Tyler The Creator – Goblin

Tyler The Creator - Goblin

Amidst hype and controversy, the much anticipated release of Goblin has been bestowed upon the world like the latest hipster accessory or more simply, a bad joke, or a good-bad joke. Or an exploration into the…Shit, I took the bait. The bait, of course, being the ridiculous dissection and speculation of something that’s just plain shitty so it looks like you “get it” – or more importantly, so it doesn’t look like you’re one of the people who “doesn’t get it”. We take the bait because the most important thing in the world is to be cool, not ever look stupid, and always fit in. But there’s nothing to “get” here, Goblin is just bad. And homophobic. And misogynistic. And I know why Goblin isn’t anything more.

San Francisco is a world-class city that draws people from all over the globe to come and partake in all its goodness and one of my favorite parts is the skate culture that lives and breathes here. Most folks in San Francisco may not know it, but there are still teenage skate kids who come from all over the world, with nothing more than a backpack, a couple decks and a video camera to skate, and breathe, and not do a whole lot more. I used to live with one of these skate kids – a guy from Boston that my friends and I called “BoSox Derek”. BoSox Derek was 19, he moved to San Francisco with his skateboard, a bag full of skate hardware and some Thrasher mags. He kept to himself at first; but quickly got a job in the skate department at the local sporting goods store, and would come back from what we assumed was a skate session, sweaty as fuck, with a 40 oz of something terrible and a fistful of confidence. These were the times that I really got to know BoSox Derek. And what I learned was that he was basically a shitty, immature 19-year-old kid who called everyone and everything a “faggot” and really had no further agenda than skating, drinking, and causing trouble. Which, whatever, just do your dishes.

After spending some time listening to Goblin, reading and watching several interviews, and checking out what Tyler, The Creator has had to say in public forums, I realized something; BoSox Derek and Tyler, The Creator are exactly the same. Only Tyler has a mic and a podium. Dangerous, maybe. But if we take the hype down from an 11 to a 2, and stop calling him “the next…” whatever, we might realize he’s just a grimy skate kid with really, only one and a half songs.

Goblin broods like a frustrated teenager trying to figure the world out. In fact, Tyler spends the nearly seven minutes of track one exposing his inner-monologue, venting about his confusions, internal paradoxes and stuff that pisses him off. No beats, rhymes or timing to speak of. Ok.

Soon thereafter you start to realize how each track is more of a recorded therapy session of someone who’s trying to figure out his place in the world; but forces everything and tries too hard, because he knows he’s being recorded.

Thats fine, but maybe poetry is more your thing. Because Tyler’s delivery does not display any sort of undeniable talent, and the beats are uninspiring, in fact, Goblin really only has two different beats: “Angry/Spooky” and “Angry/Sensitive”. And surprise surprise, the songs with the “Angry/Sensitive” music and beats are about girls. With the only exception possibly being a song aptly titled “Bitch Suck Dick”. You make the call. No, actually I will; Tyler, The Creator is a shitty, immature, 19-year-old skate kid only talking about what he knows.

Goblin is not trying to explore the Id, expose issues or do anything meta or whatever; and any critic who desperately tries to find meaning so as not to be exposed as someone who “doesn’t get it”, is doing just that. Goblin is the creation of an immature kid, who showed us that there may be potential, but right now, all he cares about is skating, drinking and causing trouble.

Tracklist:
1 Goblin
2 Yonkers
3 Radicals
4 She
5 Transylvania
6 Nightmare
7 Tron Cat
8 Her
9 Sandwitches
10 Fish
11 Analog
12 Bitch Suck Dick
13 Window
14 AU79
15 Golden