“I love you,” Tyler, the Creator murmurs into the camera. But his face is cartoonishly made up, and he flashes a cheesy Alfred E. Neuman grin the next instant. That’s a telling moment early in the video for “IFHY,” from the Odd Future rapper’s April 2 album Wolf. Though he raps, with some plausibility, that “this isn’t a song” but rather an “emo” outpouring, the video, self-directed under his Wolf Haley alias, is a Michel Gondry-like surrealistic fantasy — well worth watching, even as it contains so many of the contradictions that make Tyler such a frustrating figure. After he paces around a toyhouse alternately wooing and berating a mute doll-woman, the video, as with his previous clip for “Domo 23” or even his latest late-night TV performance, swerves to another song. In this case, it’s “Jamba,” which moves from a poignant observation about his father to copious demands for oral sex. Tweeted Tyler shortly after the video’s premiere, “I FUCKING HATE YOU.” Get it?
Tyler, the Creator Builds an Emo Barbie World in Two-Part ‘IFHY/Jamba’ Video
