Call Me If You Get Lost
Call Me If You Get Lost is the sixth studio album by American rapper and record producer Tyler, the Creator. The album was released on June 25, 2021, through Columbia Records. The album is narrated by DJ Drama and features guest appearances from 42 Dugg, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Wayne, Domo Genesis, Brent Faiyaz, Lil Uzi Vert, Pharrell Williams, Teezo Touchdown, Fana Hues and Daisy World. Tyler produced the album himself, with additional production contributed by Jamie xx and Jay Versace.
The album marks a departure from the lighter and more soulful aesthetics of Igor (2019) and Flower Boy (2017) in favor of bold beats and raw rhymes, influenced by DJ Drama's Gangsta Grillz mixtape series. Genres on the album span hip hop, pop, jazz, soul and reggae.
Call Me If You Get Lost was supported by two singles: "Lumberjack" and "WusYaName", both of which were released alongside music videos. The album received widespread acclaim from critics and has been described as a mix of styles, with hints of nostalgia throughout its production. Some critics compared the album to his previous release, Igor. It was placed in the top ten's of the best albums of 2021 by multiple publications. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, becoming Tyler, the Creator's second US number-one album. It won the award for Best Rap Album at the 2022 Grammy Awards, Tyler's second win.
Concept[edit]
The cover art depicts an identification card for a character named "Tyler Baudelaire". Some critics have taken this as a reference to the French poet Charles Baudelaire.[4] Tyler has stated that this is not true, attributing the reference to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, saying that he admired the dynamic between the Baudelaire orphans.[5] According to Matthew Ismael Ruiz of Pitchfork, "Baudelaire, the character Tyler plays throughout the album, is a proxy for Tyler's newfound worldliness—and his inability to leverage that sophistication into the relationship of his dreams."[6] Charles Baudelaire's most famous work, 1857's Les Fleurs du mal (transl. The Flowers of Evil), was "originally banned for being too explicit, and Baudelaire himself was prosecuted for indecency", similar to Tyler's evolution from an "angsty teen spewing filth for shock value into sensitive lover man with a mischievous streak".[6] Luke Morgan Britton of NME also compared the two, saying that both "have been fixated on the struggle between romance and realism, luxury and love, beauty and death, talents and controversies."[7]
Initially, when Tyler unveiled the cover art for Call Me If You Get Lost, people thought that he had taken inspiration from Ol' Dirty Bastard's 1995 album, Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, when in actuality he had taken inspiration from "...old passport and travel cards from early 1900s".[8]
Themes[edit]
Marcus Shorter of Consequence said of the album that self-awareness dominates its second half.[13] Shorter further notes that romance is a prominent theme in the album's second half: "That journey includes heartbreak, because no Tyler, The Creator album is complete without romance."[13] Shorter specifically describes "Wilshire": "He stumbles over words and mumbles parts of a sad story, sounding like someone not fully ready to handle the truth. On an album filled with dope lines from a guy who always says it with his chest, "Wilshire" is a rare moment where we feel him holding back. The ego is tucked into the closet for one song, further blurring the lines between the man, the persona, and the alter-ego."[13]
Commercial performance[edit]
Call Me If You Get Lost debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 169,000 album-equivalent units (including 55,000 copies in pure album sales) in its first week.[70] This became Tyler's second US number-one album.[70] The album also accumulated a total of 152.96 million on-demand streams of the album's tracks.[70] It spent two non-consecutive weeks at number one, topping the chart for a second week the following April after the vinyl release. With 49,000 copies sold that week, it holds the largest vinyl sales week for a hip hop album.[71] On February 22, 2022, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units in the United States.[72] On April 23, 2023, the album was certified platinum for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over one million units in the United States.[72] Call Me If You Get Lost is the first and only album to hit number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in three different years. The first time was in July 2021 during the initial release, then in April 2022 following the release of its vinyl LP counterpart, and then in April 2023 due to the release of its deluxe The Estate Sale edition.[73]
Thirteen of the album's songs reached the US Billboard Hot 100, with "WusYaName" reaching the top 20 of the chart.[74]