Dissect - S4E9 - “I Ain’t Got Time” by Tyler, the Creator

Episode Date: June 18, 2019

Our season long analysis of Flower Boy continues with the song “I Ain’t Got Time.” The isolation expressed on the previous song “Boredom” is too much for Tyler to handle. He regresses and gets back into his sports car, using ego and testosterone to mask the loneliness he feels within.  New episodes of Dissect release every Tuesday. Follow @dissectpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify Studios, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Flower Boy by Tyler the Creator. On our last episode, we dissected the album's eighth track, Boredom. There we heard Tyler dealing with the loneliness and alienation caused by a self-imposed isolation. At the conclusion of the song's second verse, Tyler hits an emotional low, which is followed by a key plot point in the album's narrative. Tyler's boredom brings about feelings of estrangement from his friends,

loneliness from his lack of a love life, and an underlying sense of aimlessness about his life in general. We hear Tyler mutter to himself, I got to get out of here. Remember, narratively speaking, Tyler is still alone inside the garden shed we heard him enter after he abandoned his vehicle at the conclusion of pothole. Now, here at the end of boredom, we hear Tyler get back into a sports car and once again hit the road. We're eyes over, we got some tickets to see them. Right now, we got some new music only here on golf radio. We've known since the album opener forward that Tyler uses materialism,

specifically as sports cars, to combat the emptiness he feels within, a kind of emotional shield or temporary distraction. After the breakthrough that was garden shed, here we find Tyler digressing, reverting back to his old defense mechanisms. Indeed, Flower Boy continues by taking an emotional U-turn from boredom, a song in which Tyler desperately begged for someone to give him the time of day. Now in the safety of his sports car, Tyler will arrogantly state the exact opposite on the album's next song, the subject of our episode today, I Ain't Got Time.

I ain't got time is written and produced by Tyler the Creator. The song's production makes heavy use of a sample of Bel Shazars track introduction from the 1973 album, The Art of Belly Dancing. Hello, my name is Bell Shazar and this is the age of the body beautiful. You can trim your figure and add excitement to your life with belly dancing. Tyler was actually inspired to use this sample after hearing it used in D-Light's 1990 hit, Groove is in the Heart. The sample doesn't appear in the actual song.

Rather, it's used as a brief introduction. I heard the Delight song on the radio with Q-Tip years ago. It was like, what is that? Figured out the sample was listening to the sample. I suck at sampling. So I just looped it and was like, oh, this is cool. Added some drums to it and then it was a beat. I remember being at Yeas during life of Pablo,

and I think he went to take a nap. And I was just in a studio, and it was an MPC there. I literally, it was a mic right there, and I was like, Noah, it's his engineer. I was like, just start recording me. I just start smacking, start clapping, start making weird noises, and then add it up, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like that. And I was like, I'm gonna just add a hook. I ain't got time for the...

Better throw a rock at the book. And it was just that. And there was two separate songs. I was like, damn, Kanye should take this song. He would sound so much cooler saying, I ain't got time than me and all that. He didn't like it. So I had these two songs just sitting. And one day I was like, you know what?

I'm going to mix these two together. As Tyler stated, I ain't got time began as two different beats, one that used the Bel Shazhar sample loop and another Kanye rejected beat that featured handclaps and the I ain't got time hook. While we don't know exactly how these two beats sounded in their original form, let's take a look at how Tyler combines the drums and sample loop on the final version of I Ain't Got Time. From the Bel Shazar track, Tyler splices out a four-beat loop. The drumbeat Tyler sets to this is built on heavy 808 bass hits.

