“Welcome. Number one, body movement (funky). No sitting still (dance, bro),” Tyler the Creator commands in the opening seconds of his first song in his ninth solo album Don’t Tap the Glass. Funny command coming from Tyler considering his past albums stoke mosh pits, TikTok dances, or just movement in general. 

His surprise album hit the media on July 24, 2025. Throughout the album, you’ll find hyperactive beats met with polyrhythms. Each song within the album is pretty short; it features 10 songs averaging about 2–3 minutes per song, totaling about a 28-minute runtime. 

Instead of your typical heartfelt, meaningful music, you’ll notice that Tyler focuses on repetition within the words and tempos of the tracks within the album. It seems Tyler did not have much of a concept when it came to the creation of the album. Classic move coming from Tyler. The aesthetic is pure late ’80s to early ’90s West Coast hip-hop, and his album cover definitely reflects that— at first glance, you see an action figure-like version of Tyler with chunky accessories. 

Now, was this his best album? No. But I do think it was way worth a listen.

He does an incredible job syncing his lyricism and his overall tone with the beat. Like usual, Tyler diversified his tone throughout many of his songs, but this album definitely over-emphasizes this. Big Poe is a great example of this; he uses a mix of layering his vocals, but this song also hinging on a chunky sample from Busta Rhymes’s Pass the Courvoisier, Part II. It took me a hot minute to notice that, but again, this track clings on to that raw, early-2000s kind of feel, with so much unpredictability. Tyler does some bold sampling and breakbeats within this track specifically, but also throughout the album.

Lots of tracks within the album pay reference to Pharrell (An American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and fashion designer) but Sugar on My Tongue, my favorite song out of the album, reflects his mentor’s style the most. This track definitely has some Neptunes (The Neptunes were an American record production duo composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) style synth-funk and vocoder textures. These styles and textures immerse the listener with a feeling of energy. Let me tell you, you cannot just listen to these songs, you will feel the need to bump and groove. Genre blending is a poignant thing across multiple tracks. We are talking about balances with disco, funk, and much more.

Taking a break from personal themes examined in Chromakopia, Tyler really only has a lot of simple lyricism. This helps contribute to his demands in the beginning because he isn’t necessarily diving into a lot of personal themes or really any emotional core. You do get somewhat of a glimpse of this in Ring Ring Ring. That song is definitely a relatable song because it focuses on romance and loneliness.

In conclusion, I would give this album an 8.5/10. Personally, I don’t listen to many songs that have fast tempos, but this was a great listen. I did mention that I don’t think this was his best album, but I do believe that Tyler filled our bellies with this album. This album was all about movement and physicality, and he capitalized on that every chance he got. This album was kind of different from his usual, but he transformed all of those ’80s and ’90s elements within the album and uniquely made it his. Overall we are looking at a sample-based and fast paced album. Needless to say, if you are hosting a party, these tracks will definitely get the crowd dancing, I know it did for me!