Lumberjack
Tyler the Creator
"LUMBERJACK" is a flex built out of horns and menace. Jamie xx-adjacent in its restraint but not its temperament, it loops a stabbing sample from Gravediggaz over booming drums, with DJ Drama's ad-libs — the Gangsta Grillz mixtape tradition resurrected wholesale — barking encouragement over the top. Tyler raps in a hard, chest-forward register with none of the pitch-shifted characters he'd spent years hiding behind: this is Tyler Baudelaire, jet-setting, buying his mother a house, noting that he "bought the mansion" and gave it away. The lyrics are dense with the specific texture of new money — Rolls-Royce color choices, boat purchases, real estate — but underneath runs the same fixation on proving something to people who counted him out. At two minutes it refuses to overstay; the beat drops out for a woozy coda and it's gone. In 2021 this was a statement of intent, announcing that CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST would be a rap album, full stop, after the melodic drift of IGOR — Tyler reclaiming the boom-bap lineage on his own terms. Ideal for the first ten minutes of a drive, or any moment demanding an unearned surge of confidence.
medium
2020s
stabbing, menacing, boom-bap
United States
hip hop, boom bap. flex rap. confident, menacing. hard, chest-forward flex sustained throughout, ending in a woozy stripped-down coda. energy 8. medium. danceability 6. valence 6. vocals: hard, chest-forward, unmasked, direct. production: Gravediggaz horn sample, booming drums, Gangsta Grillz ad-libs. texture: stabbing, menacing, boom-bap. acousticness 2. era: 2020s. United States. first ten minutes of a drive, need an unearned surge of confidence