Forget the controversy. No wait we can't. The controversy is a breath of fresh air. If you listen to the album you might be confused by it but still it is in the here and now and some people take 19 year old Tyler seriously.
It reminds me of the way some folks were up in arms over Brett Easton Ellis' "American Psycho". The indiscriminate woman hating and faggot baiting, the lethal lissome hatred that spews from the album on all directions… Maybe, the comparison is NWA or Eminem… or…
Tyler in the usual all American story: the rise from negative to poverty though unlike Biggie, the move ain't all that, just leads him to further confusion, to scitzophrenia, to playing madness, to: a hall of mirrors where he can hide behind and say whatever he wants to say.
And why shouldn't he?
Because while the album isn't great it is the best hip hop album since Kanye. Tinie Tempah, released a week later, sounds quaint in comparison. Rap after rap, is dark, power hard dank drums and chewed off more than it can swallow hammer hitting hate lyric. Tyler lives through ritual humiliation and when he attacks in revenge, even just with words, he spirals out of control.
The raps are sometimes really, really great: both the title track and "Golden" are pretty exciting stuff, even the most jaded hip hop fan must be wondrin' how much trouble Tyler is looking for. This is serious stuff.
Less serious but never played for laughs, is real nasty stuff like "Fish" and "Bitch Suck Dick" which kinda is self explanatory. It isn't very good but I'm not sure if i would think that if I was a teenager, I might find it naughty nasty.
"She" and "Her" are ultra real, and the sensitivity is at odds with both the sounds -every song is the same pitch black Wu Tang-y synth darkness and black hard rhythms.
And, yes, it get old over 80 minutes. It isn't fun but there are aspects of fun to it. On "Golden",as insanity grips, it is about as scary as rock gets too nowadays. The breakdown, the danger, Tyler's descent into madness, takes him places even Eminem hasn't reached.
He is, of course, big time. And those who hate the subject matter are picking the wrong fight. They should be battling mainstream hip hop if they want to make a point.
Grade: B+