Now on top of this contemporary Western-style electronic drumbeat, Tyler incorporates two acoustic elements, handclaps and finger symbols. These two elements play nicely into the Middle Eastern, Eastern sound of the Belchazar sample loop. Especially clever is the incorporation of finger symbols. Known as Zills, these small symbols are worn in pairs around belly dancer's fingers and are used to accent and embellish the music they're dancing to. Because introduction by Belchazar comes from the album The Art of Belly Dancing, Tyler's use of Zills seems to be a clever nod to this sample source. When combined with the heavy 808 drumbeat, the hand claps and zills provide a great contrast between

west and east, between digital and acoustic. Now let's hear how this drumbeat combines with the sampled loop. Like we mentioned at the top of the show, I Ain't Got Time is an emotional 180 from the sentiments of the album's previous track, Bortem. Tyler flees his garden shed and hops back into his sports car to drive away from his problems and escape his loneliness. Guys over, we got some tickets to see them. Right now, we got some new music only here on golf radio. God, I love this shit. We hear the return of golf radio, the station Tyler was playing back on the album's third track sometimes.

Positioned as such, I ain't Got Time is a soundtrack to Tyler's Joyride Escape. Just like the song Who That Boy, we find Tyler using ego, bravado, and chaos as an external protective shield against his internal melancholy. We all have our vices in times of self-doubt, and it seems that for Tyler, arrogance is his vice of choice. Bitch looking for a water. Boy, I need a Kleenex. How I got this far.

Boy, I can't believe it. That I got this car so I take scenic. Passenger walk, boy, I look like River Phoenix. First. Happy birthday. You bitch ass, nigga, yep, I'm thirsty. I get a little shots that you threw. They ain't hurt me.

Like, fuck with your bitch ass in the first place. I ain't got time. Tyler begins first one. Boy, I need a Kleenex. How I got this far. Boy, I can't believe it. That I got this car. So I took the scenic.

Here Tyler makes clear that he's now driving again. He says he needs a Kleenex, presumably because he's teary-eyed thinking about how far he's come, the success that he's had, and the cars he's able to afford. He takes a scenic route to an unnamed destination just to indulge in his success. This in a nutshell is a synopsis of the entire song, Tyler indulging in his wealth in success. He continues saying, Passenger a white boy looked like River Phoenix. This line adds to our growing list of white males Tyler is attracted to, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cole Spouse, and now River Phoenix, an American actor and musician who died in 1993 from a drug overdose. Of course, we know Tyler does not have an actual

passenger in his car. This is another appearance of Tyler's idealized fantasy partner he's been searching for since the song See You Again. Tyler interrupts himself and says, First, happy birthday. You bitch-ass N-word, yep, I'm thirsty. Them shots that you threw, they ain't hurt me. I ain't fuck with your bitch-ass in the first place. Here we find Tyler defending himself against an unnamed critic. He does so in a clever wordplay around a birthday metaphor. One takes shots of alcohol on their birthday. Tyler states that he's thirsty and then states that the shots this person threw his way didn't phase him because he has no respect for this person. It's unclear who exactly Tyler is talking to here. Some has speculated that

Tyler is talking specifically to Hobson, a rapper who dissed Tyler back in 2011. The guy and I don't want to pile up the anger All these no-flow gimmicky ass fired up behaviors With whack beats and gap teeth like Tyler the creator Motherfucker, you're not dope So you try to get some attention by cussing And eating a fucking cockroach and goblin You get no props on it

It sucks so much I get blow jobs from it I've been told you niggas I'm real If you whack and no... The speculation that Tyler is addressing Hobson And I Ain't Got Time Mostly stems from the fact that the release date of the song occurred on Hobson's birthday tying into the happy birthday line we just heard. Personally, I think it's highly unlikely

Tyler would respond to a six-year-old diss from a relatively unknown rapper. It seems more likely Tyler is talking to the critics of his previous project Cherry Bomb, which we know influenced the way Tyler approached Flower Boy. And more than who Tyler is talking to, what's important here, narratively speaking, is Tyler's brashness and egotism. In the safety and protection of his sports car, Tyler is avoiding his inner emotions through arrogance, creating a hard shell exterior that mass is sensitivity he's displayed throughout the entire album.

