MUSIC PREMIERES
Tyler, The Creator hasn’t performed in London for six long years. Back then, the genre-warping ‘Igor’ had just dropped, later landing him a Grammy and cementing his status as rap’s most poignant auteur. Now, a restless sea of teens surge forward, desperate to catch a rare glimpse of the star in action. The lights drop. A sickly green glow seeps through the pleated curtain like a dystopian warning: our favourite creator is moments away.
“‘Chromakoooooopia’! ‘Chromakoooooopia’!” fans chant as the titular album’s opener, ‘St. Chroma’, floods the arena. The accordion-style curtain lifts, revealing Tyler in a venom-green, exaggerated ‘Thriller’-style pantsuit and an afro pointed into horns, striding like he’s leading his fleet into a place where chaos and celebration blur. Endless flames and flashing lights accompany the industrial, growling sound Tyler crafted with ‘Chromakopia’ – riot-friendly and the perfect soundtrack for The O2’s frenzy tonight.
The rapper fully embodies Saint Chroma – the newest character in the Tyler universe. His mask is ominous, his feet (adorning his signature loafers) jittery, and his knees knocking like a Disney kid in a musical meltdown. The only time he reins himself in is during ‘Judge Judy’, sitting on a crate-like runway. “This shit sounds like what your mum would play in the house. This is real black music,” he declares, paying homage to late soul legends like Angie Stone and Roy Ayers who “laid the groundwork” for him.
But Chroma’s biggest moment comes during ‘Sticky’, as he surveys his minions going feral, making it rain with his own doctored bills and lip-syncing wildly to the ‘Chromakopia’ highlight. Later, he apologises for hitting a fan in the head when his mic dropped out of his pocket, asking the crowd, “Boo me?”
The conceptual Chroma act doesn’t continue the whole way through. Before ‘Take Your Mask Off’, a mock living room appears on the B-stage in the middle of the crowd. Still in character, the star hides behind white sheets onto which a house is projected – the slits between them like intrusive windows, as if we’re stalking him. Then he disappears, confusion swirling before Tyler returns in his old uniform: t-shirt, open button-up, slacks, and cap for a trip down memory lane.
Tyler finally talks – well, berates us and himself – as he flicks through a pile of vinyl nestled in the corner of his makeshift saloon. Some honour legends in his eyes like Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. When Outkast’s ‘Stankonia’ is revealed, Tyler praises the crowd’s “cool” rendition of ‘Ms Jackson’. The LA rapper stumbles upon his own albums in the pile, too, each new find signalling a track from that record dropping into the setlist. First, ‘Igor’ reinvigorates the crowd, then in comes ‘Goblin’ and the moshpits open from wall to wall. When he picks up ‘Bastard’ – the debut album that got him banned from the UK for six years – Tyler recalls the moment: “For all you young n****s in the crowd, this album got me kicked out your country.
“All the ‘Flower Boy’ and the gay shit and the ‘Ooh, loafers and ooh, bikes!’ N****, I was a menace, bro,” he continues, ending with a dramatic “Dayyuummm” and “Thank you” to everyone who came to the opening night of his three-night London residency. The audience responds tenfold as Tyler queues his other albums, ‘Wolf’, ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’, and ‘Flower Boy’. As he raps and dances to the sultry ‘Wusyaname’, yellow and red lights swirl over a crowd twirling and grooving like an ‘80s disco.
Back on the main stage – no longer Chroma, but as himself – Tyler finally revels in his glory as he plays a medley of his most high-octane fan-favourites: ‘Thought I Was Dead’ becomes an anthemic assertion of his worth, while the vulnerable ‘Like Him’ sees Tyler’s inner child showered in sprinkling pyros. If you’ve come to a Tyler show before, you know that ‘See You Again’ and ‘New Magic Wand’ rattle the floor, but it’s so mesmerising to watch frailing bodies collide beneath the burgeoning bassline of the latter each time.
