There were no real specifics he gave me other than this rough sketch. After talking a bit about what he was looking for, we FaceTimed so I could get more info about what he really wanted. But if he wanted to commission something, I was definitely up for it. He asked if I worked on commissions and I told him I did but didn’t get them that often. He was like ‘Hey, I love your work.’ and I said that was a nice surprise. When an artist of his stature recognizes your work, it’s an exciting thing. I checked to make sure that it was really his account and it was. When I got that DM from him, it was like a pinch yourself situation. How did you feel about getting a DM from him on Instagram? Were you a fan of his work already? It was interesting to learn that Tyler, The Creator reached out to you himself. ‘Oh What A World’ (Painting by Gregory Ferrand) passport inside an empty airport, or the sense of adventure he captures for Tyler’s newest album. Whether that’s the uncertainty an immigrant family feels while clinging on to an U.S. Ferrand’s work viscerally captures the human experience through narrative paintings that can conjure up stories filled with emotions with just one glance. A self-taught painter, Ferrand originally graduated with a degree in film from the Virginia Commonwealth University in 1997 and began painting in the early 2000s. Observant fans may have recognized that when Tyler shared the album art on Instagram for Call Me If You Get Lost, he also shared an alternative album cover painted by Ferrand. Gregory Ferrand is a Washington D.C.-based painter who is the latest artist to receive a much-coveted cosign from Tyler, the Creator. And for his Grammy award winning album Igor, Tyler also tapped into Lewis Rossignol for a grittier album cover that was later released as a special vinyl. Whereas the dreamy cover art for Flower Boy was originally an oil painting by the artist Eric White. For example, when T dropped Wolf, the deluxe edition featured special art made by the pop surrealist painter Mark Ryden. Many of these covers feature the work of Tyler’s favorite artists. CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, though, is a chance to see if they can recognize rap greatness once it has kicked their door in.Ever since Tyler, the Creator dropped his debut studio album Goblin in 2011, the Los Angeles-based rapper has been a fan of dropping alternate album covers. Giving the Grammy the benefit of the doubt, maybe they wanted to reward all the great rapping he’d done until that point. “WILSHIRE” is potentially best described as an epic poem. And then there’s “RUNITUP,” which features a crunk-style background chant, and “LEMONHEAD,” which has the energy of Trap or Die-era Jeezy. The vibes across the album are a disparate combination of sounds Tyler enjoys (and can make)-boom-bap revival (“CORSO,” “LUMBERJACK”), ’90s R&B (“WUSYANAME”), gentle soul samples as a backdrop for vivid lyricism in the Griselda mold (“SIR BAUDELAIRE,” “HOT WIND BLOWS”), and lovers rock (“I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE”). Tyler made an aesthetic choice to frame CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST with interjections of shit-talking from DJ Drama, founder of one of 2000s rap’s most storied institutions, the Gangsta Grillz mixtape franchise. The focus here is very clearly hip-hop from the outset. Tyler superfans will remember that the MC was notoriously peeved at his categoric inclusion-and eventual victory-in the 2020 Grammys’ Best Rap Album category for his pop-oriented IGOR. But in this case, an exceptionally great one. But across CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, the man once known as Wolf Haley is just a guy who likes to rock ice and collect stamps on his passport, who might whisper into your significant other’s ear while you’re in the restroom. The Los Angeles-hailing MC, and onetime nucleus of the culture-shifting Odd Future collective, made a name for himself as a preternaturally talented MC whose impeccable taste in streetwear and calls to “kill people, burn shit, fuck school” perfectly encapsulated the angst of his generation. There’s a handful of eyebrow-raising verses across Tyler, The Creator’s CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST-particularly those from 42 Dugg, Lil Uzi Vert, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Pharrell, and Lil Wayne-but none of the aforementioned are as surprising as the ones Tyler delivers himself.
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