I ain't got time continues in this same way with the performance of verse two. Now I ain't got to be so proud of me because all these got their style from me I bet they all looking from the crowd of me and if I ask them they and bow with me but you a house nigger so you don't know how that shit go with my big lips

and my big nose and my big dick and my short heart because you already know I slow my shit grow Tyler begins verse two rapping, Nat Turner would be so proud of me because all these motherfuckers got their style from me.

In conversation with Gerard Carmichael, Tyler reveals his intentions behind this verse. Let me add a second verse and I was like, Nat Turner would be so proud of me and when I was younger, Nat Turner was so cool to me because he rebelled against all that shit.

So why the motherfuckers with him? Well, I didn't want to say all these white boys got their style for me so I just wanted to sound like, motherfucker like. You wanted the emotion? I want the emotion of Nat Turner or something. Tyler states that he respects Nat Turner because of the 1831 slave rebellion he organized.

In his verse, Tyler wraps that Turner would be proud of him because of Tyler's own rebellious tendencies, someone who doesn't conform to the things around him just because they're the norm. And perhaps the most arrogant line of the album, Tyler refers to what we assume are his fans at his shows, saying, I bet they all look in from a crowd at me, and if I asked them, they would bow at me. Like Nat Turner organizing a rebellion, Tyler stands in front of a crowd that follow him,

but Tyler's take is more ego-driven, as he seems to be basking in the glory of their worship. Tyler then piggybacks on his reference to Nat Turner, saying, But you a house-enward, so you don't know how that shit go. A house-enward is a slave that works inside the house. These less laborious roles were reserved for lighter-skinned blacks. Tyler uses the term as a derogatory phrase against another unnamed critic. He then again compares himself to the dark skin Nat Turner, wrapping a list of male African-American physical stereotypes.

Again, like verse 1, Tyler here is all arrogance and vengeance. As I Ain't Got Time continues, we get hit with an abrupt beat switch and the song takes a dramatic, dissonant tailspin. When we return, we'll find out just how Tyler creates this impactful moment and how it links back to I ain't got time's kindred spirit, Who dat boy. But first, a word from our sponsors. Welcome back to Dissect. Before the break, we approached I Ain't Got Times dramatic beat switch. In conversation with Gerard Carmichael, Tyler unpacks the intention behind this switch.

Because you already know how slow my shit grow. And then I said, I want that fucking beat to just go, bleh. Just weird. Just sound like pink fucking goo, just hard. Let's unpack a few key elements of the beat that Tyler described as pink fucking goo. First, we have a change of rhythmic meter, what's known as halftime. Halftime changes the rhythmic feel of a song by doubling its tempo resolution, something that will make the most sense if you just hear it. So the tempo of Ain't Got Time is 109 beats per minute.

Tempo is measured in beats per minute and is essentially the speed of a song. Again, I ain't Got Time is 109 beats per minute, which sounds like it. this. In music, this is the blank canvas you begin with. Let's now add a very basic drumbeat played to this tempo. What's important for our purposes about this beat is where the snare drum falls on beats 2 and 4. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. This establishes this particular beat in common time, where bass drum plays strong beats 1 and 3, and a snare drum plays backbeats or weak beats 2 and 4. The first half of I ain't got time. is in common time. The snare drum plays on beats 2 and 4. Well technically the snare jump

plays on the upbeat of beat 2, but that's an embellishment we'll look past for our purposes today. Right now we're just concerned about the overall groove of I ain't got time being in common time. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Okay, so I ain't got time begins in common time, with the snare drum falling on beats 2 and 4. Now, when we get the pink goo beat switch, we find ourselves in halftime. In halftime, the snare drum lands on beat 3. Let's first hear a generic representation of this. We'll start with our generic drums in common time, then switch to halftime in which

the snare drum lands on beat 3. Common time. Half time. Can you feel how this subtle change alters the entire groove or feeling of the beat? It feels slower, even though the tempo, the actual speed of the track, stays the same. Now let's hear how Tyler utilizes halftime and I ain't got time. Listen now for the snare that lands on beat 3. 1, 2, 3.

