Tyler Gregory Okonma, known professionally as Tyler, the Creator beat his UK chart record when Chromakopia climbed to the top spot. Chromakopia tops Tyler’s previous peak at Number 4, which was achieved with the release of Call Me If You Get Lost in 2021 and Igor in 2019.

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The rapper and record producer known for experimentation in the field of alternative hip hop released Chromakopia to move away from passive listening and towards music listeners being able to actively listen and absorb its contents.

In an interview with Canadian journalist Nardwuar last year, Tyler spoke about the attitudes surrounding album release dates and his preference to weekday releases: “I think if you put it out during the week, man, that commute to work, or that commute to school… you really have that hour, 30 minutes to really dive in and really listen”. With this in mind, Tyler released Chromakopia on Monday 06:00 EST, three days after the Official Charts Company began counting streams and sales on 0:01 on Friday.

Tyler, The Creator scores his first-ever Official Number 1 album in the UK with #CHROMAKOPIA this week

Congrats, @tylerthecreator!

Read the full story: https://t.co/lrxvNwiqzU#TylerTheCreator pic.twitter.com/x1lC6GDQQ7

— Official Charts (@officialcharts) November 2, 2024

The crowning of Chromakopia at Number One was a close call, there was fewer than 800 chart units between Tyler and Courtneers, who took the second spot. The chart also saw Sabrina Carpenter’s continued chart dominance at Number 3 with Short N’ Sweet, Bastille with & at Number 4 and Charli xcx’s Brat at 5.

The album was announced on October 17, 11 days before its release on October 28. However, the hype was enough as Tyler also occupies the Number One spot on the US Billboard 200, his third number one album. This is a commendable achievement for the rapper given he has never achieved a top 10 single in the US charts.

Four days after the album’s announcement, the ‘See You Again’ performer released Chromakopia’s lead single, ‘Noid’. The track’s experimental production dives into themes of paranoia with its lyricism, providing insight into the experiences of individuals in the public eye. ‘Noid’ samples vocals from Paul Ngozi of Ngozi Family from their track, ‘Nizakupanga Ngzo’. Paul Ngozi sings in his native Nyanja language; these lyrical contributions propel Tyler’s creativity which are further showcased throughout Chromakopia. The monochrome music video features American Actress Ayo Edebiri, who plays the role of a startled fan which in Tyler’s paranoia mistakes her recording phone for a gun.

Chromakopia features ‘St. Chroma’ and ‘Thought I Was Dead’, both of which were used as promotional samples for the newly released album.

Tyler, the Creator achieved his first UK Number 1 album with Chromakopia proving his discography, which spans over a decade, proves to be continually engaging and powerful to UK audiences.

The 23rd instalment of the festival will run across two consecutive weekends as it returns to the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California, on April 12-14 and April 19-21. Those seeking full weekend entry will be able to purchase three-day passes this Friday at 11am PT as part of Coachella’s pre-sale.

The Last Dinner Party were first formed in Hackney, London, in 2021 after their friendship circles collided during fresher’s week at university. Known for their Antoinette-style corsets, white Renaissance gowns and tumultuous lyrics, the group appear to have grown a loyal, underground fanbase overnight.

Seemingly the lovechild of Bram Stoker and Angela Carter, Abigail Morris is their unflinching lead vocalist, accompanied by the brilliant Georgia Davies (bass), Lizzie Mayland (guitar), Aurora Nishevci (keys), and Emily Roberts (lead guitar).

Snapped up by Island Records in 2022, the band went on to release their debut single ‘Nothing Matters’ in April of last year, followed by a second single ‘Sinner’ in June, and ‘My Lady of Mercy’ last October, all of which were produced by James Ford, known for his work with The Last Shadow Puppets, Arctic Monkeys, Blur and Gorillaz.

Despite such a slender discography, the band have expertly woven a coded folklore of feminist magic realism that has deeply resonated with their fans, offering up an irresistible concoction of sex, revenge and religion at its core.

The quintet is set to take the stage on Saturday 13 and Saturday 20; however, this isn’t their first rodeo across the Atlantic. The group are expected to attract an eclectic crowd of music lovers following their first North American tour last autumn, alongside an impressive string of shows with Irish folk singer Hozier, and a bucket list of support act positions previously secured with Florence + The Machine, The Rolling Stones and none other than Lana herself.

