WILSHIRE & other hidden gems by Tyler the Creator

WILSHIRE inspired me to write this article, but there are plenty of other songs from Call Me if You Get Lost that deserve more attention, too. Credit: FLOOD Magazine

Everyone knows "See You Again", "Earfquake", or, most recently, "Sugar on my Tongue" as Tyler, the Creator's top hits and when discourse around his discography arises, these songs tend to be the focal point. In hindsight though, these hits weren't the songs that turned me into a lifelong fan; deep cuts are an integral part of any artist's discography, sure, but Tyler's tend to discuss especially poignant themes that his big hits don't.

WILSHIRE, the 8-minute-uninterrupted-narrative about Tyler's frustration and melancholic feelings about his (for a tragic lack of a better word) situationship with an unnamed love interest, is what inspired me to write this article; a B-side (if that) from 2021's Call Me if You Get Lost, WILSHIRE is chronically underrated. Tyler's cadence and rhythm, plus the fact the song was entirely improvised and recorded uninterrupted, give WILSHIRE an emotional energy and power that no other song on CMIGYL matches, and yet it's ranked on the lower end of the album's tracks by most critics, and has only a fraction of the streams of its peers. However, WILSHIRE still managed to get 98 million streams (as of October 2025), which can't be said about the next deep cut I wanted to talk about.

Rusty is the 14th song on the long-winded Wolf, Tyler's 3rd album and the last of his 'Wolf Trilogy', which released all the way back in 2013. Rusty is a posse cut featuring Tyler's talents as well as fellow Odd Future members Domo Genesis and Earl Sweatshirt, showcasing not only 3 talented rappers but also a prime example of the quirky and unusual production and witty lyricism that defined the early years of Odd Future. There was never, and will never, be another era in rap where a line like "In a world where kids my age are popping mollies with leather/sitting on Tumblr, never outside or enjoying the weather" will work as well as it did on "Rusty". Despite this, it sits at the lower end of the album's listens, at a paltry 53 million. However, with Tyler, it can always get more obscure, which takes us to 2015's Cherry Bomb.

OKAGA, CA was regarded in its time, a decade ago, as the cherry (no pun intended) on top of the overproduced, tonally inconsistent, and all-over-the-place Cherry Bomb. This album's reputation as the proverbial 'red-headed-stepchild' of Tyler's discography persists until today, sandwiched between the delightfully edgy Wolf and the sleek, modern Flower Boy, it doesn't really have a place in Tyler's discography. But listening to it again, this song (and album) are incredibly ahead of their time. Tyler's mixture of floaty, synthy retro production with graphic and visceral lyricism, plus the chorus of backup vocalists Alice Smith, Leon Ware and Clem Creevy, create a wonderfully ethereal track that you can lose yourself in, and it's very reminiscent of later projects. The fact that this song has remained stuck at 32 million streams is a shame; it deserves better.

Hopefully this article has introduced you to some of Tyler's more underrated deep cuts; I had a blast going back and listening to them while writing it. I'll see y'all again in two weeks; maybe we can talk about Don't Tap the Glass.