As Tyler wishes us a farewell, he remains humble, but tonight is no small feat. With outfit changes, multiple stages and live vocals front-and-centre, Tyler flips through his eras like a masterclass in fearless reinvention. From the raw menace of ‘Goblin’ to the kaleidoscopic chaos of ‘Chromakopia’, tonight is a vivid, wild ride through the mind of rap’s ultimate maverick – and London is lucky to be along for the journey.
‘St. Chroma’
‘Rah Tah Tah’
‘Noid’
‘Darling, I’
‘I Killed You’
‘Judge Judy’
‘Sticky’
‘Take Your Mask Off’
‘Tomorrow’
‘Igor’s Theme’
‘Earfquake’
‘A Boy Is A Gun*’
‘Thank You’
‘I Think’
‘Yonkers’
‘Tron Cat’
‘She’
‘Tamale’
‘Rusty’
‘IFHY’
‘Lumberjack’
‘I Thought You Wanted To Dance’
‘Dogtooth’
‘Sorry Not Sorry’
‘Who Dat Boy’
‘Wusyaname’
‘Thought I Was Dead’
‘Like Him’
‘See You Again’
‘New Magic Wand’
‘I Hope You Find Your Way Home’
MUSIC PREMIERES
Four years on from the ‘Actual Life’ series lifting him into the mainstream spotlight, Fred Again.. continues to feel unavoidable. The London producer and DJ born Fred Gibson has moved at a relentless pace, bouncing between sold out stadium dates in New York and surprise appearances at Sheffield’s 1,000 capacity Forge, while also making history as the first electronic artist to top the bill at Reading and Leeds in 2024.
Where the ‘Actual Life’ releases and his fourth album, 2024’s ‘Ten Days’, leaned into warmth and joy pulled from ordinary moments, Gibson has also sharpened his instinct for high impact club weapons rooted in garage, dubstep and jungle. That side of his output lives on ‘USB’, an “infinite album” first imagined in 2022 as a home for tracks that exist outside any fixed universe, including defining moments like ‘Rumble’ and ‘Jungle’.
‘USB002’, the second vinyl only chapter of the ‘USB’ project, brings together 16 recent tracks, many of which surfaced gradually on streaming services over a ten week stretch. The music was shaped live, in step with ten unannounced DJ appearances across the world from Dublin to Mexico City. Even with a Glastonbury style registration system in place, The Times reported that 100,000 people tried to secure tickets for the opening night in Glasgow.
Appropriately, ‘USB002’ feels alive and constantly in motion, helped along by contributions from close collaborators such as Floating Points and Sammy Virji. The rigid, techno driven pressure of ‘Ambery’ echoes elements of Floating Points’ 2019 album ‘Crush’, while Gibson’s take on ‘The Floor’ builds like the slow climb of a rollercoaster before dropping back to earth without warning.
The guest list stretches beyond the usual dance circles, with two Australian guitar bands popping up in unexpected ways. ‘You’re A Star’ reworks Amyl and The Sniffers’ ‘Big Dreams’ into a breakbeat driven rush, while ‘Hardstyle 2’ pulls the experimental post punk edge of Shady Nasty into an Underworld adjacent space alongside Kettama. Gibson’s real trick is his ability to connect with anyone. These tracks are not reinterpretations but full takeovers.
The visual world wrapped around the ‘USB002’ rollout reinforces the instinct behind the music. Phones were prohibited at shows staged in vast warehouse spaces under sweeping light rigs, while Gibson’s team shared striking black and white footage and created artwork for each single on site. Bottling that sense of urgency, the project is rooted in the thrill of the present moment, something Gibson seems able to summon simply by turning up.
If the ‘Actual Life’ series and ‘Ten Days’ captured passing snapshots of experience, ‘USB’ is defined by constant movement, a space where boundaries are removed entirely. Sitting somewhere between an album and a playlist, ‘USB002’ underlines why Fred Again.. feels so dominant right now, and suggests that his current run may only be the beginning of something much bigger.
