Playlist “10 Songs Centered Around the Garden” stars controversial rapper Tyler, the Creator, as well as features music from the likes of Dua Lipa, SZA, and Troye Sivan.

Have you tended to your garden yet? Hopefully everything is sound – the flowers have bloomed and the vegetables are ripe.  If you don’t have a garden, or your garden totally sucks, we’ve compiled a brief playlist for you.  After all, there’s a playlist for everything, even if this one isn’t edible or as aesthetically pleasing as the well-tended garden.  10 Songs Centered Around the Garden stars controversial rapper Tyler, the Creator, who has a whopping three songs on this playlist, all from his 2017 Grammy-nominated album, Flower Boy. Accompanying Tyler for the ride are Dua Lipa, SZA, and Troye Sivan, among others.

1. Tyler, the Creator, “Where This Flower Blooms”

Ft. Frank Ocean

Flower Boy • Columbia • 2018

This garden-oriented playlist commences with Tyler, the Creator, who serves appears on three of the ten songs.  On “Where This Flower Blooms,” Tyler, the Creator is assisted by a familiar voice: Frank Ocean.  The production is top-notch, particularly the hard-hitting drums on the memorable bridge: “I glow / I rock, I roll, I bloom, I glow.” The premise of “Where This Flower Blooms” is about his come-up – he’s bloomed.

2. SZA, “Garden (Say It Like Dat)”

Ctrl • RCA • 2017

On “Garden (Say It Like Dat),” a highlight from Ctrl, SZA seems to question her worth, once again, recalling “Drew Barrymore”. She spends the second verse of the song focused on her insecurities – specifically about her butt. Does her butt really matter? No, it’s just one lyrical aspect. Ultimately, she believes – or at least hopes – her man loves her for the way that she is.

She claims:

“But I believe you when you say it like dat
Only you need me when you say it like dat
Oh, I believe you when you say it lake dat
You must really love me.”

3. Troye Sivan, “Bloom”

Bloom – Single • Capitol • 2018

“Take a trip into my garden / I’ve got so much to show ya / The fountains and the waters / Are begging just to know ya.” Troye Sivan couldn’t have timed the release of his single “Bloom” any better – it arrives just in the nick of time to earn a spot on this list!  Can you say #Career Goals? On “Bloom,” Sivan is willing to do so, sexually.  The innuendo is ‘out of the roof.’

“(Yeah I bloom) I bloom just for you
(I bloom) just for you
Come on, baby, play me like a love song
Every time it comes on
I get this sweet desire
(Yeah I Bloom) I bloom just for you
(I bloom) just for you.”

4. Dua Lipa, “Garden”

Dua Lipa • Warner Bros. • 2017

“So, are we leaving this Garden of Eden? / Are we leaving this Garden of Eden?” Albanian-English singer Dua Lipa references the “biblical earthly paradise” on “Garden,” a song on her 2017 self-titled debut album. After keeping things quick on Dua Lipa, “Garden” slackens the pace a bit. It’s no slow-jam but rather, a mid-tempo ballad propelled by rhythmic drum programming. Dua Lipa flaunts expressive, powerful pipes on yet another impressive chorus, excerpted above. On the verses, she reminisces back to when the love they once shared was like paradise.

5. Tyler, the Creator, “Droppin’ Seeds”

Ft. Lil Wayne

Flower Boy • Columbia • 2018

The worst thing about “Droppin’ Seeds”, the second entry from Tyler, the Creator is that it only lasts one minute! Tyler, the Creator gets Lil Wayne to rap over a jazzy backdrop, much like he did previously on “Smuckers” from Cherry Bomb.  This brief record finds Lil Wayne dropping some sweet, sexually-driven bars. Tyler, the Creator concludes the hotness on the ‘seed-dropping’ outro. The results are nothing short of awesome.  The seedsjust needed to last longer.  “Droppin’ Sees” features references to Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden (“Like Adam in the Garden of Eve / My bitch got an apple bottom and she swallow my seeds”), Cadillac, Onyx, and Sticky Fingaz.

