Latest news with #Don'tTaptheGlass
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Tyler, the Creator: Don't Tap the Glass review
Tyler, the Creator's ninth album received a very contemporary grand unveiling. Rush-released two days after its existence was announced, it had been trailed by the appearance of cryptic art installations at the rapper's live shows – he's still theoretically touring his last album, 2024's Chromakopia – and at One World Trade Center in New York, and by a flurry of online gossip: one US website was forced to retract and apologise for publishing a tracklisting, complete with guest appearance by Kendrick Lamar, that turned out to be fake. Despite all this, Tyler Okonma seemed keen to deflate the kind of anticipation that arises when your last three albums have all been critically lauded, platinum-selling chart-toppers full of big ideas. 'Y'all better get them expectations and hopes down,' he posted on X, 'this ain't no concept nothing.' He then published an essay that read suspiciously like an explanation of the album's concept, bemoaning the intrusion of cameraphones and social media on our ability to live in the moment: 'Our human spirit got killed because of the fear of being a meme.' So what is Don't Tap the Glass? A proper follow-up to Chromakopia or an interstitial release? A random selection of songs with no overarching theme, or something made with more deliberate intent? The answer seems to be: all these things. It lasts less than half an hour, and is noticeably, if not entirely, lacking the soul-searching that helped define its predecessor. The lyrics tend to stick to braggadocio and reaffirmations of the nihilistic persona Tyler inhabited in the days when he was deemed such a threat to the country's morals that anti-terrorism legistation was invoked to ban him from the UK: the first, but far from last, mention of him not giving a fuck about anything arrives less than 30 seconds into the album. There are a lot of memorable one-liners, among which 'I don't trust white people with dreadlocks' and his dismissal of an ageing rival stand out: '49, still in the street / Your prostate exam in a week.' It also eschews Chromakopia's kaleidoscopic musical approach, its sudden leaps from Beach Boys harmony to Zamrock samples to guest spots from Lola Young and Lil Wayne. It's still eclectic in its choice of source material – opener Big Poe samples Busta Rhymes and a 2015 collaborative album made by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Shye Ben Tzur and India's Rajasthan Express – but ultimately feels more narrow and focused. Almost all of its 10 tracks seem fixated on the dancefloor. There are 808 beats, Kraftwerk-y electronics, a noticeable smattering of Zapp-like vocoder and electro, among other early 80s genres. Powered by a bassline that's a dead ringer for that of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall and decorated with washes of synthetic strings and a falsetto vocal, Ring Ring Ring feels like a lost Leroy Burgess boogie production from the same era. The huge, distorted breakbeat of Big Poe recalls the rhythms produced by the Bomb Squad in their prime, amplified by the stentorian, Chuck D-like tone of Pharrell Williams's guest rap. Elsewhere, I'll Take Care of You unexpectedly transforms from a beatless electronic ballad into something that – with its clattering rhythm and grimy sub-bass – most closely resembles old skool UK hardcore rave: in a neat bit of self-referentiality, the clattering rhythm is actually repurposed from the title track of Tyler's 2015 album Cherry Bomb. Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion All of this is done fantastically well. The musical reference points are deployed with an evident love and understanding of the source material, never feeling like box-ticking or pastiche; the hooks work with enviable efficiency. It's all funky enough that you imagine even the selfie-obsessed pocketing their phone and throwing themselves around if it came booming from some big speakers. But it's also not the whole story. There are scattered moments when Don't Tap the Glass feels of a piece with, or an addendum to, Chromakopia. In the middle of the album lurks the incongruous Mommanem, thick with the grunts and gasps and feral barks that were Chromakopia's sonic signature. On the concluding Tell Me What It Is, Tyler suddenly drops the boasts and the IDGAF stuff in favour of precisely the heartsore self-examination that characterised his previous album, the sentiments amplified by the untutored frailty of his singing voice: 'I'm feeling like a bum … is there a traffic to my soul? I need answers … Why can't I find love?' It's an odd way to end an album that seems largely about not overthinking things and simply giving yourself up to the moment, but, then, this is the man who once rapped 'I'm a fucking walking paradox / No I'm not.' Fourteen years on, Tyler, the Creator clearly still reserves the right to be contradictory. When the results are as good as Don't Tap the Glass, who can blame him? Blood Orange – The Field Not a song of the summer in the accepted dancefloor banger sense, but The Field's Durutti Column sample, skittering beats and ethereal vocals (by Caroline Polachek and Daniel Caesar) are the perfect soundtrack to a languid afternoon.
