Reviews

Tyler, The Creator “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: The Estate Sale” Album Review

CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: The Estate Sale

Tyler, The Creator

  • Genre: Rap
  • Date: 31 Mar, 2023
  • Content: explicit
  • Region: NGA
  • Track(s): 24
  • ℗ 2023 Columbia Records, a Division of Sony Music Entertainment, as exclusive licensee

Tyler, The Creator &Quot;Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale&Quot; Album Review, Yours Truly, Reviews, March 28, 2024

The sixth studio album by American rapper and composer Tyler, the Creator is titled Call Me If You Get Lost. Columbia Records made the record available on June 25, 2021, and two years later, the deluxe version on March 31, 2023.

42 Dugg, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Wayne, Domo Genesis, Brent Faiyaz, Lil Uzi Vert, Pharrell Williams, Teezo Touchdown, Fana Hues, and Daisy World all make cameo cameos on the album, which DJ Drama narrates. Tyler primarily produced the record with help from Jamie xx and Jay Versace. He won the 2021 Grammy for best rap album for “Call Me If You Get Lost,” his second Grammy after winning for “Igor,” two years before “The Estate Sale.”

Album Art

Tyler, The Creator &Quot;Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale&Quot; Album Review, Yours Truly, Reviews, March 28, 2024

Tyler is depicted holding briefcases in the animated album art, suggesting his wealth and a business-minded approach to earning Geld. T is dressed in style as a yacht is seen on the sea, and the luxurious and serene mountain scenery is portrayed. Indeed, the album’s title, “Estate Sale,” and cover art speak volumes about the album’s creativity, class, and coordination.

Tracks And Features

The fact that this is primarily a review of the deluxe tracks with a brief discussion of some of the older tracks on the album presumably needs no further explanation. Given its bling-era mixtape style, “Call Me If You Get Lost” is the one song in Tyler’s catalog where a deluxe project would have made sense. It appears that “The Estate Sale” has two objectives. First, he wants to give that period a strong ending before moving on to the next phase. The Estate Sale, his landmark rap record and longest-running tour, is a heartfelt farewell. Second, “Sorry Not Sorry” seems to begin T’s record cycle deliberately. Will that occur this summer or in the future? The unknown. In any case, he is allowing fans to know something new is happening.

DJ Drama, an animated Philadelphian whose Gangsta Grillz series features some of the essential rap songs of the century, hosts “CMIYGL.” The album occasionally reminds listeners of the grimiest of those tapes—its lead single is a Gravediggaz cover—but it breaks up the heavier tracks with bits of upbeat music. (Call Me occasionally makes Tyler’s idol Pharrell’s 2006 Gangsta Grillz recording In My Mind: The Prequel come to mind.) Drama is funniest when he pokes fun at verses or highlights Tyler’s travel-related monologues (“A young lady just fed me French vanilla ice cream!”). He remains alluring even when he messes up the album’s name, as he does on the outstanding “Hot Wind Blows,” which brings him and Lil Wayne back together.

The Gangsta Grillz conceit gives Tyler some freedom; the platonic-ideal mixtape contains freestyles, original songs, radio hits, and snippets of unreleased material. Nevertheless, he still offers to Call Me enough themes to form a spine. There are near-constant references to travel (the best example is the opening of “Massa,” where he interrupts a monologue about his passport mid-sentence as if he knows how it sounds) and to Rolls Royces: the way the new models’ doors open; the fact that Tyler now owns a pair; the detailing on their ceilings and the cookie crumbs he leaves on their floors; and the fact that their signature umbrellas are extra in Los Angeles.

He revisits both of these topics in a similar manner that rappers might reconsider an anchor word or phrase while freestyling. It becomes confusing throughout Call Me whether these material flexes are his focus and the more upsetting personal disclosures bleed in and take over or if it’s the other way around, which has an intoxicating effect. Most likely, it’s a bit of both.

