Tyler, The Creator Wanted His New Album to Make People Dance Again
Grammy-winner drops his ninth album after teasing that something was coming.
Tyler, The Creator is seen outside the GQ Men of the Year party at Bar Marmont on November 14, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Photo by PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images.
Days after announcing it,Tyler, The Creator dropped Don’t Tap The Glass, a pulsing new album that threads varied eras of Black music.
Tyler’s ninth album comes less than a year after the release of his 2024 project CHROMAKOPIA, which dropped last fall.He’s currently on a worldwide tour for that album, and just played NYC this weekend. But he wrote an Instagram essay about what inspired the album.
“I asked some friends why they don’t dance in public, and some said because of the fear of being filmed,” he wrote on Instagram. “I thought damn, a natural form of expression and a certain connection they have with music is now a ghost. It made me wonder how much of our human spirit got killed because of the fear of being a meme, all for having a good time.”
The album includes no features, and Tyler dropped the music video for “Stop Playing With Me,” which features cameos from the Clipse, Maverick Carter and LeBron James. On IG, Tyler reflected on the listening party for Don’t Tap The Glassand what it made clear for him.
“I just got back from a listening party for this album and man was it one of the greatest nights of my life. 30 people. No phones allowed. No cameras. Just speakers and a sweatbox. Everyone was dancing. Moving. Expressing. Sweating,” he shared. “It was truly beautiful. I played the album front to back twice. It felt like that pent-up energy finally got released and we craved the idea of letting more of it out.
“There was a freedom that filled the room,” Tyler continued. “A ball of energy that might not translate to every speaker that plays this album but man did that room nail it.”
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