Two years after his third album, Flower Boy was released on July 21, 2017.
With the album leaking eleven days before “Cherry Boy" was released in 2015, Tyler, the Creator released forty-six minute summer jam masterpiece.
The album has everyone dazing in the clouds. The four neo soul singles that supported the album: “Who Dat Boy”, ”911”, “Boredom”, “I Ain’t Got Time”, and “See You Again” with guest vocals by Kali Uchis, has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album in 2018 and debuted #2 on the US Billboard 200.
Tyler, from previous albums like Wolf, Goblin, and Bastard, have sparked so much controversies like slurs, threats to women, and vulgar language that brought Tyler so much hatred towards the LGBTQ community, knowing that he has gay fans.
Lyrics in the songs in Flower Boy: “Foreword”, “Garden Shed”, and “I Ain’t Got Time!” have questioned and speculated if Okonma was coming out gay, bisexual, or queer, or also known if questioning their sexuality.
In current interviews, he said that he had a boyfriend when he was fifteen, but he hasn’t specifically said how he identifies himself but he has long hinted his sexuality for a while.
The album has opened itself from the garden of popular music and alternative hip hop and bloomed its way to a lot of praise to Mr. Okonma. The way the beat sound with the instruments in the songs is hypnotizing to the brain, repeating and repeating every time you hear the song from the album.
Flower Boy earns 9/10 for Tyler himself to be closer to the line, but most importantly, it has opened in a way that the album itself was an emotional risk for him but rewarded him for what he deserved: praise and 70,000 album sales.
Credit: Columbia Records