It's a good thing Monday's a school holiday. Kids from across the metro area will probably need a day to recover from Sunday's long and wild night with Los Angeles hip-hop star Tyler, the Creator and friends at Target Center.
The first rapper to headline a local arena since Post Malone in September 2019, the real-life Tyler Okonma doesn't have any major Top 40 hits to his name like the Post man. That he more than half-filled Minneapolis' NBA arena was an impressive feat, a culmination of the cultish fan base he first built up with his old rap crew Odd Future (see also: Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt).
Further proof that Tyler's talent, persona and popularity are still growing came via the rave and rabid reception he received from the nearly 9,000 fans — of whom probably only a tenth or so were old enough to have caught him perform across the street at First Avenue with Odd Future in 2011.
His 1¼-hour performance Sunday offered a similarly manic and unpredictable energy as the First Ave show, but with a largely pre-determined setlist and carefully managed, wow-inducing stage production.
Sunday's opening lineup was thoughtfully stacked, too. Too bad most of the crowd was still stuck outside in unusually long lines when buzzing Texas newcomer Teezo Touchdown kicked it off.
Tyler's fellow Angeleno rap stalwart Vince Staples went over big in the second slot, performing solo on the smaller B-stage opposite the main one. The location lent a more intimate, personable power to Staples' imaginative songs like "The Shining" and "745."
A nice contrast to all the wiry rappers with her mellower, sultrier vibe, Latina pop/electronic music crossover star Kali Uchis slithered and grinded across the big stage in the third slot alongside dancers in matching red bodysuits — kind of like a 40-minute Valentine's Day singing telegram. Never mind that a lot of the "singing" appeared to be pre-recorded.
Even more seductive than the artful dancing was the way Uchis gradually built up her groove — from the slow and haunting "Dead to Me" to the hypnotically throbbing "Speed" to the full-speed electro-funk of "Ridin' Round" and her finale "TelepatÃa."
Tyler arrived in literally grand fashion: He rose up from under the stage inside a vintage, turquoise Rolls Royce complete with a slickly suited driver (think: "Driving Miss Daisy's" Morgan Freeman meets Morris Day & the Time's Jerome).
Dressed in shorts and an unbuttoned short-sleeve shirt like he was headed to his ocean cabana, the wickedly grinning rapper started off slow with "Sir Baudelaire" but then hit like a tsunami with "Corso" and "Lemonhead" — the same songs that open his latest and most acclaimed album, "Call Me If You Get Lost."
The new record explores many of the same lonesome-loner/happy-psycho themes that have always been ingredients in Tyler's tunes. After the pandemic lockdown and his 30th birthday, though, those troubled lyrics sound darker and more desperate; in good ways, mind you.
Young fans whose lives were cruelly stalled over the past two years sang along to the new tunes like they were exorcising demons. One of the loudest of those singalongs came mid-show in the slow-burning highlight "Boredom."
"I've been in this [bleeping] room so long / My eyeballs are turning to drywall," they sang.
As dour as all that may sound, the show was ridiculously fun. Credit goes to the many manic, madcap beats behind his songs, and to clever stage antics.
"Boredom," for instance, was part of a thrilling mid-set montage delivered on the B-stage. Tyler arrived there riding a vintage speed boat that smoothly floated and bobbed across the arena floor while he coolly flowed through "WasYaName" — probably the most clever segue to the second stage this reviewer has ever seen.
Adorned with faux California desert brush, the B-stage is also where Tyler revisited some of his oldest tunes, including "She," "Yonkers" and "Tamale." Those, too, were greeted with widespread audience accompaniment.
Back on the main stage, he turned on the pyro and turned out some of his most visceral songs of the night, including "I Think," "RunItUp" and "New Magic Wand." He got so animated in the latter track it sounded like he was going to blow his voice out. The former Odd Future ringleader also got surprisingly candid about his past and present state at show's end.
"When I was young, I was a rebel — you know, [bleep] everything," he told the crowd. "But now I've matured, and it's OK to have contradictions."
The way Sunday's concert contrasted his more mature, serious, self-confronting new songs with his old, bombastic, wild-eyed performance style seemed like the perfect volatile mix for a post-quarantine hip-hop tour.
