911/Mr. Lonely

Album: Flower Boy (2017)
Charted: 101
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Here, Tyler, the Creator opens about up about his feelings of restlessness, and alienation.

    Purchase some things until I'm annoyed
    These items is fillin' the void
    Been fillin' it for so long
    I don't even know if it's s--t I enjoy (ohh)
    Current battle as an adult
    My partner is a shadow


    Tyler admits that much of what he gets up to is an attempt to break a feeling of boredom and isolation.
  • Steve Lacy from the Internet and singer Anna of the North join Tyler on the hook and bridge, while Frank Ocean contributes a short verse. Tyler told Zane Lowe on Beats 1 about his Odd Future colleague:

    "I've never ever in our life planned a . I'm always in the studio just making s--t and he's like 'where you at?' [Frank] was like, 'Let me try something.' He just started saying 'chirp chirp chirp chirp' about 400 f---in' times."
  • The song went through multiple revisions over the course of a year. Tyler told The Carmichael Show's Jerrod Carmichael.

    "'911' and 'Mr. Lonely' were originally different songs kinda together. It was this jazz take I had that was super triumphant and just sounded grand. A lot of those lyrics were in that song, and I just took them and placed them on '911' and took the verse and placed it on 'Mr. Lonely' and added some stuff. The version that came out is the 25th version.

    The first version was over an interlude song that Tony! Toni! Toné! had. I looped it, sang over that, liked the hook that I put there, and made like 30 beats for it. And the versions aren't just different type of lyrics, it's different beats, different melodies. I took the beat from the fashion show I did, reworked that, took the lyrics from the original 'Mr. Lonely,' and implemented that… I made that bridge and it was just the beat, and I remember stopping like, 'I made the bridge I always wanted to make.'"
  • This is song number ten on Flower Boy, ensuring Tyler keeps up a track-listing trend he's adopted on his albums since the release of "VCR / Wheels" on 2009's Bastard. The tenth track on each of the rapper's records have consistently been a blend of more than one song.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Chris Tomlin

Chris TomlinSongwriter Interviews

The king of Christian worship music explains talks about writing songs for troubled times.

Trans Soul Rebels: Songs About Transgenderism

Trans Soul Rebels: Songs About TransgenderismSong Writing

A history of songs dealing with transgender issues, featuring Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Morrissey and Green Day.

Phone Booth Songs

Phone Booth SongsSong Writing

Phone booths are nearly extinct, but they provided storylines for some of the most profound songs of the pre-cell phone era.

Ramones

RamonesFact or Fiction

A band so baffling, even their names were contrived. Check your score in the Ramones version of Fact or Fiction.

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s EditionMusic Quiz

You know the scenes - Tom Cruise in his own pants-off dance off, Molly Ringwald celebrating her birthday - but do you remember what song is playing?

Bryan Adams

Bryan AdamsSongwriter Interviews

What's the deal with "Summer of '69"? Bryan explains what the song is really about, and shares more of his songwriting insights.