Tyler the Creator’s Noid: Channeling his Inner Taylor Swift

Tyler the Creator’s new record Chromakopia is one of the most anticipated records of 2024 and will be the focus of Tyler’s new world tour. Tyler is an artist who has grown on me over time as his music evolved from juvenile lyrics about violence towards women and shock value to uniquely produced tracks on the human condition. His latest track Noid is a great example of Tyler’s evolved style as he focuses on the trappings of stardom within one of the best produced hip hop tracks of this year.

Musically, this track resembles a lot of Kanye Wests’ My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in Tyler’s use of wall of sound concepts as you are bombarded by guitar, syth, background singers, 70s base and percussion. This discordant music resemples a nightmare, which underlines the paranoia and hyper-vigilance Tyler sings about in the rest of the track. Tyler is really crate diving for the track he samples for guitar and drum riffs on this record. He samples the Zambian punk track Nizakupanga Ngozi by Ngozi Family to great effect in this track. His sampling of this song gives Noid the sense of dread and threat he is looking for, while also elevating a little known African band…I’m all for that. Tyler is the credited producer on this record and his use of background singers, spoken word, samples and synth is art and really showcases his production talent.

The track shares a lot with Taylor Swift’s Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? which centres around Taylor calling out people who attack her for her fame and public stardom. In this case, she is singing about taking on nameless trolls and misogynistic media head on: “Who’s afraid of little of me / Well you should be.” In Tyler’s case, stardom takes a darker tone as his every move is watched and he feels stalked and trapped. The title itself is a play on paranoid and Tyler himself sings about people “keeping watch.” Checking doors, jumping at every noise in the house and strapping up “before they strap you” all add to his claustrophobic experience of fame. This is very different from the swaggering bravado we are used to on Tyler tracks. Instead of that confidence we are left with a man trapped in his house constantly looking over his shoulder.

Having said that, we still get the growing Tyler delivery on this track, which is always fun. This vulernable introspective side of Tyler, along with his one of a kind delivery and jaw dropping production, has me really excited for the rest of the album. Over the last few years, ever since Flower Boy really, Tyler has continued to raise his game and push hip hop to new heights. This record should set a new milestone in the genre.

Listen to Noid