“WILSHIRE” is the fifteenth track on Tyler, The Creator’s 2021 album ‘CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST.’ The song is a massive 8 minutes and 35-seconds and Tyler goes on a rant about a girl he instantly connected with and how it turned out to be something great and not so great in the end.
Tyler, The Creator announced his sixth studio album ‘CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST,’ releasing on June 25, 2021. The album follows his infamous project ‘IGOR‘ from 2019. The first single off the new album, titled “LUMBERJACK” was released on June 16, 2021.
The song is entirely written by Tyler, The Creator, and he has a lot to unload here. The song almost feels like it is based on a real-life experience of Tyler because of the extreme level of details he goes into about their relationship. The song title could be a reference to several things; there are surnames, cities, streets, shops, and parks named ‘Wilshire.’
Listen to “WILSHIRE” by Tyler, The Creator
“WILSHIRE” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
Verse 1
In the first verse of the song, we hear the origin story of this specific relationship of Tyler, The Creator. It was a fine Saturday evening and he saw her sitting across a few tables outside a coffee shop. Their eyes connected and he knew it was going to be something more than just a random meetup. They start up a conversation and Tyler sees a spark begin to form.
She was the complete package, as Tyler describes her;
If I denied long legs, good ears, great taste
Smell good, sense of humor, obvious a good face
So, things started escalating and they were clicking very well. One fine night, on a call, Tyler expresses how he feels about her. Stars align, and she says she feels the same way. But what followed was quite unexpected for Tyler; “You told me you felt the same, but you got homie you dealin’ with.”
Even bigger shock is to find out that this guy is Tyler’s friend, too. “Bros before ladies?”
Tyler is torn and so is she. They both know there’s something between them. But Tyler does not want to steal her from her guy, and the girl does not want to cheat.
Verse 2
Tyler takes a step back and asks her to slow things down between them. Tyler does not want to step between her and her guy. Tyler even invites both of them to his house to hang out. He underplays everything that went on with him and the girl. But it’s not that easy to hide some eye contact, giggles, and hints between them. Her guy is not stupid either. He might be suspecting something is up between his girl and Tyler.
Verse 3
Tyler doesn’t see the girl for a few weeks. It seems like her guy is keeping her away from Tyler. The longer it goes, more restless Tyler gets. He knows he had something good with this girl–something he never experienced with anyone else before. He feels guilty, but not as much as he should. He wants to have self control, but cannot muster as much as he wants to keep himself away from the girl.
Verse 4
Lack of self control wins. Tyler asks the girl to come over, and she does, too. Tyler is happy that she chose him even just for this scandalous meetup. Tyler gets his hopes high. He musters all his courage and pops the question;
I know your answer, but you gotta keep it honest with me
Tyler gets the response he was most scared of;
Said you can’t fully be into me ’cause you with him
When the girl returns to her man, he is mad at her. They get into a massive argument. Most likely the friendship between Tyler and this guy is over. He feels threatened by Tyler (maybe rightly so). The fight escalates and they break up. Tyler picks the girl up and drives around aimlessly. She cries for an hour, on his shoulder.
She just cannot make up her mind. She calls it off with Tyler, too.
For Tyler, it feels like he lost the world. She checked all the right boxes for Tyler. She was…the One. So, it defintely feels quite bad to see her go. But life goes on. Tyler understands that everything and everyone has a right time and place for things to work out.
It was beautiful
I was able to feel
But it was, it was bad timing
A lot of right people meet at the wrong times and end up calling it off. A lot of wrong people meet at right circumstances and end up unhappy.
Outro
In the final part of “WILSHIRE,” Tyler, The Creator sounds conflicted. He almost says that he loved her. Or at laest he thought so. He had no intentions to make anybody’s life difficult. But, in the pursuit of his happiness, he lost a bro and a potentail life partner. The girl lost his guy. All the people involved in this love triangle lost. Tyler calls himself a bad person for messing up things so badly. But can we actually blame him?!
Tyler, The Creator also says that he keeps his private life very private because fans can sometimes get a little too crazy with boundaries. So, is this, in fact, a real-life experience of Tyler, The Creator?
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.