Shot between 2013 and 2015, Cherry Bomb: The Documentary, about the making of Tyler the Creator’s 2015 album Cherry Bomb, and directed by Mikey Alfred, is finally officially on Youtube. Like almost every pop star “behind-the-scenes” documentary of the last decade-plus (and Tyler really is a 21st century pop star even if he doesn’t do Adele, Drake or Taylor Swift numbers,) the film is as much about burnishing brand and shoring up public persona as giving the real skinny on the mechanics of how his music came to be. So while we hear him speak on his creative process (“I rarely sample. I usually play the instruments or get someone to play it if I can’t,”) it’s almost more important that we hear him rattle off all he’s juggling at once, “recording music, directing videos, doing photoshoots…” Like hip-hop mogul and elder statesman Jay-Z, Tyler is a businessman and a business, man.
Clips of energetic live performances are spliced with moments from recording sessions are slipped in between “private” home moments with Tyler and his crew. The glue holding it all together is Tyler’s trademarked smart ass persona, woven from irony and a rich sense of the absurd, all swirled with the unspoken threat to fuck you/shit up if necessary. Cameos include Pharrell, Lil’ Wayne, A$ap Rocky, Kanye West, and (of course) Frank Ocean.
Top image courtesy Getty Images.
