I listened to Tyler's album a couple times now and I'm able to respond to Consequence of Sound's take on it:
His persona isn't what bothers me but I also don't think the sound and subject matter really ever resonate with me. When I listen to it it's like I'm listening to Tyler rapping over production that sounds awfully similar to The Internet and current Frank Ocean. It's varied but I hear very little relation between the subject matter and some of the mid song tempo changes and slight experiments that seem to flutter throughout the album. The album's biggest problem is Tyler's constant reliance on humor and sarcasm nearly incessantly, which causes him to sound disingenuous at the most inopportune of times squandering moments of vulnerability and what little trust he's built with his listeners. I don't intend to tell Tyler to change his persona but rather I'm just explaining the disconnect I experience when trying to engage his work as an artist. Self loathing can be seen as an attempt to instill empathy in others but without any sense of real grief or pain behind it it almost seems as if you're poking fun at a version of yourself that is so fictionalized that it's not you at all. The persona in Tyler's music is like this gay clown, and it becomes hard to separate the confession of sexuality from the hijinks. It's why I enjoy the album more as background noise than on deeper listens.
