Tyler, the Creator on Vinyl: Where to Start and Where to Go Next

Tyler Gregory Okonma was born in 1991 and grew up in Hawthorne, California, before moving to Ladera Heights as a teenager. He co-founded Odd Future in 2007 with Hodgy, Left Brain, and Casey Veggies, taught himself to produce, and self-released the mixtape Bastard on Christmas Day 2009. Almost everything since has been made the same way: he writes it, produces it, arranges it, and designs the world around it.

What makes the catalog worth collecting as a run rather than cherry-picking a hit is how visibly the craft moves. The early records are loud, provocative, and built from cheap-sounding drums by choice. By mid-decade he is writing horn charts and layering vocal stacks. By the end of it he is making synth-driven soul records that barely register as rap, then turning around and cutting a 28-minute dance record.

Goblin - 2011

Released May 10, 2011 on XL Recordings, Goblin took Odd Future from message-board rumor to fixture. Tyler produced nearly all of it, with Left Brain assisting on one track, and filled the guest spots with the crew: Frank Ocean, Hodgy, Domo Genesis, Mike G, and Syd. The Yonkers video did the heavy lifting, but the album is the fuller picture, murky and confrontational and clearly made by someone who knew his way around a sampler.

Why it's worth purchasing

• The clearest document of the Odd Future moment, most of the crew present.
• His production is already distinctive: detuned keys, thudding drums, no borrowed gloss.
• Essential first chapter if you want to hear how far he later traveled.

Wolf - 2013

Out April 2, 2013 on Odd Future Records, Wolf is where the shock-value era gives way to something warmer. Tyler had told Spin in 2011 that the horror material no longer interested him and that he wanted to make weird hippie music instead, and you can hear him mean it here. Erykah Badu, Pharrell Williams, Earl Sweatshirt, and Domo Genesis all turn up, and the jazz chords that would define the next decade arrive in full. This is the hot pink pressing.

Why it's worth purchasing

• The hinge record: where Tyler pivots from provocation to composition.
• Erykah Badu and Pharrell appearances that connect him to the soul and Neptunes lineage.
• Hot pink color pressing that looks as good shelved as it sounds playing.

Cherry Bomb - 2015

His most divisive album, and the one that has aged best among listeners who care about production. Cherry Bomb arrived April 13, 2015 on Odd Future Records, produced entirely by Tyler with additional guitar from Mike Einziger, and it swings between blown-out noise and lush arrangement inside a single track. Schoolboy Q, Charlie Wilson, Kali Uchis, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne all appear. It was issued with five covers; we carry the translucent blue pressing in the Pee Pants and Mask jackets.

Why it's worth purchasing

• The record where his arranging ambition outruns his budget, in the best way.
• Charlie Wilson and Kali Uchis appearances that point at the soul turn to come.
• Two jacket variants carried, so cover collectors have a real choice to make.

Flower Boy - 2017

Announced under a longer, blunter title, then shortened before it landed July 21, 2017 on Columbia, Flower Boy is the album most people hand to a newcomer, and they are right to. Tyler produced all of it, wrote from a place he had avoided on Cherry Bomb, and brought in Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky, Kali Uchis, Lil Wayne, and Rex Orange County, with Austin Feinstein's guitar throughout. Hip-hop, jazz-rap, and neo-soul sit down together and stay.

Why it's worth purchasing

• The best entry point in the catalog for a listener new to him.
• Boredom, See You Again, and 911 make one of modern rap's warmest sides.
• A self-produced statement with no filler and no guest carrying it.

Igor - 2019

Released May 17, 2019 on Columbia and produced entirely by Tyler, Igor is a love-triangle song cycle narrated by Jerrod Carmichael, with Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Solange, and Kanye West woven into the arrangements rather than featured on top of them. Recording ran from 2017 to 2019 across Los Angeles, Atlanta, Malibu, and Lake Como. Synth-forward, vocals pushed low, closer to R&B and funk than rap for long stretches.

Why it's worth purchasing

• His most fully realized album as a composer, not just a rapper or producer.
• Sequenced as one continuous piece, which is what a vinyl side is built for.
• A hugely popular record that still rewards headphone-level listening.

Call Me If You Get Lost - 2021

Out June 25, 2021 on Columbia, Call Me If You Get Lost hands the microphone to DJ Drama and builds the record in the shape of a Gangsta Grillz mixtape, a very funny and very effective way to swing back toward straight rapping after Igor. Tyler produced it with additional work from Jamie xx and Jay Versace, and the guests run from 42 Dugg to Pharrell, Lil Wayne, and Brent Faiyaz.

Why it's worth purchasing

• The best pure rapping on any Tyler album, in the mixtape format he grew up on.
• DJ Drama's narration gives it a spine that holds across four sides.
• Bridges the soul-leaning and rap-leaning albums without compromise.

Chromakopia - 2024

Tyler put Chromakopia out on a Monday morning, October 28, 2024, on Columbia, having said plainly that the Friday release convention encourages passive listening. He wrote, produced, and arranged all of it, and his mother Bonita Smith narrates, turning the album into something close to a diary of his Los Angeles upbringing. Daniel Caesar, Doechii, GloRilla, Lil Wayne, Santigold, and Schoolboy Q appear. This is the opaque white pressing.

Why it's worth purchasing

• His most autobiographical record, with his mother's voice as its frame.
• Dense, live-feeling arrangements that reveal more on a good system.
• Opaque white pressing of a recent album that already reads as catalog.

Don't Tap the Glass - 2025

Ten tracks, 28 minutes and 30 seconds, released July 21, 2025 on Columbia, produced start to finish by Tyler. Don't Tap the Glass is his shortest album and his most single-minded: he said flatly that it was not made for sitting still, and asked people to play it loud while dancing or driving. Pharrell Williams appears both under his own name and as Sk8brd, alongside Madison McFerrin and Yebba. An import pressing is also on the shelf.

Why it's worth purchasing

• A tight, fast dance record from a producer who builds long-form suites.
• Short enough to play end to end in one sitting.
• Translucent clear pressing, with an import edition as a second option.

Where to go next in the catalog

Two titles sit outside the main run. Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale, March 31, 2023 on blue vinyl, collects material cut during those sessions that missed the final sequence, and it plays better than most offcut collections have any right to. There is also an import pressing of his NPR Tiny Desk set, a decade of arrangements stripped to a small band.

If You Like Tyler, the Creator

• Earl Sweatshirt: the other great writer out of Odd Future, in a denser, more inward register.
• Frank Ocean: the collective's most gifted singer, and a clear influence on Tyler's melodic turn.
• Kali Uchis: a recurring collaborator whose own records run on the same warm, retro palette.
• Childish Gambino: another rapper who followed curiosity into funk and soul.
• Steve Lacy: guitarist out of The Internet, making the loose, lo-fi soul Tyler's later work keeps brushing against.

If you are building out this corner of the shelf, our Hip-Hop and Neo-Soul sections are where the rest of this conversation happens. To see every title we carry by him, including pressings not covered above, browse everything at Tyler, the Creator.