“Droppin’ seeds on these n*ggas
They can’t fuck with the boy
Droppin’ seeds on these bitches
For the love of the sport
I’m droppin’ seeds, got this garden
Flowers poppin’ of course
I’m droppin’ seeds, motherfucker
Weezy Baby the boy! Yugh!”

6. Emeli Sandé, “Garden”

Ft. Jay Electronica & Aine Zion

Long Live the Angels • Virgin • 2016

“Let me love, let me touch, let me love / Baby, give it up, let me drink from the fountain.” Emeli Sandé has a gem on her hands with “Garden”, featuring Jay Electronica and Àine Zion. “Garden” appears on Sande’s excellent, but underrated sophomore album, Long Live the Angels. In the context of the album, “Garden” serves as a contrast – a ‘different look’ if you will. It features unique production work that is firmly planted in the urban contemporary vein. The pace is slow and grinding, but laden with swagger. Excellent, hard drums buttress the song.  Zion handles intro and outro duties, both spoken word. Jay Electronic offers a respectable, enjoyable guest verse.  As always, Sandé shines, riding the production like a beast.

7. Chris Stapleton, “Scarecrow in the Garden”

From a Room: Volume 2 • Mercury • 2017

Chris Stapleton continues to check off the boxes on “Scarecrow in the Garden”,the second single from From a Room: Volume 2, his second album of 2017.  The sound remains traditional and doesn’t blur the lines of country music like much of the contemporary brand.  As always, Stapleton sounds superb vocally, filled with spirit and authenticity.  Once more, he harmonizes like a champ with his female ‘partner in crime.’ The chorus is notable.

“There’s a scarecrow in the garden
That looks like Lucifer
And I’ve been reading Revelations
With my bare feet in the river.”

8. Lil Skies, “Garden”

Life of a Dark Rose • All We Got Ent. • 2018

“Lil baby, why you fraudin’ / Plant my seed, watch me grow a garden.” On his version of “Garden,” Pennsylvanian rapper Lil Skies pop-raps about his come-up.  There are people who have doubted him, but he has already proven them wrong early on into his career.  The garden, hence, is the product of him planting his seed in the music industry.

“Why you salty?
See me winnin’, now they wanna stop me
Came from nothin’, now we fuckin’ flossin’
I feel great, these people think I'm awesome.”

9. Florida Georgia Line, “Dig Your Roots”

Dig Your Roots • Big Machine • 2016

“You gotta dig your roots / ‘For the sun comes down / Show some love back to your hometown / Fall in love, plant some seeds.” “Dig Your Roots” appears as the second song off the third studio album by Florida Georgia Line, Dig Your Roots.  Here, Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard sound like a mix between Sam Hunt and a hip-hop artist of choice.  Although a bit clunky initially, once it settles in, it’s a more effective part of the garden.

10. Tyler, the Creator, “Garden Shed”

Flower Boy • Columbia • 2017

Estelle (“American Boy”) guests on “Garden Shed,” the third musical showcase courtesy of Tyler, the Creator.  This slow jam served as the source suggesting Tyler, the Creator is coming out.

On the chorus, even Estelle provides potential imagery that hints at this:

“Don’t kill a rose
Before it could bloom
Fly, baby, fly
Out the cocoon.”

Then, of course, Tyler seems to address his sexuality himself, without explicitly saying so.

“Truth is, since a youth kid, thought it was a phase

Thought it’d be like the phrase; ‘poof,’ gone

But it’s still goin’ on.”

I TRIED TO COME OUT THE DAMN CLOSET LIKE FOUR DAYS AGO AND NO ONE CARED HAHAHHAHAHA

— Tyler, The Creator (@tylerthecreator) April 13, 2015

To quote Kacey Musgraves, “Follow Your Arrow”.

Photo Credits: Big Machine, Capitol, Columbia, Mercury, Republic, Virgin, Warner Bros.