For comparison's sake, let's hear both of Tyler's beats back to back. First, we'll set a click track to 109 beats per minute. This is our tempo, our song's speed. Now let's hear how both of these drum beats manipulate this tempo. Doesn't the second beat feel slower despite the speed or tempo of the song never changing? That's what halftime does. It gives the impression of a slower tempo without actually altering the tempo itself. Tyler uses halftime to create the pink goo feel he was going for.

It literally feels like the beat is melting. Now in addition to the change to halftime, the other key element of this beat switch is the entrance of an extremely dissonant synthesizer. The notes this synth plays are a C-sharp and D, an interval of a semi-tone. Now you might remember our discussion of this interval on our episode on HuDat Boy. There we stated that this semitone interval is the most dissonant interval we have in our western tuning system. We also unpacked how HuDat Boy is constructed almost entirely on the semitone interval. It's interesting that both HuDat Boy and I Ain't Got Time make prominent use of the semitone interval.

Even I ain't got Times Belchesar sample features heavy use of the semitone. I bring up the use of the semitone in both Hu dat Boy and I ain't got time. got time because it's a musical parallel that reflects and helps unify the narrative parallel between these tracks. Both songs showcase Tyler's egotism, his darker side, the defense mechanism triggered by his uncomfort with feeling vulnerable and alone. Who That Boy was triggered by his feelings expressed on See You Again, while I Ain't Got Time was triggered by the isolation and desperation he expressed on boredom. Musically, Tyler scores this side of himself in a similar way, constructing both songs on the dissonant interval of a semitone, helping to unify the two tracks on

Flower Boy that most explicitly expressed Tyler's darker side. When Tyler begins rapping over the beat switch on I Ain't Got Time, he does so with the intention of evoking the feeling of mixtape era Little Wayne. It almost sounded, not this, but almost like chopped and screw type of, you know what I mean? Because you could feel the turning to just get slow. And I was like, I'm a bar out. I really want to bar out.

like how Wayne used to make us feel like 0-607 mixtapes. And I just want bars, bars, bars to go in. Been a man with a pick-up playing, niggas know the deal. When I set up Cornville, I bet I get a hundred mill. Next line I have I'm like, whoa, I've been kissing white boys since a thousand and four. One me, two feet, three ends, four, five, six years ago, suck seven, figure, conversations with converse, find a live, Tyler begins this guy

Tyler begins this section What I should have did but you ain't did not Hey You ain't important I'm gonna keep sporting All smiles over here Shout out to the gauze Tyler

Back boy Tyler begins this section Been the man with the pickle Plan and words No the Dill Here Tyler puns a Dill pickle substituting paper plan

Or money plan with pickle And replacing the phrase Know the Deal with Dill It's all a clever boast About his business ventures Which it's the subject of this part of the verse. He continues, when I sell the carnival, I bet I get 100 mil. This is in reference to

Camp Flogna, an annual carnival theme music festival Tyler started in 2012. The first carnival was attended by 2300 people, but has since evolved into a proper two-day festival attended by over 40,000. Tyler speculates that what began as a grassroots event will now net him $100 million if he ever decided to sell it. The verse continues, Next line will have him like, whoa, I've been kissing white boys since 2004. Tyler predicts up front the controversy or shock of what is his most transparent description

of his attraction to and or relationships with men. Again, Tyler makes a point to specify white boys falling in line with the multiple reference to white men we've heard over the course of the album. In the year 2004, Tyler would have been 13 years old, which is consistent with his lines in Garden Shed about being attracted to males since he was a youth. What's interesting about this kissing white boys line thematically is the way in which it's delivered. As you know, I ain't got time is an

indulgence in ego. It's all boasts and brags. And here Tyler for the first time, positions its attraction to men as a boast in the same way we hear other rappers boasting about their sexual relationships with women. Tyler doesn't stay with this subject long, moving on to brag about his million-dollar deal with converse. He says, seven-figure conversations with Converse finalized because Vans fucked up. Tyler previously had a shoe deal with Vans, one that he described this way, quote, imagine being in a fucking cocoon. Vans just wouldn't let me grow. It was a ceiling and I was like, fuck this. Converse is allowing me to bloom, no pun intended, and it's great, unquote. Tyler continues the verse turning his attention to

