Unmasking Chormakopia By: Kaylani Clark 

Where everything is black and white, Tyler the creator is masked marching with other masked people. Soon Tyler conducts them into a Chormakoipa box where they go inside, and the box explodes, and everything is in color. This genius move gets everyone shocked and ready for his new album. Social media is in a buzz with this teaser. People wonder who those people are marching with Tyler and who the character he is trying to portray is. “Users have theorized it could reference Chroma the Great, a character from Norton Juster's 1961 children's novel The Phantom Tollbooth. In the book, Chroma conducts an orchestra whose music brings color to the world." (“Tyler, the Creator's new album Chromakopia is out. Here's what you need ...”) This makes sense because of the way he teases his new album. 

Then the day comes October 28 Tyler drops and everyone is excited including Hillgrove Junior Lauran Hilliard. Lauran says “Honestly, I did not know he was dropping at 6 am, so I was up until 12. So that’s how excited I was.” That day Tyler got over 85,665,784 streams, which broke the record of having the most streams in a single day. Hillgrove student Neavah Harrington says, “My first impression wasn't too great but there were some solid songs nothing listenable, catered to more to his new audience.” This is true; this album is different and has a new sound that listeners have never heard. 

The album talks about his issues and life as he goes through it. Hillgrove Junior, Jayden Johnson, talks about the album's hidden messages, in which he says, “Absolutely, in “Daring I,” it is about the feeling of them not showing you enough affection, so you start roaming around looking for other people. In “Thought I was dead,” people thought that wasn’t creating enough music, and he had to show off.”  This album is different with a new sound and deeper meanings in his songs. He was able to create a new side of him that he has not shown his fans. Including featuring people, he usually does not.