The band took to Instagram to make the announcement, while also hinting at future shows in the U.S. later this year.

From writhing theatrics on sticky pub floors to signing with one of the world’s most iconic record labels, it appears The Last Dinner Party won’t be the only British rising talent making a name for themselves across the pond this spring. They’ll be joined by the likes of Mercury Prize runner-up Olivia Dean, The Japanese House and electronic music project Jungle.

The festival also will feature a long-awaited reunion of Gwen Stefani-fronted No Doubt, as well as major performances by Blur, Deftones and breakout rapper Ice Spice.

Crowned as BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2024 and Brit Award Rising Star winners at the end of last year, they are proving to go from strength to strength, riding a goldrush of critical acclaim from every corner of the industry.

In the face of all of the airbrushed glamour and looming controversies from the festival over the past two years, we can’t wait to see what The Last Dinner Party have up their sleeve.

This appeal comes in the wake of last week’s Blackout Tuesday, a grassroots social media campaign instigated by music professionals Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas that urged the industry to halt their ‘business as usual’ online presence in solidarity with the worldwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, was suffocated to death on the 25th of May whilst under arrest by several officers of the Minneapolis Police Department. 

Echoing Agyemang and Thomas’ desire to hold to account a multi-billion dollar industry “that has profited predominantly from black art”, the letter highlighted how despite the music industry having “long profited from the rich and varied culture of black people for many generations”, it nevertheless “has failed to acknowledge the structural and systematic racism affecting the very same black community”. The letter also repurposed a phrase originally spoken by American actor and DJ Amanda Seales and later quoted by radio broadcaster Clara Amfo, accusing the industry of “effectively enjoying the rhythm and ignoring the blues”.

BBC 1 Radio host Clara Amfo recently delivered a moving speech addressing how the death of George Floyd had impacted her mental health.

Another notable demand was for the words ‘urban music’ be dropped as an industry term and be replaced by ‘black music’ with immediate effect. The descriptor has long been a hotbed for controversy owing to accusations that it demarcates (and thus implicitly subordinates) the work of black artists into a separate category from their white counterparts. 

January’s 62nd Grammy Awards faced harsh criticism from its own recipients on this very issue. Tyler, the Creator, winner of 2020’s Best Rap Album, lamented that despite a nod from a major awards academy, he felt his album IGOR had been miscategorised as ‘rap’ (the album mostly comprises of sung vocals) based on the colour of his skin. “Whenever we – and I mean guys that look like me – do anything that’s genre-bending or anything, they always put it in a rap or urban category”, he said whilst backstage after accepting his award. “I don’t like that ‘urban’ word. It’s just a politically correct way to say the N-word … why can’t we just be in pop?”, he asked in frustration, presumably referencing fellow award winner Lizzo whose album Cuz I Love You was nominated for the Best Urban Contemporary Album category, rather than as an entry for Best Pop Vocal Album. 

Following in the footsteps of major label Republic Records, who on Friday announced they would no longer be using the term ‘urban’, as of today the Grammy Awards announced that they would be renaming their ‘Best Urban Contemporary Album’ category to ‘Best Progressive R&B Album’. Curiously however, ‘Best Latin Pop Album’ (a category that was mired in its own controversies this year) has also been renamed ‘Best Latin and Urban Pop Album’.

Read the full letter published online by IQ Magazine here.

Amidst a wave of cancelled festivals and events, Primavera Sound is the latest event to fall victim to the coronavirus crisis. Posting a statement to their website, festival organisers, said: “Faced with this constantly changing scenario, the restrictions imposed by the authorities on the celebration of public shows and on the free movement of people (making the participation of the announced artists difficult and in many cases impossible) and in coordination with the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Barcelona City Council and the Sant Adrià de Besòs City Council, we are forced to postpone the upcoming edition of Primavera Sound Barcelona for reasons of force majeure known to us all. Our absolute priority has always been to guarantee the safety of our audience, artists and all the people involved in the festival.”

Primavera in summer, for once in a lifetime.
More info at https://t.co/ZvNNJAIE8U pic.twitter.com/pYUQTgVtqs

— primavera_sound (@Primavera_Sound) March 28, 2020

The original festival was meant to take place between June 3rd and June 7th 2020, but amid the growing coronavirus pandemic the festival has been postponed until August. The festival will now take place from August 26th and August 30th 2020, and tickets already purchased for the festival will continue to be valid for the new dates.

