By Jon Muñoz
In a recent Boston show where Tyler performed his latest album, CHROMAKOPIA, he addressed the vehement criticism brought by Taylor Swift fans regarding his chart placement and dethroning Swift from her position.
Tyler’s CHROMAKOPIA has been a massive critical success among critics. Music critic Anthony Fantano highly praised Tyler’s comeback album, giving it an 8 out of 10 rating, and even compared some elements to his previous works.
“It’s a bit edgy, it’s aggressive, it’s in your face, it’s confrontational. He is once again wrestling with his fame in a way that is reminiscent of how he did it on Goblin. But once again, he now has enough maturity and perspective to actually rage on the topic without giving the audience second-hand embarrassment,” said Fantano.
Aside from the critical success, this album sees Tyler making commercial waves and potentially marking his most successful album to date.
“Tyler, the Creator scores his third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as his new studio effort, CHROMAKOPIA, arrives atop the tally (dated Nov. 9). The set launches with 299,500 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 31, his best week ever in terms of units. Its starting sum — the sixth-largest debut of 2024 — is also notable because the album arrived on an off-cycle Monday (Oct. 28), and thus had only four days of activity in its first tracking week. (Most albums are released on a Friday, giving them a full seven days of activity in their opening chart week.),” said Billboard writer Keith Caulfield.
Due to the number of streams garnered, Tyler has dethroned Taylor Swift from her No. 1 position on the Spotify Top Artist Chart. This accomplishment is one of the hardest accomplishments an artist could ever pull off due to Taylor’s commercial success and status. With this came criticism from the Swifties, Taylor Swift’s fanbase. Many Swifties were pulling up old controversial lyrics and tweets from Tyler as a way to critique and call him out.
Tyler, filled with annoyance, responded to the criticism in a Boston show where he performed his latest album.
“[They’re] bringing up old lyrics — b—-, go listen to ‘Tron Cat,’ I don’t give a f— h–. I don’t give a f— b—-. They gonna bring out the old me,” said Tyler, according to Consequence.
“Tron Cat” is one of Tyler’s most controversial songs to date. A specific lyric was used as a point of contingency among Swifties.
“Rape a pregnant b—- and tell my friends I had a threesome (La, la),” said Tyler on “Tron Cat,” according to Genius.
Despite the horrible and insensible lyrics, the Swifties do not understand the concept or theme of the song. “Tron Cat” is not about promoting those crude actions; it is about the vile intrusive thoughts one could have in their head, regardless of the person or character. The track is from his studio debut album, Goblin, which is a conceptual album detailing and criticizing Tyler’s dark and twisted nature within his way of thinking, making it abundantly clear this persona is not supposed to be liked or praised.
Tyler has used the element of therapy in his older works, such as Bastard, as a means to communicate the taboo-esque lyrics in a grounded way that highlights the negativity surrounding those thoughts. In addition, Tyler has also made it clear that he does not mean everything he says within those lyrics and has moved on past that, which is evident with his newer releases.
This type of backlash caused by the Swifties is childish and seems to be a way just to strip Tyler of his hard-earned position. What makes matters worse is that the fanbase is representing Taylor Swift and her image through a negative and tainted lens. The Swifties should do more research and analyze the lyrical context before making rash judgments to take down an established artist just because they surpassed their favorite artist.
You can now listen to CHROMAKOPIA on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music.