Gulf Weekly
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Gulf Weekly
Shattering the dance floor
American rapper and producer Tyler the Creator's new album Don't Tap the Glass released this week. The 10-track creation was first teased during a concert the artist held on July 18, in which an art installation was displayed outside the venue, featuring a figure enclosed in a clear box, with the title written on the front. The day after, the website went live, promoting the album and selling merchandise. The night before the release, the artist hosted an album-listening party titled 'Don't Come If You Aren't Going to Dance', which did not allow phones or cameras in. On his social media, Tyler shared a statement expressing his feelings reflecting on the party, stating how freeing it felt to see 300 people gathered to have a good time without shame or worry. 'I asked some friends why they don't dance in public and some said because of the fear of being filmed. I thought damn, a natural form of expression and a certain connection they have with music is now a ghost,' Tyler said, explaining the inspiration for the hosted party. 'I just got back from a listening party for this album and man it was one of the greatest nights of my life. Everyone was dancing, moving, expressing, sweating, it was truly beautiful,' he said. 'This album was not made for sitting still. Dancing, driving, running, any type of movement is recommended to maybe understand the spirit of it, only at full volume,' he added.
Time Out
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Tyler, the Creator is doing a secret show in Brooklyn tonight—here's how to score tickets
Some of the season's outdoor concerts, we've had marked on our calendar for months: Annual favorites like SummerStage, Governors Ball and Global Citizen Festival. Others, however, are deliciously last-minute affairs, a burst of sunny summertime spontaneity. Case in point: tonight's impromptu concert hosted by none other than Tyler, the Creator. In support of the rap star's brand-new studio album Don't Tap the Glass— which dropped on Monday, July 21—the "Big Poe" performer is popping up for a surprise outdoor gig today, July 23, set beneath Brooklyn's Under the K Bridge Park at 8pm. That's especially good news for fans who might have missed the rapper's four sold-out shows from his Chromakopia Tour here in New York last week: July 14 and 15 at Madison Square Garden and July 17 and 18 at Barclays Center. (He will next take the stage at Newark's Prudential Center on July 27 and 28.) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tyler, The Creator (@feliciathegoat) So, how do you snag tickets for what's sure to be a truly epic live show from one of rap's biggest names? Tickets are available as of noon today and are set at only ten bucks, which means they're going to go fast. Run (or, you know, just type really fast) to the album's website to secure yours and make everyone who follows you on social media very jealous. We'll (hopefully) see you there!
