DON’T TAP THE GLASS is fervent, purposeful Tyler, The Creator on his own terms with a hint of classical appeal to get you up and moving that ass.
Release date: July 21, 2025 | Columbia Records | Twitter | Instagram | Stream/Purchase
There’s doing things for yourself, and then there’s doing things for yourself. The former may be informed by a desire to do something specific for personal gain, or loss if you wanna get something off your chest, but ultimately done or made with others in mind to some degree. This is how you can assume most artists release work, with their fans in mind perhaps. The latter is more selfish even if others still stand to benefit from it. This might seem like a very thin, nearly invisible gnat dick of a line between the two – it is – but it’s a delineation between much of Tyler, The Creator‘s past work and his newest album, DON’T TAP THE GLASS.
While we’re so used to seeing Tyler build up and execute on these large concepts and eras in his career with released music and its accompanying aesthetic, this one’s for… well, himself. Per a very recent interview on Hot 97‘s show Ebro in the Morning with Ebro, Peter Rosenberg, and Laura Stylez, he explains the process of making beats with this project in mind starting on December 31, laying down vocals while on tour in Europe earlier this year, and nearly shadow dropping it on a hot July Monday with very little fanfare. All we got was Tyler making posts of random pictures with the release date, making people think a video for “Sticky” from CHROMAKOPIA was coming that day, then announcing it the Friday before it released at a live show, no singles, just vibes. This was, of course, all intentional, brought on by the realization that his pals don’t dance in public anymore for fear of embarrassment and being memed to hell and back. Given some shaming stuff I’ve seen online, I don’t really blame them.
So it’s with that in mind that we have the only real theme of DON’T TAP THE GLASS: body movement. While it’s not by definition of Tyler, The Creator himself a ‘dance album’, it is a motion album, one that demands the assassination of inhibitions and care, to let loose and wobble around, something Tyler’s been leading by example on during listening parties for the album and live shows if you can find videos of them. In a lot of ways, this is Tyler stretching out the widest he ever has. The focus is on digestible, fun songs that play with the conventions of UK jungle, disco, Miami bass, even Southern rap in addition to his further leaning into this West Coast roots as a rapper and producer. This may come off as shallow to some, but it’s only shallow so it doesn’t inhibit body movement. You ever try to move fast or dance deep in water? No slow-mo allowed here.
Like any good DJ or producer, his sample game is on point. “Big Poe” has a hefty, classic sample of Busta Rhymes‘ hook from “Pass The Courvoisier” that sets the party off after Tyler drops massively agreeable lines like ‘I’m on the plane tryna fuck her lip off/Switch off, sit on my face, gimme lip gloss‘ and ‘I don’t trust white people with dreadlocks‘. Immediately, I’m reminded, positively, of Tyler’s most polarizing project yet, Cherry Bomb, and how bold it came off when it released, particularly the title track which is especially busy. It’s funny I bring that album and song up too because “I’ll Take Care of You” samples the same drums from that track and contains the more surprising sample here, which is Crime Mob‘s “Knuck If You Buck”. The anachronistic feeling of pairing a hype song that makes you wanna fight God with a song about delicate, hesitating love is certainly unique.
As usual, where Tyler’s too busy being unabashedly himself is where he shines the hardest. “Sucka Free” sees him on his DJ Quik shit, decorating a laid-back, twinkling beat with G-funked talk box and his cadence and flow are so reminiscent of golden age West Coast rap, I love it so much. It’s also a bit of a spiritual successor to his “THAT GUY” remix of Kendrick Lamar‘s lethally catchy track “hey now”, with the hook referring to himself as ‘that guy‘ and reusing his ‘bink bink bink‘ ad lib from it when talking about a dude getting fisted in the mouth. That remix was also made just before he put full production effort into DON’T TAP THE GLASS which makes a lot of sense mood- and attitude-wise.
And goddamn, the back-to-back-to-back hit of “Mommanem”, “Stop Playing With Me”, and “Ring Ring Ring” is menacing, energetic, and elegant in that order. “Mommanem” is concise and tense with a minimal beat while Tyler talks cash shit – I wish there was a bit more to it, but it transitions nicely into “Stop Playing With Me”. This track’s the only one with a full music video to it for now and it deserves it. The clacking of a money counter accents a bass-heavy head-nodder that betrays Tyler’s insistence that this isn’t a dance album. Shit just goes hard, how could you not move to it? And what comes after a fast song? A slow one, and “Ring Ring Ring” is one of the best I’ve heard in a while. Beautiful guitar, crisp drums, and opulent strings set the (ring)tone for this loverboy-ass song where Tyler sings in his trademark higher register – it all adds up to the yearning R&B supremacy that he’s really good at pulling off here and there.
DON’T TAP THE GLASS is by design an album you can just jump into and enjoy. If you’re a big Tyler fan, you will likely feel different kinds of ways (I’ve seen reactions everywhere on the spectrum), but more casual fans or ones that don’t know Tyler well will absolutely find cause to run this album up on streaming and beyond. Hell, he even put out a clean version – a Tyler, The Creator first – for the kids and parents! It’s definitely a Tyler album with the shit-talking (‘Forty-nine, still in the street, like/Your prostate exam in a week, like‘), casual bisexual excellence (‘I fucked her and her friend, her friend, her n***a, and his bitch, I know I’m wrong‘), touching moments, and awesomely used features that you expect to complement his own rambunctious tendencies (Madison McFerrin was a great call on “Don’t You Worry Baby”). Personally, I didn’t miss the big concepts and grandiose approach that he’s had since IGOR – I know that’ll be back in full force when he’s ready and until then, I’m just glad dude found a good reason to make a project completely* for himself without the perfectionist sting or months-long rollout and stressful plans.
Although he says it was unintentional, there’s some poetry behind the decision to look like LL Cool J from his Bigger And Deffer era on the cover. Just like LL was posturing and establishing lyrical dominance on “I’m Bad“, Tyler, The Creator posts his warning to not tap the glass so as not to awaken the artist that’s capable of the same; the kind that nearly outraps the likes of Clipse, who works regularly with his musical idol Pharrell Williams (whose got a decent guest verse here on “Big Poe” credited as his alias Sk8brd), and effectively does whatever the hell he wants. Parasocial or not, watching this dude grow over the last decade and a half has been an absolute trip and DON’T TAP THE GLASS is yet another notch in the column of ways he can impress and Euro step expectations. What’s next? Who the hell knows, Tyler may not even.
*refer to my first paragraph because, you know, this is up for debate
