Tyler, The Creator — Bastard
Bastard helped introduce Tyler and his Odd Future collective to the world, over a decade on from the mixtape’s release its importance is unquestionable, however it’s far from Tyler’s best work.
Tyler, the Creator
In 2009, Hip-Hop was in a totally different space to what it is now in 2023. The 2000s was drawing to a close, where Hip-Hop saw the dominance of the Bling era and the end of the decade introduced the Blog era where new artists and their music would now be found on the internet. The Blog era has birthed some great artists within Hip-Hop, and Tyler, the Creator is definitely one of the best artists to come out of this era. Bastard was completely left field back in 2009, listening to this album it’s obvious that Eminem has a huge influence on Tyler. Similar to Eminem’s earlier projects from the likes of The Slim Shady and The Marshall Mathers LP, Tyler’s mixtape is filled with shock value and horrorcore related content. Listening to some of the content now, it can be quite cringe worthy and uncomfortable to listen to, and it’s obvious that Tyler was creating this content to gain attention and cause controversy, to which he has acknowledged. Saying all this doesn’t mean that I believe that this project is terrible, however some of the content hasn’t aged well and it’s one of the mixtape’s biggest drawback.
On the flipside, credit must be given to Tyler for always being himself and having originality, especially during the time this mixtape came out. Released at the age of 18 and made during the ages of 16 and 17, Bastard showcases Tyler’s early musical talents with his production and rapping. Besides from the shock value and horrorcore content, Bastard also touches upon the affect that Tyler’s absent father has had on him and he discusses this with a therapist, Dr. TC, who appears throughout the mixtape. He showcases feelings of anger on tracks like “Bastard” and “Seven” to feelings of sadness on “Inglorious”.
Since listening to his music, I have always been fond of Tyler’s production and Bastard has some major production highlights. Even at a young age, Tyler was capable of creating beats that blended well with the content and the dark aura of the mixtape. “Seven” and “Blow” are examples of the songs that I enjoyed sonically. The mixtapes production also has a nostalgia factor with it, as some of the airy beats that you hear on tracks, such as “Pigs Fly” are reflections of the beats that you would hear during the Blog era.
Tyler’s ability to be versatile with his flow and his voice is impressive, an example of this is with Dr. TC. He has been critical of his voice in the past, however I’ve personally always had an appreciation for Tyler’s voice, as it was always different and unique. His rapping abilities are also impressive on certain parts of the mixtape, for example on “Seven” his rhyme schemes are really enjoyable to listen to. “Hang with thrashers and jackers, drug dealers and crac*ers, AP students and slackers, I'm backwards”.
The legacy of Bastard is essentially the fact that without it, we wouldn’t have one of the most impactful Hip-Hop collectives of the early 2010s and additionally, we wouldn’t have the collective’s leader, that being Tyler. Since the release of the mixtape, Tyler has gone on to make much better projects with the likes of his last three albums; Flower Boy, Igor and Call Me If You Get Lost. I think one of the biggest reasons for this is down to age and maturity. Tyler and his fellow Odd Future members, who are featured on the mixtape, were all teenagers. They’ve all gone on to produce great material as they have gotten older and more mature. Even as a listener (now in their mid-20s), as much as I enjoy the parts that I liked about this project, I never return to Bastard when I want to listen to Tyler’s music. There are certain aspects of the mixtape that just hasn’t aged well, from some of the content to the shouting, which can become tiring and redundant after a while. I would be interested to hear Tyler’s current thoughts on the mixtape, as he has previously criticised his 2011 debut album Goblin, describing the album as “lacking quality in hindsight” and Goblin pretty much follows the same blueprint as Bastard.