Tyler, the Creator “just wanted to be silly again” on Don’t Tap The Glass.
After 2024’s Chromakopia dealt with some heavy topics, from his struggles with his hair to his relationship with his father, Tyler wanted to have “some fun” and cut the “deep s***”.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, he said: “It was being silly, just fun again. Because CHROMAKOPIA was so like, for me… That I’m not saying it’s the most mature, deep s***. Everyone has different lives. But for me, whether it’s me talking about my relationship with my hair and how that’s affected me, or me almost being a father last year, or the relationship that I have with my father now, just so many things that I decided to dive deep into. After the weight of that got off, I just wanted to be silly again.
“And, if you listen to the end of Rah Tah Tah, and the end of Noid, and some of Sticky, and even a I Hope You Find Your Way Home verse, just like low-key, my LA accent just really popped in through there. And I was just being silly, just having fun again. And I was like, ‘Oh, for this, man, I just want to get back to that, no deep album cuts, no slow emotional s***, no f****** this is where my… I just want to be fun and say outrageous s*** and say s*** that… inside jokes that me and my friends laugh at, and just talk big fly s***. That was the goal. That was the main 100 per cent goal.”
He continued: “Like, on there, I keep saying, ‘Get your funky a** in that tub, b****.’ I keep saying that because it’s this funny video on Instagram I found of this little girl playing with her doll, saying it, and it’s the funniest thing to me. And I’m like, ‘Oh, that spirit was the base of the early stuff that I made.’ And it was just fun doing that again, and not trying to be good, and precious, and make the most innovative music. Like, bro, over it. No intros, no outros, no bridges. Get to the f****** point. Get to the hook. Get to the verse. No beat switches, no f******… I’m over it, bro.”
The album has been categorised as dance music after Tyler hailed it music for “body movement”, but it’s not your standard dance record.
He explained: “It’s a weird thing because, like bro, I be so open and loud about the s*** I love and that inspire me and this and that, blah blah blah. And I think sometimes the problem is it doesn’t go through people’s filter, and that’s when it gets weird. Listen, man, this album, for example, DON’T TAP THE GLASS, I never called it a dance album. It’s just some s*** that I would love people to dance to because it’s music that I will want to dance my body to. And that’s all type of dance music on there. Some people hear the idea dance music, and they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s techno or deep house, or it’s this certain sound.’ Bro, if you grew up with black folk, Ring Ring Ring is another one.”
Tyler added: “Bro, if you grew up in the South and you know New Orleans Bounce, Don’t Tap That Glass is New Orleans Bounce. Don’t You Worry, Baby, that’s Atlanta bass, that’s Miami bass. But some of these folks, they didn’t grow up within that culture. So, I’ll Take Care of You” someone could say, That’s a UK jungle record. And some people might be like, You can’t dance to that, but that’s dance music. Sucka Free, if you grew up in Los Angeles with n***** in Dickies and White Tees and Chucks, with the blower on them, you know that is a two-step record that mother****** Daz Dillinger would f******…do you feel me? But that’s all my interpretation of dance music or a music that you could dance to.
So, I think it has to go through your filter, and a lot of folks, sometimes it doesn’t go through their filter. It do be control-C, control-V, da da da. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s such a weird f****** thing, dude. It’s such a weird thing. I don’t even know how to speak on it because it’s so… that is the strongest, buffest, like, ‘I work out, eat protein,’ gray area.”
Listen to the full interview anytime on demand with an Apple Music subscription.