In the history of hip hop, there hasn't been many rappers who made quite the controversial impact like Tyler, The Creator did in 2011. When viewer's took a look at his video for "Yonkers" and gazed upon the bizarre and sick imagery mixed with his graphically obscene and disturbing lyrics, it made everyone turn heads. It was even enough for him to win the best new artist award at the MTV VMA's. Since then, he and his group Odd Future have gained quite a large fan base. Which only meant an eager anticipation for this. His third album Wolf. Going into this I wondered where Tyler would go with this. Though I never got to hear his first album Bastard, I did listen to his second album Goblin which I did enjoy. So I figured Wolf would be either the same or a bit watered down. Thankfully, it wasn't that. What it was was a more emotional side of Tyler. A side I personally never seen from him. It's displayed on a lot of the songs on here. But I'll get back to that. Production for the most part was your typical Odd Future style production. Those weird, eerie and distorted sounding beats. Although there are a few that have somewhat of a commercial attempt. I for the most part thought the album was good. Not great but good. The positives and negatives are pretty much even. I'll start with the positives. I mentioned the emotion that Tyler displays on a lot of songs on here, one of those songs which is one of my favorites on here is "Answer". This is where he again speaks on the pain of not having his father in his life and being a "bastard". There was so much emotion in this song to the point where I feel like if it came down to it, Tyler would trade all this rap shit in just to have a father in his life. "Colossus" showed his emotion towards nagging and obsessed fans and speaking from their point of view. Kind of like Eminem's "Stan" but darker. Cool song. The emotional roller coaster continues with "Awkward" which to me sounds like a continuation of "She" from his last album. Expressing his feelings for that same chick. By far my favorite track on here was "Rusty". Excellent beat. Domo Genesis had one of the dopest verses I've ever heard from him. I was a little disappointed Earl Sweatshirt didn't have a longer verse but he was good for the time he was on it. They both may have out did Tyler on his own shit. "Trashwang" is another one of those wild and rambunctious tracks where he, Taco and Jasper Dolphin are just yelling the most rude and ignorant shit imaginable on a trap-style beat. Just like "Bitch Suck Dick" on Goblin and "We Got Bitches" on The OF Tape Vol. 2. Most people would hate this song but it's fun to me. Well...now the negatives. There were songs on this album that felt like they just did not belong at all and were made just to be made. Case and point: "PartyIsntOver/Campfire/Bimmer". I have no idea what Tyler was trying to do here but it failed. Here he merges three songs into one track and none of them are really that good. Especially the second portion of it where it sounds like more instrumental then vocals. This was nothing more than a album filler. "Tamale" just sounded extremely weird and awkward which is saying something when talking about Tyler, The Creator. I mentioned a few beats that sounded a bit commercial for Tyler's taste and "48" is that. I want to believe Pharrell had a hand in producing this along with the ad-libing which is why it sound like it does. On "Treehome95" he links up with Erykah Badu for a very laid back and calm track. This has to grow on me. It overall sounds like Sunday afternoon jazz. The fact that Tyler didn't rap on it is what probably drew me away from it. Well...overall, I did like it but coming off of Goblin I kinda did expect more from this. Tyler/Odd Future fans may still like this regardless but the album in a lot of areas will have to grow on me. I give it a strong C+. No matter what though, Tyler, The Creator will still have a huge following of fans and praise form hip hop peers. As long as he stays true to who he is, he can't do no wrong. Well...that is if he can learn to control Wolf Haley, Goblin, Sam and all those other personalities of his. End.
Final Grade: C+
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