Something he created set me on a quest to reach the North Star. Chromokopia is a reminder that stars are good for navigation, but they exist in the sky while life happens on the ground. Feeling fear and paranoia is being human, and bravery isn’t the absence of fear but acting in spite of it.

It’s kind of interesting how that works. He presented an ideal, one that lit a fire in me and that I’m grateful for, and just when I needed it most, he reminded me that ideals are just beacons to follow, not destinations one can reach. I could’ve run myself crazy trying to capture the uncatchable.

On “Take Your Mask Off” he raps “paranoid since nineteen, nervous system shook”. I always wondered how someone could be as brash and uncompromising as Tyler was and is and not be shook, but here he’s saying it was never real.

I’ve come a long way since then, but no matter how far I climb, my goal seems forever out of reach. I can never seem to reach that feeling of distilled identity and self-assuredness I’m looking for. Enter Chromokopia. This is Tyler’s most vulnerable album to date, and he finally takes the mask off.

I’ve found a lot of inspiration in Tyler, as he’s the type of artistic polymath that I’ve always aspired to be, but I’ve especially found inspiration in his uncompromising fearlessness and authenticity. It lit a spark in me a few years ago and I charted a path to my own self actualization.