The same can be said for the perennially underrated Vince Staples, whose set was a welcome reminder of the durability and longevity of his output over the past few years.
Opening act Teezo Touchdown’s performance left many of the older members of the audience with confused looks on their faces, but it was clear the kids loved it. The entire show was still decidedly youthful. Last night made for a detente among Gen Xers, millennials, and zoomers. The only difference is that now, in addition to an audience of teens enthralled by his most recent work, Tyler’s fan base includes aging millennials nostalgic for when he first came onto the scene and the parents of today’s youth, themselves enthralled by one of today’s most musically vibrant and energetic performers. Not since the cathartic early days of Odd Future has the 30-year-old rapper seemed this in command of an audience. That much was clear last night at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, where he kicked off his Call Me If You Get Lost Tour.
CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, though, is a chance to see if they can recognize rap greatness once it has kicked their door in.PHOENIX – Tyler, the Creator sits at the center of multiple generations’ imaginations. Giving the Grammy the benefit of the doubt, maybe they wanted to reward all the great rapping he’d done until that point. “WILSHIRE” is potentially best described as an epic poem. And then there’s “RUNITUP,” which features a crunk-style background chant, and “LEMONHEAD,” which has the energy of Trap or Die-era Jeezy. The vibes across the album are a disparate combination of sounds Tyler enjoys (and can make)-boom-bap revival (“CORSO,” “LUMBERJACK”), ’90s R&B (“WUSYANAME”), gentle soul samples as a backdrop for vivid lyricism in the Griselda mould (“SIR BAUDELAIRE,” “HOT WIND BLOWS”), and lovers rock (“I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE”). Tyler made an aesthetic choice to frame CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST with interjections of shit-talking from DJ Drama, founder of one of 2000s rap’s most storied institutions, the Gangsta Grillz mixtape franchise. The focus here is very clearly hip-hop from the outset. Tyler superfans will remember that the MC was notoriously peeved at his categoric inclusion-and eventual victory-in the 2020 Grammys’ Best Rap Album category for his pop-oriented IGOR. But in this case, an exceptionally great one. But across CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, the man once known as Wolf Haley is just a guy who likes to rock ice and collect stamps on his passport, who might whisper into your significant other’s ear while you’re in the restroom.
The Los Angeles-hailing MC, and onetime nucleus of the culture-shifting Odd Future collective, made a name for himself as a preternaturally talented MC whose impeccable taste in streetwear and calls to “kill people, burn shit, fuck school” perfectly encapsulated the angst of his generation. There’s a handful of eyebrow-raising verses across Tyler, The Creator’s CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST-particularly those from 42 Dugg, Lil Uzi Vert, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Pharrell, and Lil Wayne-but none of the aforementioned are as surprising as the ones Tyler delivers himself.
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