Green lights filled the Fiserv Forum Feb.6, and no it wasn’t for the Bucks; it was to celebrate Tyler, The Creator’s “Chromakopia“ tour.
The tour is based on his eighth studio album that released at the end of October, which celebrated the complicated struggles and beauty of being a Black man in America. Despite being 15-minutes late because of technical difficulties, he showcased his unique talent through creative storytelling and dance moves.
Lil Yachty opener
Lil Yachty may have gone too hard in his performance before Tyler, The Creator. He fell off the set 15-minutes into his performance. Security had to catch him and lead him back on the stage. He told the crowd he was good and joked, “Yo, I almost died.”
After this, he made an incredible recovery to play fan favorites. He was seen jumping all over the stage rapping along to his lyrics. The crowd was moshing happily to his hits like “Broccoli,” “Poland” and “iSpy.”
Tyler, The Creator
At 9:45 p.m. he took center stage, where green storage containers revealed him in a black mask and green band uniform. He opened with “St. Chroma (feat. Daniel Caesar),” his leading track off of his newest album. Fireworks were set off as he started singing the catchy lyric “Chromakopia” which was featured on the front of his tour merchandise.
His crisp diction in his raps like “Rah Tah Tah” and energetic marches made the crowd see the passion underneath the mask. This mixed with him wanting us to vibe out to Judge Judy’s melodic story, led the crowd to be engaged with his music.
From the main stage, he transitioned to an elevated catwalk just above the pit for general admission. In the beginning, he played nine songs from the album and then took his mask off. In this case, the mask is meant to symbolize people hiding their true identity from the world.
A creative arc to this concert was his ability to transition between his different records. B Stage was originally where Lil Yachty and Paris, Texas opened for him
but later became an elaborate living room decorated with a couch and record player. The camera recording the concert would pan to him picking out a record from his discography and placing it on the record player to signify to the crowd the next song being performed would come from that album.
He performed snippets of his other albums such as “IGOR,” “Goblin,” “Wolf,” “Call Me If You Get Lost” and “Cherry Bomb.” The crowd loudly sang most of “EARFQUAKE” from “IGOR” together and rapped to “IFHY” from “Wolf.” As if that wasn’t enough, the crowd was hit with back-to-back bangers of “See You Again (feat Kali Uchis),” “NEW MAGIC WAND” and “Balloon (feat. Doechii)” to close out the concert.
The diversity of his music proves there is no genre or box you can put him in. He is not your average rapper, but more of a musical genius who can tackle storytelling through a variety of mediums.
Not only is he a musical genius, but also just a quirky guy. He let us see this side of his personality through crowd interactions. One of my favorites being that he mistakenly called Minnesota “Milwaukee” — which he said was because he was excited to perform here but joked that he does not understand how we put with the bitter cold.
His closing message to his fans was, “You are the mother(expletive) light. You all rocks and the light comes from within.”
For those that did not get to see this concert, you are in luck. Lil Yachty and Tyler, The Creator will be circling back to Chicago on June 30 and July 1.
This story was written by Alison McMillan. She can be reached at [email protected].