USA Today
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Ranking Tyler, the Creator's 9 albums, including Don't Tap the Glass
With Monday's surprise release of Don't Tap the Glass, rapper Tyler, the Creator kept his unreal album run alive with a pulse-pounding club album meant to stupid-dance along to with all your friends. Tyler Okonma came up with the groundbreaking Odd Future music collective that boasted supreme talents like Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, Casey Veggies and Jasper Dolphin, among many other standouts. His career stared out with so much promise, but also... so many trigger warnings. His early music needs the context of when it was created, as some of its lyrics welcome any problematic -isms you'd like to apply. Tyler's early career established him as one of rap's unafraid shock jocks, and he courted plenty of controversy for some of his most upsetting lyrical content. However, around 2015, Okonma started to shed his more aggressive tendencies, and his music richened and richened as he shared more and more of his heart. To listen to the early material is to understand it's not the artist he is now. He's grown up and then some. However, Tyler never lost his edge, far from it. His rapping got progressively better as he ditched the shock-and-awe of his earlier material without abandoning the promise of his best early bars. In 2025, Okonma stands tall as one of the most creative, dynamic musicians of his generation. His transformation has been genuinely thrilling to follow, as the Goblin turned into a Flower Boy right before our very eyes. His genius and soul shine through everything he does now. As we all hit the dance floor and go wild for Tyler, the Creator's latest, let's rank his nine albums so far as to how they all stack up with each other. Very NSFW language to follow. 9. Bastard Okonma considers Bastard an album, so we'll include it. The album is a difficult balance of Tyler's radiant potential and his jaw-dropping offensiveness. Some of the most aggressive lyrics pour out of Bastard like sour milk on a hot sidewalk, replete with objectively grotesque imagery from a bewilderingly disturbed anti-protagonist. If you accept depiction does not equal endorsement as much as it represents a horrifying fever dream of, as Pitchfork described, "shock art." There's an innocence even still hidden in the crevices, one of an artist still finding his legs and not even past the first chapter of a much more enriching career trajectory. It's his weakest album by default, but "Pigs Fly" is a decent teaser for the artist Okonma evolves into... eventually. Yes, Bastard, like Goblin and Wolf, requires content advisories aplenty and a generous read on the most vile bars Tyler packs within, but like those other two early projects, you can at least map out Okonma's strengths. 8. Goblin Okonma told GQ back in 2018 that he regards Goblin as "horrible," which might be a bit harsh on his breakthrough album that established him as the rap game's unapologetic prankster-provocateur. "Yonkers" is the best distillation of his early Eminem-style shock jabs mixed with his growly, haunting flow. Goblin, for better or worse, confirmed Okonma's place as one of the genuine early stars of the 2010s. When Kendrick Lamar called Okonma out on his seminal "Control" verse on the list of the rappers wished to obliterate in 2013, it confirmed the hype for Odd Future's impish wonder was real and formidable. Goblin felt like an arsenic-laced screed from the depth of Hell with brass-knuckle verve on the delivery, one Okonma would soon scribble all over and reframe with class with his later, better albums. Sure, you might leave Goblin horribly offended, but it's hard not to still Okonma's grit on the mic. He belonged. However, "She," his Frank Ocean collaboration, hinted to the more sensitive side of Okonma's persona that would soon explode in vibrant color. 7. Wolf Released at the height of Adult Swim's prank-sensation Loiter Squad, Wolf is the grand finale for Okonma's edgelord fury and probably a crucial text to how The Lonely Island spoofed him in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping with Chris Redd's Hunter the Hungry. Okonma embraced more vibrancy in the production with Wolf, with "Tamale" a great example of him mixing his patented mock-mischief with a ranger of a beat. Wolf also finds Okonma finally looking inwardly in ways that would soon define him as an artist. "Colossus" finds Tyler grappling with his fame as some of his fans approach him at Six Flags for a selfie when he just wants to ride a roller coaster and buy a churro. It's Okonma's spiky answer to Eminem's "Stan," and it's a stunner in writing and delivery in how fandom evolved in 2010s from the eyes of someone getting more recognized than ever. All these years later, Wolf plays like the final frontier for an artist yet to discover his brilliant second gear. It's still a compelling rap album with some insane highs, but it's also inherently flawed in the way Tyler's early work was. However, even if some of the lyrics haven't aged well, it's a testament to talent that it's still pretty dang good. 6. Don't Tap the Glass Less than a year after dropping the stone-cold masterpiece that was Chromakopia, Okonma didn't owe the world a Four Loko-fueled banger of a rap-house album. However, Don't Tap the Glass only comes from an artist at the absolute peak of their power. Okonma wrote that he wanted the album to help people loosen up a bit in a culture where we hold ourselves back from having fun at risk of being judged. Don't Tap the