Review: Tyler, the Creator kicks off ‘Chromakopia’ tour in St. Paul in dramatic fashion

With St. Paul the opening city on Tyler, the Creator’s tour, Minnesota fans were the first to see how the rapper would merge his more serious and dramatic new persona with the wild problem child of old.

Answer: He didn’t.

Los Angeles’ second-biggest rap star of the 21st century (after Kendrick Lamar) found an innovative way to balance his past with his present in Tuesday’s kickoff date for his Chromakopia Tour at Xcel Energy Center. It was almost as if he performed two distinct concerts, each equally impressive.

The 33-year-old rapper, producer and clothing designer born Tyler Okonma played to about 15,000 fans, his first sold-out Twin Cities arena crowd after a steady decade-and-a-half ascent — going back to early local gigs at First Avenue and the Soundset festival with his old crew Odd Future.

Where Odd Future was crude and outrageous (and sexist), Tyler has grown into a more contemplative and mature if still sharp-edged performer. His newest album, “Chromakopia,” delves into his family history with an estranged father from Nigeria. He also opens up about his struggles with fame, sexuality, relationships and two words that have killed many a rapper’s career: growing up.

Tyler opened Tuesday’s concert with a long montage of tracks from the new record, and nothing but. He essentially played the first half of it in order, starting with the overture-like “St. Chroma,” in which we hear his own mother telling him, “You are the light. It’s not on you, it’s in you.”

The lights were not on Tyler at first, but instead on the stage made out of green shipping containers from which he emerged. He came more and more into focus, though, as he tore through “Rah Tah Tah” and “Noid” — gradually revealing him dressed in a green, usher-like coat and wearing the plastic mask and Grace Jones-ian angular hairdo seen on the cover of the new album.

He pressed on through the album, bouncing from the sweet ode to settling-down, “Darling, I” to the whirring and woozy “Judge Judy” before culminating in the truly revealing “Take Your Mask Off.” Yep, that’s when the mask came off and the show took a complete left turn.

Walking across an elevated walkway to a B-stage on the other side of the arena, Tyler entered a faux living room with a couch, organ and record player. He changed into casual streetwear, too, including an elongated switch to sneakers that might have been a nod to “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

The record player became the focal point. Its vinyl bin would hint at the next song to come, with each respective album cover appearing on camera — usually with a cheer from the largely under-25 crowd — starting with the 2019 LP “Igor” and its standout tracks “Earfquake” and “I Think.”

It was a clever, crowd-pleasing way to revisit the oldies, going all the way back to snippets of the 2011 record “Goblin.” The long mid-show B-stage montage also still vaguely tied into the new album, a lot of which seems to be about being stuck between youth and middle age.

While performing old songs like “Dogtooth” and “IFHY,” Tyler would lay out on the couch in exhaustion or shake his head in embarrassment as if he’s too old to be performing them now. He still delivered them with vigor, though, and seemed to relish the crowd’s rabid word-for-word accompaniment.

His delivery of the redemptive “Thought I Was Dead” was the most passionate and straight-up masterful this reviewer has ever seen Tyler get; very Kendrick-like. “I Hope You Find Your Way Home” was quite a doozy, too. He also dropped in one older hit, “See You Again,” providing a feel-good moment near the end of a concert unusually packed with feelings.

In the second of two opening sets, Lil Yachty offered enough of a wacky, weedy performance to make up for Tyler outgrowing such weird behavior.

The Georgia rapper played for 45 minutes on the B-stage wearing a Prince glyph jersey but was royally off for a lot of it. His consistently laid-back beats and soft, muted vocal delivery in songs such as “A Cold Sunday” and “Pardon Me” left much of the crowd looking bored, which is maybe why he resorted to abruptly squawk-screaming a line every minute or so.