DON'T TAP THE GLASS

Album ∙ Rap ∙ 2025

Tyler, The Creator

With the October 2024 release of CHROMAKOPIA, Tyler, The Creator seemed to explain that his three-year gap between albums had at least something to do with him trying to reconcile celebrity visibility with his personal life. After the pleas for privacy on some of that 2024 album’s most memorable tracks—not least acerbic single “Noid”—his pugilistic 1980s rapper cosplay on the cover of the subsequent semi-surprise release DON’T TAP THE GLASS appears a continuation of that sentiment.

The contents of this significantly shorter follow-up to the critically acclaimed, commercially successful full-length are quite intentionally a big step away from the array of revelations, rebukes, and storytelling that defined CHROMAKOPIA. Judging by the opening robotic commands of “Big Poe,” Tyler is dead set against baring his soul for his fans again, explicitly prioritizing danceability over “that deep shit” as the tenet behind DON’T TAP THE GLASS. Then, as with fictionalized alter egos like Wolf Haley and IGOR, he assumes the song title’s identity as his latest character, embodying this hedonist with a stream of winking profanity over a bed of N.E.R.D-esque synth-rock. Later, the sub-bass-blasted “Stop Playing with Me” operates in a similar thematic and sonic space, inherently threatening yet undeniably catchy.

In a way, DON’T TAP THE GLASS spiritually calls back to The Notorious B.I.G.’s unapologetically reclaimed “Party and Bullshit” ethos, with music that resembles the funk and dance styles that the late Mr. Smalls would no doubt have vibed to during the 1980s and early 1990s. From the squelchy electro of “Sugar on My Tongue” through the retro R&B boogie of “Ring Ring Ring” and “Sucka Free,” the genre callbacks offer comforting grooves for Tyler to melt into. His oft-caustic voice transforms into an ephemeral texture on “Don’t You Worry Baby,” a seductive bit of bass and breaks nudged along by his quiet commands.

Yet, even at the times when he seems conspicuously absent from the festivities, as on “I’ll Take Care of You,” it’s really because he’s cultivated a jam he can admire from somewhere above the dance floor. Call DON’T TAP THE GLASS escapism if you must, but it sure feels hella good in this club.