Long before he was creating songs for Coca-Cola ad campaigns and children’s Christmas movies, Tyler, the Creator was still working to solidify his identity as an artist. Early signs of the massive shift in Tyler’s style from the dark and horrifying aesthetic of Bastard and Goblin to the more bubbly and pop-sensible sounds of Flower Boy and Igor can be heard on 2013’s Wolf, which celebrates its eight-year anniversary today.
Led by the hectic single “Domo23,” Wolf officially arrived on April 2, 2013, back when new albums were still being released on Tuesdays. Tyler’s third album fared well commercially, selling 89,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number 3 on the Billboard 200. Wolf boasted a bevy of features from Odd Future affiliates such as Frank Ocean, Hodgy Beats, Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis, and Left Brain, but it also found Tyler reaching outside of his tight-knit circle to collaborate with music industry veterans Pharrell Williams and Erykah Badu.
In an effort to move away from the brash, dark sound of his critically acclaimed sophomore effort Goblin, Wolf featured some of Tyler’s first forrays into bright, jazzy arrangements, as seen on the slept-on album cut “Treehome95” featuring Coco O. and Erykah Badu. At the time, the album also housed some of Tyler’s most transparent and introspective songs yet, including “Answer” and “Lone.” Plus, the music videos for Wolf also showed the Odd Future figurehead‘s growth as a director, especially on the grotesque music video for the Pharrell-assisted song “IFHY.”
Revisit Wolf, the final album in Tyler, the Creator’s trilogy of Dr. TC therapy-themed projects, using the streaming links below.
Happy eight-year anniversary to Tyler, the Creator’s third album Wolf!