The evolution of Tyler, the Creator from potty-mouth provocateur to aesthetic North Star has been one of this decade’s most vivid transformations, though maybe among its least surprising. Following in the footsteps of Kanye West and Pharrell Williams, he understood from his earliest incarnation that hip-hop was no longer strictly music, but also style, attitude and disruption.

He set a template of highly stylized freedom that resonates now more loudly than ever. What Soulja Boy or Lil B were to an earlier generation of internet-first hip-hop instigators, Tyler and his extended Odd Future crew were to the current wave, raised on a diet of abstract jazz and soul-rooted hip-hop, pastel color palettes and unfiltered self-presentation.

The result is that today’s hip-hop world reflects Tyler’s image as much as anyone else’s. “Igor,” his fifth studio album, debuted at the top of the Billboard album chart last month (beating out DJ Khaled, much to the producer’s chagrin). And in April, one of Tyler’s most promising spiritual children, Kevin Abstract, released a new album of eclectically produced wounded ruminations, “Arizona Baby.” Both albums are about the angst that comes with success — Tyler’s challenges are romantic, while Kevin is still learning to walk fame’s cruel tightrope.

Image “Igor,” Tyler, the Creator’s fifth solo album, opened at No. 1.

“Igor,” alternately lush and off-kilter, is a song cycle about a not-quite-committed relationship that never makes it to full-time status . (More on that later.) Tyler is a stronger rapper than he generally lets on, and on this album he again downplays that skill in favor of filtering and processing his voice in myriad ways, turning his singing into something that lands anywhere from saccharine to morbid.