online critics saying, I'm a read commas, you're going to leave comments, saying what I should have did, but you ain't did Nata. Tyler contrasts commas, referring to his large bank statement, with comments, referring to those who leave anonymous comments on social media, critiquing Tyler's music and decision making. Finally, Tyler ends this section of the verse rapping, You ain't important, I'ma keep sporting. All smiles over here, shout out to the garden. Here, Tyler references the song All Smiles Over Here by the band The Garden, who hail from Orange County, California. I Ain't Got Time continues with more boastful rapping as the song works its way towards its conclusion. Tyler begins this section with yet another coded reference to his attraction to white males

with an elaborate play on Star Wars characters. He first likens the money rolls in his pockets to Yoda's green skin, rapping, walk weird because my pockets look like thick Yoda. He continues with a Skywalker routing round solar. Similar to the line, passenger white boy looked like River Phoenix. Here Tyler names his passenger Skywalker. as in Anakin Skywalker, the white-skinned character from Star Wars. Tyler continues this analogy, Anakin's skin's sprite, Sprite, and my tint cola. Sprite soda is clear or white, just like Anakin's

Skywalker's skin, while Tyler compares his own skin to cola, which is dark brown. Tyler leaves the Star Wars reference behind as he says, I'm getting neck from abroad like some big shoulders, till I bust like that nine in a heat holster. Getting neck is slang for oral sex, and while at first First it seems Tyler cites a woman or broad who is performing this act, he clarifies that he means broad, as in big or broad shoulders, which is more typical of a man's physique. As I Ain't Got Time concludes, Tyler caps off the song with more boasts before his ego-feel bar fest is suddenly interrupted. Oh, big, I ain't got time. Listen, man, I'm that bar. All you little niggas' clone boy, I feel that war.

You better kill that noise. Turn around and remap root when they see that bar with them bigger than that got tooth. Hey, so I'm bitch. I ain't got... Hello? As I ain't got time concludes, Tyler positions himself as a giant, someone to be feared. He says, you better kill that noise, turn around, and remap root,

when they see that boy with them big ears and that gap tooth. The latter is, of course, the description of Tyler himself. And again, we find Tyler addressing his critics, telling them to kill the noise or stop talking and go home. This is a fitting way to end a song that was entirely dedicated to arrogant, clever, big-headed boasts about Tyler's wealth, style, and inventiveness, as well as multiple jabs directed at his critics and followers. As we noted at the top of the episode, and just like its thematic counterpart, Who That Boy, we understand I ain't got time to be a personification of the sports car Tyler's driving. It's a mask or shield against the vulnerability.

he feels within. And just like Who That Boy, Tyler's joyride doesn't last long. I ain't got time ends with an abrupt stop as Tyler has snapped out of his conceited fantasy by a phone call he receives. We hear Tyler's ringtone and if you listen carefully the sound of his vehicle's engine. We then hear Tyler say, what the fuck, as he likely looks at the caller ID. Tyler then answers the phone. Hello? Tyler picks up the phone and the song ends, a cliffhanger that leads directly into the album's next track, a track that immediately acknowledges this phone call. Title 911 Mr. Lonely. This song is a direct narrative link to the end of I and God time. It's unclear at this point who's calling Tyler and what this person wants, but we'll of course

find out when we unpack 9-1-1 Mr. Lonely, note by note, line by line. Next time on Dissect. Dysect is written and produced by me, original theme music by Beirocratic, song recreations by Andrew Atwood, audio editing by Eric Bass and me. If you enjoy Dysect, please help me spread the word by telling a friend, family member, or co-worker about the show. Follow Dysect Pod playlist on Spotify, where you can find music playlist curated by yours truly. Also, be sure to say hi at Dysect Podcast on Twitter and Instagram and join our newsletter at Dysectpodcast.com. Okay, thanks everyone. I'll talk to you next week.