Tyler, the Creator album 'Don't Tap the Glass' release overshadowed by viral AI slop

Photo Credit: Apple Music (‘Don’t Tap the Glass’ album cover)

Tyler, the Creator’s ninth studio album, Don’t Tap the Glass, was set up for a massive summer impact. But the album release has been overshadowed by an AI song with the same name on TikTok.

Teasers for the album included cryptic social media posts, a striking glass box art installation at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center, and a promotional push that fueled online speculation about the album and potential collaborators. In the days leading to its July 21st release, Tyler orchestrated a listening party in Los Angeles, banning phones and cameras to keep the album secret.

Despite the carefully managed roll out, the conversation around the album has quickly shifted away from the music itself. On July 20th, a day before Don’t Tap the Glass dropped, opportunists flooded platforms like YouTube and TikTok with an AI-generated track called “Don’t Tap the Glass.”

A viral track created by YouTuber Cloudian used the album title to generically loop the phrase “don’t tap the glass” over simple chords that are reminiscent of 2010s schlocky pop. Tyler, the Creator fans searching for the album on social media were greeted with hundreds of videos using this AI song rather than the real album.

As TikTok is wont to do, the meme song exploded as ironic clips of the AI song gained traction. The fake song held the #2 spot for music under “Don’t Tap The Glass” on Spotify for a brief period, with the AI slop song clogging up TikTok search results with videos featuring edits of popular reviewers weeping or dancing to the AI track.

This virality underscores a real risk for today’s artists—album teasers meant to built hype for a new release can be hijacked by AI scammers to capitalize on the buzz. In this case, anticipation for a track called “Don’t Tap the Glass” enabled a wave of fake leaks that quickly went viral. Notably, the AI song went viral not because it fooled listeners into thinking it was Tyler’s actual work, but because it was so comically unconvincing that it became a meme to share.

“‘Don’t Tap the Glass’ fake AI leak is gonna go down in history I think,” one TikToker wrote under a popular video featuring the AI track. “Heard that more than the actual album.”

As AI tools proliferate, titles, snippets, and even snippets of unreleased music can be weaponized as engagement bait, muddying the waters for fans and artists alike. From Tyler’s perspective, an album about reclaiming joy and the moment ironically became collateral damage in the ever-shifting minefield of chasing digital clout.