So yesterday when I was driving home from picking up groceries, Tyler’s “Answer” came on shuffle. I must’ve heard it a hundred times before, but this time that chorus just hooked me – why do these lyrics hit so hard for so many people? Decided to dig into it myself once I unloaded the bags.
Getting Started
First thing I did was pull up the full lyrics on my laptop while eating leftovers. Scrolled through Genius, saw those crowdsourced annotations people added. Noticed right away how many comments were like “this is exactly how I feel about that one person.” Like dang, everyone relates to that unanswered call scenario.
Then I typed “Answer lyrics meaning” into YouTube search – bad idea. Got bombarded with reaction videos where folks just yell “OMG TYLER!” Didn’t need that noise. Closed YouTube fast.
The Deep Dive
Opened Reddit next. Spent like an hour digging through old threads in hiphopheads and OFWGKTA fan subs. Sorted by “Top” posts. Kept seeing the same stuff pop up:
- People saying they cried first time hearing it
- Comments about how Tyler sounds raw, not hiding behind metaphors
- Some dude wrote “felt like he read my texts from 2012”
Scrolled so much my thumb hurt. Saw tons of personal stories – folks grieving family, exes ghosting them, friends drifting apart. Common thread? Tyler’s simple “I hope you answer” captured their bottled-up feelings better than they ever could.
Putting It Together
Took out my notebook around midnight. Started jotting down why this connects:
- Brutal honesty: That repeated “fuck you” isn’t poetic. It’s real anger.
- Leaving things open: Never says if the call gets answered. Keeps it relatable.
- Specific yet vague: Mentions his grandma but listeners plug in their own person.
My cat walked across my notes twice while I was pacing. Finally sat back down and wrote: “It’s popular ‘cause it’s the awkward voicemail we all wish we left but never did.” Looked at that sentence and thought – yeah, that’s the messy truth.
The Messy Part
Tried writing a fancy analysis paragraph afterwards. Sounded like a robot wrote it. Deleted the whole thing. Remembered why I hate academic talk. Who cares about “discourse” or “archetypes”? Real people just wanna scream along to “that’s my grandma, what the fuck?!” in their car.
Ended up tweeting my notebook sentence at 2am. Woke up to 15 quotes saying “THIS.” Proof enough.