In an lengthy statement on their website, organisers of Primavera Sound, said: “For this reason, given the exceptional nature of the situation in which we find ourselves, Primavera Sound Barcelona 2020 will take place from 26th to 30th August. We feel obliged and responsible to contribute insofar as we can to the survival of the live music scene, whose role will be key to the return to normality after this absolutely unprecedented situation that has never been faced before by the cultural sector and all its agents: artists and their teams, agencies, promoters, venues, festivals, stage builders, technical and production teams, bar staff, cleaning and security staff, and in general the thousands of people involved in the sector. We thank all of them for their perseverance and contribution.

“On our side, and with the indispensable support of Pull & Bear, Heineken® and Desperados, adidas, Aperol, Lotus and all of the festival sponsors, we will make every effort to ensure that this change, imposed as a result of the current global health crisis, affects the festival’s programme as little as possible.”

The statement concluded, “The tickets already purchased for Primavera Sound Barcelona 2020 will continue to be valid for the new dates. Once the state of alarm decreed by the Government of Spain is over as well its possible extensions, we will give you more information and will reactivate the ticket sales. Moreover soon we will give you more details about NOS Primavera Sound Porto 2020. We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding in the face of this unprecedented situation. Let’s all face this together. We will get through this together. And we will celebrate our 20th anniversary together. We are waiting for you in the Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona at the end of August. Primavera in summer, for once in a lifetime.”

This year is a special time for the festival as it is set to celebrate it’s 20th anniversary and this year’s impressive line-up reflects the celebrations. Primavera Sound Barcelona 2020 revealed that headlining this year’s festival would be Tyler, The Creator, Lana Del Rey, The Strokes, Beck, and Massive Attack. Joining the five impressive headliners will be performances from the likes of Pavement, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, Maggie Rogers, Khaled, Bikini Kill, The National, Kacey Musgraves, Iggy Pop, Disclosure, Dinosaur Jr., King Krule, and Young Thug, among many others.

Unfortunately, for fans of both Primavera Sound and Reading and Leeds Festival the new rescheduled dates for Primavera Sound will take place the same weekend as Reading and Leeds Festival. The news comes after Reading and Leeds announced that the festival will go ahead as planned for the time being. Following the cancellation of Glastonbury Festival and flurry of other cancelled events and festival, Reading and Leeds Festival released a statement that confirmed the festival will go ahead as planned.

A statement released on the Reading and Leeds Festival website, said: “Please be assured that the safety and health of all staff and visitors, is our main priority and we are implementing recommendations and instructions appropriately. We are closely monitoring official guidance from the World Health Organisation, Public Health England, UK Government, local public health authorities and are working with event promoters and organisers as information evolves.”

Among a massive number of upcoming music festivals, Lovebox is another one that starts to build the hype for next year. It has revealed Tyler, the Creator as the first of its line-up.

Tyler Gregory Okonma will bring his latest acclaimed album IGOR to show at the festival’s main stage. It is also reported that next year, Lovebox will expand for full three days from June 12 to 14 at the same location of Gunnersbury Park, London.

Lovebox has been known as a festival for hip-hop, dance, R&B, and electronic music. Since 2002, the festival has seen the appearances of various artists of the genres, such as Solange and Chance the Rapper who headlined last year.

IGOR is Tyler’s fifth studio album which received critical acclaim for his usual brilliant production. The album debuted at number 4 on UK Albums Chart and spawned a hit single “EARFQUAKE” which peaked at number 17 on UK Singles Chart.

ดูโพสต์นี้บน Instagram

⚡ TYLER, THE CREATOR ⚡ Our first headliner announcement for Lovebox 2020 Catch him in London this summer on Sunday 14th June. Register now to access the pre-sale and you could win x4 VIP Weekend tickets @feliciathegoat

โพสต์ที่แชร์โดย Lovebox Festival (@loveboxfestival) เมื่อ ธ.ค. 6, 2019 เวลา 1:00am PST

Presale will be up on Wednesday, December 11, followed by general sale on Friday via Lovebox’s official site.

Accompanied by a goofy, low-budget video filmed in early-morning Paris, the track is a masterful showcase of the duo’s witty and playful lyricism. Over a backing lifted from Monica and Missy Elliot’s 2003 song ‘Knock Knock’, in his first freestyle Tyler alludes to his abstinence from recreational drugs like lean and cannabis. The drug culture has marred the hip-hop and rap scenes in recent years, with casualties falling to addiction and overdoses. In the most famous recent case, artist Lil Peep died at just 21 last year from an overdose of Fentanyl and Xanax.

