Let me preface this by saying that there is a fundamental flaw with the way many people review music that seems to be particularly prevalent with the initial responses to this album. Many people have a hard time believing that anyone could be smarter, or have more intricate machinations, than they are/do. Consequently, you get shockingly obtuse statements like those made by Needle Drop, continually referring to the fact that "Tyler is human" (really?) and that his art has been affected by attention, resulting in "Tyler's need to preface his angry outbursts with assertions that he doesn't mean it". Now it is entirely possible that these things are true and that Tyler is just as fucking stupid as the people reviewing his music. However, just for one second, let's give the young man the benefit of the doubt. Let's consider the possibility that he is rap's Lady Gaga and that he has done a masterful job crafting a persona for himself, subsequently eliciting the exact response that he wanted to evoke. Let's consider the fact that he is smarter than we are. He might not be, and I might be dramatically overstating his abilities as an artist, but so many people are falling on one side I'll take the other just to be different.
Goblin is astonishing in it's breadth. It tries, explicitly, to tackle just about every hip-hop cliche song as possible. Bullshit club song about drugs, guns and women? Check. Longing songs about women? Check. Posse cut? Check. Introspective final track? Check. Fine, so thus far he's a man who has done his homework. That view can be compounded by the rap references strewn throughout the album: Redman, Eminem and Jay-Z to name a few. Admittedly, if this was all he was doing I would ride with Needle Drop and cast Tyler aside. The problem, though, is that he doesn't do any of these things in a straightforward manner. The bullshit club song mentions anal rape. Obviously he's not the first artist to rape a bitch, but he's the only one I can think of to do it in a club song. The longing song about a girl (complete with R & B hook) sounds generic enough until you find out he's stalking her. He kills his crew at the end of the posse cut. The introspective, and Redman referencing, final track gets all fucked up when Tyler is his own therapist. Alone, none of these things mean shit. Taken as a whole they start to imply that Tyler may have something bigger to say. As he subtly manipulates hip-hop history and prototypical songs it becomes easier to believe that he is doing the same thing to listeners and critics alike. At that point I am tempted to say that he might be doing it all on purpose. He prefaces songs with disclaimers in the hopes that critics will think he is bitching out and letting the attention alienate his art when, in reality, the disclaimer was always an implicit part of the music. He's just getting frustrated with moronic responses so he's spelling it out.
For a bit more evidence, look at what happened with the supposed B.o.B. insult and his subsequent response. Hilarious.
Look, the point is that no one can have any idea what his intention is and, in the case of OF more than any other music in the modern landscape, intention is everything. My only hope is that a few people can look at the other side and assume Tyler is more, as opposed to less, intelligent than those listening to his music.
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