On their issue dated November 9, Billboard reported that rapper Tyler, the Creator’s ”Chromakopia” had reached No. 1 on its weekly Billboard 200 list, debuting at its first week with 299,500 copies sold. As of the issue dated December 7, it has now fallen to No. 4 with 61,000 copies sold this week, as Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album “GNX” took the forefront of both the rap and the music industry.
“Meanwhile, fellow rapper Lil Uzi Vert’s album “Eternal Atake 2,” more commonly known as “EA 2,” peaked at No. 3 behind Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” and, you guessed it, “Chromakopia”, with a whopping 59,000 copies sold. Since then, it has fallen to No. 139 as of Billboard’s issue dated November 30 and it would not be surprising if it fell out of the list entirely.
Tyler also seemed to be very successful in the songs front, with “Noid” peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and non-singles such as “Sticky” also peaking at No. 10 and “St. Chroma” peaking at No. 7, making “St. Chroma” his highest charting song to date.
Now to be fair, Uzi hadn’t released any of their songs for “EA 2” as singles, but considering their highest charting song from the album, “Chill Bae,” peaked at No. 48, it’s safe to say that Uzi might be on their way to a sort of falling off point to their career.
Obviously, sales aren’t a definitive factor in the quality of a product. But when you consider the fact that Tyler released his album on a Monday while Uzi released their album on a Friday (Billboard lists their weeks as Friday-Thursday) and the fact that Sabrina Carpenter of all people outsold Uzi on their debut week, it makes you wonder what went wrong for Uzi and what went right for Tyler.
Of course, I decided to listen to both albums to see if there was anything that would provide reasoning for Uzi’s album underselling. I listened to Tyler’s album first and then Uzi’s album and I found that both albums had a massive difference in quality.
To start with, let’s compare the themes and sounds of the albums. “Chromakopia” seems to go for more of an introspective theme based on Tyler’s childhood growing up in Greater Los Angeles, with the album being narrated by his mother Bonita Smith. Much of the album seems to combine the jazz/soul sound of Tyler’s own “Cherry Bomb” and “Flower Boy” with the heavy synthesization of “Igor”.
In comparison, Uzi’s album seems to go for more of a trap sound with elements of pop rap and R&B mixed in much like their earlier work. A heavy sci-fi and cosmic reality theme reminiscent of the album’s prequel “Eternal Atake,” albeit with a much heavier focus on themes such as heartbreak.
Putting that in note, one thing one would notice with “Chromakopia” and “EA 2” is that “Chromakopia” seems to have a very messy and disjointed sound to it while “EA 2”’s sound is more streamlined and conjoined.
Ironically though, I feel that works for “Chromakopia”’s advantage (to an extent) and “EA 2”’s disadvantage because while the inconsistent sound helps every one of Tyler’s works on his album stand out and have their own unusual feel to them (that’s not to say of course that it doesn’t negatively affect the album’s pacing a bit), the similar sound of Uzi’s works just makes the album mesh together and feel all the more bland, like I’m listening to the same song over and over.
I’m not kidding when I say that I had to take a break 20 minutes in because the album was mind-numbingly boring to say the least.
One of the few songs on “EA 2” that proved to be an exception for me was “Chill Bae” mostly because of how it abandoned the whole sci-fi theme of the album for some reason to go for more of a regular trap sound (to be fair to Uzi, “Chill Bae” I found to actually be the best song on the album.)
I also found that the execution of Uzi’s album seemed to be very flawed compared to Tyler’s work. As mentioned before, on a varied selection of songs on “Chromokopia,” Tyler’s mother can be heard encouraging and advising Tyler on his success so as to tie many of the songs together into this central theme.
Throughout the album, there’s also a heavy emphasis on masks as seen in the cover art, with the masks representing Tyler hiding himself from several public appearances. Paranoia also seems to be a big theme here, which is primarily explored in “Noid” but is also referenced throughout the album as a way to explore Tyler’s anxiety through having to live up to expectations with his fans, the music industry, and his mother, helping to tie the album up lyrically and thus ensuring a clear vision for the album’s concept.
In comparison, Uzi’s album doesn’t seem to have any vision or passion to it at all, and in fact seems to be a very rushed work, almost as if Uzi themself didn’t have the time or day to finish their album. The mixing and production of this album also feels quite off, as if there was something entirely missing from the songs on the album. That’s not to say “Chromakopia”’s production was perfect by any means as the production does feel a little disjointed at times, but compare “Chromakopia” with “EA 2” and the difference is almost night and day.
The vocals on “EA 2” are also horrendous and really unpleasant to listen to, and the lyrics seem to be very repetitive and uncreative for even someone like Uzi. As a result it just seems so soulless from Uzi’s end, as if they made the album for a quick buck, and I’m not surprised how on “We Good,” Uzi straight up admits to being on nitrous gas by saying “I was on that NOS” which, if they genuinely pulled a Kanye, it’s no wonder the album ended up coming out as it did.
In short, the reason why Uzi’s album failed and Tyler’s was a success was mostly due to a more recognizable sound for the latter and also through a much greater focus on his work compared to Uzi. I feel if Uzi had decided not to imitate their album’s predecessor and try to find their own style the album wouldn’t have flopped as hard as it did.
Obviously, that wouldn’t have indicated the album would be good by any means (I’ve never really thought of Uzi’s albums as all that great anyway) but it definitely would’ve at least shown some passion on Uzi’s part and not feel as soulless as it did here.
Maybe (allegedly) getting off the nitrous would’ve helped too, I’m not sure.
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