthed by the internet.” Tyler, the Creator first broke through as an artist in 2007, and he was part of what Entertainment Weekly called a “group of misfits” that went under the name Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. Consumed by the lack of closure, you wallow, you hurt, you rage.
So you exist in limbo, waiting on them to bring you to heaven or send you to hell. They reciprocate but refuse to go all-in. In their coverage of the album, Forbes writes that Igor “is something many have lived through. But these days, Igor is the name of the latest hit album from hip- hop renaissance man Tyler, the Creator, and it tells a very ambitious story of a love triangle.Ĭritics are hailing Igor as Tyler’s best album yet, and in a remarkable era for great new hip-hop music, he has thrown down the gauntlet with a great new piece of work. Igor is an odd name that normally makes you think of Frankenstein’s assistant. Home / Behind the Record / Behind the Record: “Igor” by Tyler, The Creator