Tyler Gregory Okonma, better known as Tyler the Creator, released his album IGOR on May 17th, 2019. This album has become well-renowned amongst both Tyler Fans and a broader audience which I feel is well deserved.

The album shows emotion and it has several different messages that may fly over the listener’s heads the first time you listen to it. Songs in the album show several signs of strained relationships due to lyrics like, “Don’t leave, it’s my fault” from the song ‘EARFQUAKE’ and “Are we still friends?” from his song ‘ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?’.

These lyrics show signs of a relationship strain between Tyler and whoever his former lover is. The line from EARFQUAKE shows that Tyler accepts the fact that his actions were flawed and is willing to take full blame for it as long as his lover doesn’t leave him.

This album also shows signs of a struggle to maintain a healthy relationship with the lyric, “This 60-40 (Isn’t) workin’, I want a hundred of your time, you’re mine” from his song “NEW MAGIC WAND.”

This among many other themes shown in the album itself via its well-crafted lyrics holds many themes related to the strife of Tyler and their deteriorating relationship. Things like this also show perhaps an obsessive personality and conflicted feelings towards the situation as a whole. These themes along with the sheer musical talent from Tyler himself allow the story to just become something absolutely amazing as a music album.

Tyler the Creator has touched the hearts of many fans across the globe and has even become something of a model of inspiration for some. Caroline Laurent, a Musical Theatre major here at LVA had some words to share of how IGOR and Tyler himself affected her. “It basically inspired me to like, his like, idea of doing what he prefers and what he wants to do really inspired me to kind of have that mentality and he inspired me to like, keep pursuing my major and to keep pursuing music,” Laurent says in an interview. Caroline Laurent is a big Tyler the Creator fan, consistently sporting his merchandise and owns much memorabilia of the artist. Tyler has become something of an inspiration both to her and other fans out there.