Glass isn't meant to be dissected as much as it's meant to be danced to, and the production is as free and innovative as Okonma has been in his career so far without sacrificing his sonic hallmarks. If you want to hear Tyler spit, "Don't Tap That Glass / Tweakin'" and "Stop Playing with Me" scratch the itch. If you just want to vibe to Tyler in roller rink-mode, "Ring Ring Ring" and "Don't You Worry Baby" take care of that. Sure, it's not one of his best albums by his lofty standards, but it's a sun-kissed, high-living joy ride with disco-ball dopamine flow. 5. Call Me If You Get Lost This might be controversial, as Call Me If You Get Lost remains one of the defining rap albums of the decade. A brisk victory lap after 2019's Igor, with DJ Drama guiding us through an eclectic gallery of Tyler rapping over some of the best beats of his career and a murder's row of guest verses at his disposal. The way Call Me If You Get Lost moves stands as some of the most staggering pacing of Okonma's discography. In an era where most artists are ditching the art of the album in favor of song-stuffed streaming buffets, Tyler gave us his most concise and arguably the most confident album of his career so far. He'd softened significantly since the Goblin days, yes, but remained sharp as ever. Tyler, we needed you, and you turned the noise up. This album is a magnificent jaunt for an artist at the height of his powers. 4. Cherry Bomb Cherry Bomb gets better and better as time goes on. The artist Tyler, the Creator is today finally clicked into place with Cherry Bomb, an electric pounding heart-engine with guitar riffs, Charlie Wilson crooning over one of Okonma's best songs in his catalog and an irresistible buoyancy of an artist finally ready to come into his own. Sure, Flower Boy was the official declaration of Okonma's completed metamorphosis, but Cherry Bomb took us into the kitchen and let us watch Tyler cook his new persona up with explosive risks and unrelenting passion. It's supremely underrated as what it portends for Okonma's career, and it's got some of his most exciting creative choices. It's more experimental than Flower Boy, and he's still dusting off a wee bit of the cringe from the Wolf trilogy days. However, Cherry Bomb remains a tube of Mentos in a Diet Coke liter. It's a jubilant mess of unbridled energy, an apocalyptic rager of an artist in free-falling, truly fearless reinvention. 3. Flower Boy Flower Boy is the arrival. It's arguably one of the most consequential albums for modern hip-hop, and the fully fleshed transformation of Tyler, the Creator from talented troll to whimsical, lovestruck rap auteur. Okonma breaks his heart wide open for an intensely personal album about self-discovery and the romance intertwined. Some of the songs on Flower Boy play as revelatory for the artist Tyler was a few discs prior, tender to the ears and warming to the soul. The lighter tough unquestionably made him a better rapper, too, with "I Ain't Got Time!" and "Who Dat Boy" blistering examples of laser-focused delivery and jolt-force lyricism. If you got used to the brash Tyler, the Creator, Flower Boy hit with the kind of grounded shock that lasts. It's an album that grows on you the more you listen to it. Okonma blossoms into the artist he was meant to be with Flower Boy, completely unencumbered with his rusted switchblade angst. It's an act of artistic elevation, for him and us. 2. Chromakopia Chromakopia is one of the best albums of the 2020s. Here, Tyler is in full command of his new self and fully prepared to dole out his earned wisdom while also popping our ear holes with sucker-punch rap classics. "Noid" stands as the album's statement track, one where Okonma deals with the unending stardom that has followed him since his music became fully accessible. It's a gripping dive into the universal psychosis of the outside world looking in on the chosen few. The astounding track works perfectly as a spine-chilling anthem for that funny feeling many of us had in late 2024, that "Goodfellas Henry Hill watching the helicopters" paranoia of a new age creeping up right behind us with and without waring. Tyler taking a pulse check of his newfound acclaim gave us one of his most singularly riveting works to date, one full of empathy and bravado. Features from Schoolboy Q, GloRilla, Sexyy Red, Lil Wayne and particularly Doechii add even more life to what may well be Okonma's most balanced album between his joyous surge rapping and his soulful ballads. It's a special album that crash landed to Earth during such an uneasy time, meeting the moment with unreal might. 1. Igor If Flower Boy was Tyler, the Creator breaking his heart open, Igor is him fully giving it to his audience for good... even if we just wind up being friends. Igor is an unbelievable mode shift for Okonma, a bare-soul love letter to "the one" that ends in friend-zone tragedy. "Earfquake" is Tyler's masterpiece, a bold declaration of affection as deep as the Grand Canyon and as moving as a rushing river after a hard rain. Charlie Wilson's backing vocals will give you goosebumps, as will the fact that Tyler can take your whole breath away with a song with exactly no rapping. The song is even more remarkable when you consider where we started with Okonma, as the vulnerability to plead with his beloved to the world not to leave him would've been unheard of a decade prior when Bastard hit Odd Future's Tumblr profile. This is Tyler's "Channel Orange," and it's just as extraordinary. By the end of it, you're emotionally spent and thoroughly stunned. It's a perfect album.
