Tyler, The Creator’s latest LP Flower Boy is available today on iTunes and Spotify. Frank Ocean, Lil Wayne, Estelle, ASAP Rocky and others collaborated with him this time around.

The beats of Flower Boy are euphoric and less chaotic than what we heard on his 2015 release, Cherry Bomb. We can thank Tyler for the dreamy sounds because he produced the entire album himself. “Who Dat Boy”/”911,” “Boredom,” and “I Ain’t Got Time” were released as singles prior to the entire album, but when all the tracks are put together you get an impressive finished product.  Every transition is easy on the ears. Listen for yourself here:

Unlike the OddFuture rapper’s signature defiant, ‘in-your-face’ style, Flower Boy touches on some of the soft spots of Tyler’s mind. This album is a mark of transition as an artist from his old juvenile ways into someone more serious. A flower has blossomed within him; it seems by some of these new tracks that Tyler could be ready to accept himself by coming out of the closet.

In “Foreward” he preaches to the choir “Next line will have ‘em like ‘Woah’: I’ve been kissing white boys since 2004.” Tyler has apparently been dropping hints about this for years, but nobody took him seriously.

“See You Again” featuring Kali Uchis is a genuine love song and my personal Flower Boy favorite.

“Wonder if you look both ways
When you cross my mind, I said.”

-“See You Again”

The track has a more mature outlook on relationships than we’ve seen from Tyler in comparison to his past work. When I say this, I’m specifically thinking of the hook in “She” off of Goblin (2011):

“The blinds wide open so he can

See you in the dark when you’re sleepin’

Naked body, fresh out the shower.”

Lyrics like this turned me off to OddFuture and its fanbase back in the day, but Flower Child gave me hope that maybe Tyler is growing up. Even the album titles speak for themselves; he’s transforming from a Goblin into a Flower Boy. And for some people like myself it’s cool to see him let the immaturity go. After all, he is a great artist and has the power and potential to spread positive messages through music other than creepy shit about spying on women.

Keep doing you, Tyler.

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