Tyler, the Creator’s ‘The Estate Sale’: a review

The deluxe album trend. Some love it, some loath it. Lil Uzi Vert has been praised for reigniting the release strategy in the streaming era with LUV vs. the World 2 and Metro Boomin says it’s now “burnt out.” Either way, it seems like it’s here to stay and no fan can escape it, for better or for worse. This week, Tyler, the Creator blessed fans with a bettered and bolstered version of 2021’s Call Me If You Get Lost. His sixth studio album, which dropped on June 25, 2021, was a rap epic.

With its sound being heavily influenced by Tyler’s love for 90s hip-hop, jazz, and funk music, it saw a return to heavy-hitting hip-hop for the music mogul, after Igor (2019) which took a more pop-centric sound. To say Igor’s flowery funk had a mixed reception would be a vast understatement. Its follow-up, then, featured guest appearances from various artists, including Brent Faiyaz, Lil Wayne, Pharrell Williams, and Lil Uzi Vert.

“Call Me If You Get Lost was the first album I made with a lot of songs that didn’t make the final cut,” Tyler explained on Twitter. “Some of those songs I really love, and knew they would never see the light of day, so I’ve decided to put a few of them out.” The Estate Sale comes almost two years after Call Me If You Get Lost, for which Tyler earned the 2021 Grammy award for Best Rap Album — his second Grammy award following his 2019 win for Igor. Usually, artists will release the deluxe for their albums within a few weeks of the original release. However, in this case, a two-year wait seems reasonable, considering just how brilliant each track is.

First up is ‘STUNTMAN’ featuring a long-awaited feature from Compton rapper Vince Staples. Although the track is produced exclusively by Tyler, it sounds more like something from Vince’s discography; the blaring horns and snappy hi-hats are reminiscent of something from Big Fish Theory or FM! Madlib-produced ‘WHAT A DAY’ samples the near-ethereal ‘A Day in the Park’ by Michał Urbaniak, and sees Tyler boast about the things he has and will never do: “I never had desire for promethazine in a soda / Never made eye contact with a woman in Fashion Nova”. Next up, ‘WHARF TALK’ touts a rare commodity – that being a feature from A$AP Rocky. Tyler’s plinky, candied keys provide a pop-infused foundation for Tyler’s autotuned melodies and Rocky’s vagabondish verse.

Lead single ‘DOGTOOTH’ is laced with classic Tyler braggadocio: “I’m tryna buy my neighbor house and turn it to a yard” or “Five, six, seven is the figure for a setlist!” The song was released with a music video, directed by Tyler himself. ‘HEAVEN TO ME’, co-produced and co-written by Kanye West, beautifully flips a sample from John Legend’s ‘Heaven’. Tyler goes bar for bar about his ideal life by the lake with a girlfriend and two children. The penultimate track ‘BOYFRIEND, GIRLFRIEND’ with YG, although lyrically vapid, is a fun and flirty way to slowly begin the record’s close.

The final track, ‘SORRY, NOT SORRY’ is one of the best of Tyler’s career. It’s a brutally raw track that finds Tyler apologizing for (almost) everything from his behaviour in various relationships to buying climate-destroying cars to not properly honouring his ancestors: “I’m sorry to my ancestors, I know I’m supposed to fight / But this ice shining brighter than a black man’s plight, I’ma make it right / In the meantime, I’ll give some advice while these blood diamonds getting cleaned off.” The song also arrived with a music video, directed by none other than Tyler himself. In the video, a small crowd gathers for a surreal show, in which various Tylers from his past album ‘eras’ mill about a field. During the proceedings, a shirtless Tyler slowly picks off all the other Tylers, the video ending with a brutal beatdown of Call Me If You Get Lost-era Tyler, signalling the end of this persona, and the beginning of the next; pastures new.

A new Tyler era is upon us.

The Estate Sale is out now.