Economic Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Economic Times
Megan Byron's ‘formal statement' surfaces on social media. See what Astronomer CEO Andy Byron wife seems to have said about Coldplay Concert incident
A statement alleged to be written by Megan Byron, wife of Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, is circulating across social media following a viral Coldplay concert video involving Byron and colleague Kristin Cabot. The message, which addresses the incident in strong language, has not been officially confirmed. Its tone and timing, however, have stirred considerable public statement began surfacing shortly after a video clip from a Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium went viral. In the footage, Andy Byron was seen with his arm around colleague Kristin Cabot. The moment was broadcast on the venue's kiss cam and captured by multiple attendees. The footage showed Byron ducking and Cabot covering her face when the camera focused on them. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin joked, 'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy.' The clip was quickly shared across TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), where viewers identified both after, a lengthy post titled 'Formal Statement from Megan Byron' began appearing on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Though widely shared with Megan Byron's name and image, it has not appeared on any verified profile linked to statement, dated July 18, 2025, and signed off as "Wife of Andrew Byron—for now," strongly condemned her husband's behavior. It rejected ideas of public forgiveness or emotional reaction, instead referring to financial and emotional boundaries already established. The closing lines emphasized a tone of quiet action and separation. Despite its reach, no official confirmation has been made about whether the statement was actually authored or approved by Megan Read: Don't Tap the Glass Release: Tyler, The Creator's Album takes social media by storm, sparks meme fest. Here's complete track list, run time, reactions Megan Byron, also known as Megan Kerrigan, works in the education sector. She is the Associate Director of the Lower School and Hope Graham Program Admissions at Bancroft School in has remained largely silent in public. According to media reports, she deleted her Facebook account after the video surfaced. There was also online speculation that she removed the last name 'Byron' from her social media, though this remains and Andy Byron, both 50, live in Northborough, Massachusetts. They have two children and have mostly stayed away from the media opinion has been active across platforms, with many debating workplace boundaries and privacy. The viral video raised ethical questions as Byron is the CEO and Cabot serves as Chief People Officer at Astronomer. Cabot joined the company in released a statement confirming that both Byron and Cabot remain employed. The company stated that a formal internal investigation is underway and emphasized its commitment to core values and workplace standards. Also Read: World's Best International Airports: Who tops the list and why? Here's Top 10 list, rankings, Travel + Leisure 2025 survey criteria and points The moment occurred during Coldplay's concert tradition of highlighting audience members with a kiss cam. As Byron and Cabot appeared on screen, Martin's humorous comment drew recorded by audience members showed the pair standing closely and swaying to music. Byron was seen with his arm around Cabot, and their immediate reaction to the kiss cam added to the the video was shared online, users quickly identified the pair as senior executives at Astronomer. This led to widespread speculation about their relationship and Byron's alleged statement from Megan Byron only added to the ongoing conversation, though the lack of confirmation leaves room for further doubt and analysis. Was the statement by Megan Byron verified by any official source? No, the statement has not appeared on any verified account linked to Megan Byron and cannot be independently confirmed. What was Astronomer's response to the viral video? Astronomer confirmed that both employees remain at the company and stated a formal investigation is being conducted.
