THEORY: Theresa May is the inspiration behind Tyler the Creator's newest album

How Tyler the Creators latest album "IGOR"could be inspired by Theresa May

As some of you may know, American rap artist Tyler the Creator is set to release his latest album tomorrow on the 17th May. Like any other fan would be, I am very excited. I would honestly go as far to say that to this point, he hasn't released a bad album. Not to mention the incredible work he dis on his previous 2017 album Flower Boy.

And while his creativity and innovative mindset is conveyed on pretty much every project he has worked on, this new album, titled IGOR may have a subtle layer of lore behind it. A story of revenge, against the current UK prime minister; Theresa May.

It's arguably easy to understand why Theresa May is loathed by many. Very little needs to be said about the Brexit shambles, fields of wheat hate her, but for us Tyler fans here in the UK, theres a far more personal grudge we hold against the Conservative leader.

The Backstory

The year was 2015 and I was readying myself for my first proper festival experience. Tyler the Creator was one of many artists I was looking forward to witnessing live at Reading Festival on the August bank holiday weekend. Upon arrival, I came across arguably the most angry-looking person I've ever seen. The reason behind his fury; Tyler the Creator was being prevented from coming to the UK.

Turns out he wasn't allowed to perform in the UK due to the "prolific lyrics" in his songs (most likely mainly targeting his earlier stuff). This denial of access was rumoured to last from 3-5 years. So fingers crossed, we could see Tyler make a glorious return to Britain next year.

But who would approve something so unbelievable petty?...

You guessed it. While acting as home secretary at the time, Theresa May is the reason we haven't got the chance to see Tyler play in the UK for so long. Tyler mentioned he was being "treated like a terrorist" a few weeks after he was denied at the border.

This would most likely be the biggest reason behind Tyler's potential motive to read Theresa May to filth on this newest record. But how has Tyler promoted this album in a way that makes me suppose this might happen.

Tylers Teaser Videos

Starting at the beginning of this month, Tyler has been promoting his new album with a series of short videos. Each of them tease small samples of new tracks and are then cut short as to not give too much away. I personally love how he has approached the promotion of IGOR and I love how everything is happening at quite a rapid pace. This time a month ago, I wasn't even aware that this album was so close to release, so It was a pleasant surprise to find out so suddenly.

While the first teaser video "IGOR's theme" had quite a straight-forward purpose of simply notifying people that the album exists and is coming soon, the next video that followed shortly after was the first sign that my theory may be true.

In this teaser video titled "WHATSGOOD", Tyler is dressed in a blazer and trousers combo and dons a wig that you could argue looks similar to Theresa's bowl-cut like hairpiece. Both his fighting moves and the lyrical content in this short video suggest that he isn't playing around. He is ready to metaphorically throw punches.

Another interesting thing to note is the colouration of the outfit which shows a combination of white and red. This could be a representation of the colours of the english flag, which is also white and red.

This outfit and wig combo make a return (this time with a yellow coloration) in the fourth teaser video for IGOR which is named "NEW MAGIC WAND". This could suggest that this is a new character/alter ego that has been conceived by Tyler. This is most likely the character that we will come to know as "IGOR"

But who, or what is IGOR?

The Meaning Behind IGOR

For those of you that have a broad knowledge of horror movie monsters, Igor was essentially a lovechild of a mad scientist, a zombie and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. In various different medias, Igor is portrayed as an assistant to an even madder scientist or an even more terrifying monster (such as Dracula for instance). The most notable example of Igor in media is with Marty Feldman's character in 1974's Young Frankenstein

At first though, I kind of saw Tylers choice to name the album IGOR as a homage to his debut album "Goblin" as both are seen as vile creatures of myth. However, Igor as a character does share a few qualities with a certain someone.

First off, I should probably get the most savage observation out of the way first. Theresa May hasn't exactly got perfect posture. Whenever we see her (trying her best to) speak to the public, we always see her hunched over, and I do stress the word hunched.

But that isn't the only characteristic that Theresa May shares with this fictional character. There is in fact a much less farfetched connection.

Remember how I mentioned that Igor was always portrayed as an assistant-type character? Well I think Theresa could be perceived as such. I mean this whole beef started when she decided against letting Tyler in the UK, when she was still acting as home secretary. This means she was part of the British Cabinet and was meeting regularly with the prime minister at the time David Cameron; assisting him throughout most likely.

And now that May has risen to the status of prime minister (but maybe not for much longer), it comes as no surprise really that the next pair of shoes for her to kiss are those of the current United States president Donald Trump.

Donald Trump surpasses nearly everybody in sheer tyranny, and in my mind, this kind of makes Trump more comparable to the "even madder scientist" or "even more more terrifying monster", assisted by the Igor we call Theresa May.

Vote IGOR

The final key point I wanted to make regarding how this new album could target May, is the "Vote Igor" message that Tyler has stuck onto the promotion of this new album. The way I see it is that this kind of works as a slogan for the new album and I feel that it is quite effective.

But what does "Vote Igor" mean? What are we voting for? Or has the vote already been and gone?

The first possibility I thought of was that this quote exists as a satyrical comparison of our most recent general election between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. As you may know, May got the majority by the tiniest margin. It was pretty much just short of 50/50 between Corbyn and May.

And with the comparison I made earlier between Theresa May and the fictional character Igor, you could say the "majority" of the UK voted for IGOR, meaning that IGOR (Theresa May) had won. And Tyler wishes to rebel against this in this new album.

The other possibility is that with the mantle of IGOR, Tyler is challenging May for the place as prime minister; If she could get there, so can he. This would explain the aggressive dance moves in a number of Tylers teaser videos for IGOR.

The very last thing I want to mention is Tyler's choice to release the album this month; the month of May. Maybe seen as the prime ministers surname matches with this month, it could be another creative choice from Tyler. It seemed farfetched but I wouldn't knock it; Tyler the Creator is after all, a creative guy.

Conclusion

There isn't really a concrete way of knowing whether this theory can be proven true until the albums release as there is still so much we don't know about it.

However, the sheer fact that these signs compelled me enough to even write this article does seem quite convincing at this stage.

Either way, I'm hoping for tea to get spilled on this album - whether that be towards our PM, the UK in general, Eminem or anything else.

Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to listening to this album and reviewing it in the near future.

Tyler the Creator's fifth studio album IGOR is set to release tomorrow, 17th May.

Thank you for reading,

Booth Boy