Rocky’s tongue-in-cheek verse touches on his penchant for alternative and designer clothing – ‘That do, when I die they gotta make a statue/Bad attitude this ain’t a purse it’s a satchel’ – as well as taking aim at the XXL Freshman class of upcoming rappers, whose flow is little more than ‘mumblin’ and ramblin’.

The clip even features a cameo from Jaden Smith, who recently became the first artist ever to release a studio album entirely on Instagram. At the end of the video, the duo also tease an upcoming release – Wangsap, which is ‘coming soon’.

The two are long-time friends and collaborators. Tyler featured on ‘Telephone Calls‘, a track from A$AP Mob’s 2016 Cozy Tapes Vol 1: Friends album, and Rocky had a guest spot on on the track ‘Who Dat Boy‘ from Tyler’s 2017 album Flower Boy, which garnered some of the best reviews of his young career.

Following the release of the acclaimed, Grammy-nominated Flower Boy, last July, Tyler has made something of a habit of putting his stamp on remixes of popular tracks, having also sampled Drake and Trouble’s ‘Bring it Back’ back in April. However, this isn’t to say that the former Odd Future member is lacking for original tracks, following the unveiling of ‘435’ , a track recorded during Tyler’s latest leg of the Flower Boy tour.

‘435’ follows the one-off release of tracks ‘Okra’ and ‘Rose-Tinted Cheeks’ which were unleashed earlier this year. There has been no word yet as to whether Tyler has concrete plans for new music in the pipeline in future. Back in March, Tyler was unfortunately forced to cancel several tour dates in South America, taking to Twitter to reason that ‘Sometimes a duck isn’t a jean jacket’.

The trio, led by hat-lover-extraordinaire Pharrell Williams, have been dormant for some time, whilst their leader went off to feel like a room without a roof, but posters and adverts seen a Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flogg Naw festival over the weekend strongly suggest that their return is imminent.

NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES @NeRdArMy pic.twitter.com/5ic6b5Dy8G

— SHADEZ THE MISFIT (@shadeztm) October 29, 2017

N.E.R.D. ads everywhere pic.twitter.com/N7tzt0TQa5

— pharrell's junebug (@angelAmyV) October 29, 2017

Posters displaying the words ‘No-one Ever Really Dies’ have begun to surface, both at Tyler’s festival, and on the bands various social media pages, clearly playing on the band’s acronym name.

Pharrell himself has been talking about a new N.E.R.D album since as far back as 2015, and further confirmed the group’s plans at ComplexCon in November 2016, during a live recording of his Beats 1 show OTHERtone. After opening a Q&A session with his audience, Williams was quizzed about whether there would be another N.E.R.D album or not.

“The answer is yes” Pharrell responded, to excited applause from his crowd. Pharrell went on to compare N.E.R.D’s creative process to making wine, teasing his audience with the suggestion that the new album would drop “when it’s time.”

Williams also sat down for an interview with the BBC in February, and spoke on the album’s progress, stating that the production was still underway, but that “It’s feeling really good, really special.”

In the song Tyler responds to accusations of homophobia and misogyny saying: “I think people love to be mad/ how can I be misogynist love titties and ass/ how can I be homophobic when my boyfriends a fag”.

He then attacks Collective Shout’s campaign and Australia’s border control, rapping “tell Australia I’m sneaking in with a mic in my damn hand/ instead of the vegetables that I packed in my backpack”

Talking about his ban from the UK he goes on to rap: “worse thing they gave me was an opportunity and a pen/
freedom of speech? my freedom was breached/ border patrol put me on streets immediately”

He also compares his controversy with Eminem’s, saying “when marshall had this problem what the fuck was they telling him?/ is it cause of status or his melanin lacks black”.

You can listen to the song below:

His recent video for ‘Buffalo’ has also been seen as a comment of the recent controversy surrounding him. It sees him being lynched by an angry mob, which can be seen as a metaphor for his critics attacks on him.

Tyler Tweeted earlier that he recorded ‘Fuck It’ two weeks ago, saying “I RECORDED THAT TWO WEEKS AGO.” and that he “COULDNT COME UP WITH A NAME […] FUCK IT”.