On Call Me If You Get Lost, there are a lot of humorous and occasionally happy scenes. The sweaty remix of H-Town’s “Back Seat (Wit No Sheets)” is called “Wusyaname,” and it cleverly incorporates YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Ty Dolla $ign. The story about Tyler’s mother is rewarded with her almost unbelievable colorful monologue. But even these are shrouded in gloom. Tyler raps, in the middle of “Massa,” “Everyone I ever loved had to be loved in the shadows,” in a low register and deliberate flow. It is tragic to think that the secrecy it demands could suffocate a feeling so pure. This corresponds to the affair from “Wilshire” and possibly to his previous relationships with men.

At times like this, Tyler seems in tune with himself and willing to expose himself to the world. In contrast, he raps later in the same verse about being so paranoid that he must go to bed with a gun, but this time in a voice so altered that it’s hard to tell if it’s a call for help, a joke, or both. The desire to be sincere does not imply that being so is simply because these things do not progress linearly. Instead, Tyler believes his existence occurs in the dark corners and cracks. If that’s the case, it makes sense that he brought back the mixtape format, which brings previously obscure concepts and asides to the forefront of the frame.

The two best songs from the deluxe are the two cuts with music videos (“Dogtooth” and “Sorry Not Sorry”). Some of his best rappings can be heard in “Sorry, Not Sorry,” where he growls his voice into a passionate verse toward the conclusion. Compared to the rest of CMIYGL, the other tracks feel meager, despite being enjoyable. However, it makes sense why he would want to release songs like “Stuntman” or “Wharf Talk.” The music of “Wharf Talk” has such overt Pharrell Williams influences that it’s almost funny. The exclusive tracks have erratic drum beats and beats resembling Tyler’s Wolf period music.

Therefore, Tyler, The Creator, raps like the rent is owing in CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST. He sounds like the birds are coming for lunch in “WHARF TALK.” He works to a beat distinctly The Neptunes-esque, as one might anticipate. His words are incredibly endearing, and his melodies are incredibly contagious. A$AP Rocky brings a cool-ass verse to the blend, making him sound like a cross between Mr. Deeds and Mason Betha. Overall, if you watched The Neptunes as a kid, then enjoy this. Tyler, The Creator, is in his element when he emulates Andre Wilson from Philly’s Most Wanted’s classic “Please Don’t Mind” song.

Tracklist

NO TITLE TIME
1 SIR BAUDELAIRE (feat. DJ Drama) 1:28
2 CORSO 2:26
3 LEMONHEAD (feat. 42 Dugg) 2:10
4 WUSYANAME (feat. YoungBoy Never Broke Again & Ty Dolla $ign) 2:01
5 LUMBERJACK 2:18
6 HOT WIND BLOWS (feat. Lil Wayne) 2:35
7 MASSA 3:43
8 RUNITUP (feat. Teezo Touchdown) 3:49
9 MANIFESTO (feat. Domo Genesis) 2:55
10 SWEET / I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE (feat. Brent Faiyaz & Fana Hues) 9:48
11 MOMMA TALK 1:10
12 RISE! (feat. DAISY WORLD) 3:23
13 BLESSED 0:57
14 JUGGERNAUT (feat. Lil Uzi Vert & Pharrell Williams) 2:26
15 WILSHIRE 8:35
16 SAFARI 2:57
17 EVERYTHING MUST GO 0:28
18 STUNTMAN (feat. Vince Staples) 3:19
19 WHAT A DAY 3:36
20 WHARF TALK (feat. A$AP Rocky) 3:24
21 DOGTOOTH 2:41
22 HEAVEN TO ME 3:50
23 BOYFRIEND, GIRLFRIEND (feat. YG) 3:24
24 SORRY NOT SORRY 3:26

Album Summary

Nobody seems to be influencing hip-hop as Tyler, The Creator does. He hits us with hella unique music in the entirety of the CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST album (including the deluxe edition) and raps harder than most of his contemporaries. In addition, Tyler, The Creator, is currently producing works of art. With DJ Drama by his side, Tyler flourishes in the rap mixtape genre, which enables him to fully develop his abilities as a producer, writer, and vocalist.

IF YOU GET LOST, CALL ME: The Estate Sale is how pleasant, approachable, and retro it sounds. After thanking us in “EVERYTHING MUST GO,” Tyler experiments with various genres, including clichéd stunt music, unpolished hip-hop, early 2000s R&B bangers, freestyles, and open-book performances.

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