Hey, buddy, did you hear the news? It's track reviews. Tyler, the Creator, is not going quietly into 2026, apparently. Everyone, Anthony Fantano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a track review because on Christmas, Tyler saw fit to gift us with a brand new track/freestyle. This "Sag Harbor" freestyle, apparently, is hanging out on Long Island. The heck is he doing over there? I don't know, maybe the freestyle will tell us. Before we give it a listen, though, I am curious as to whether or not this is him signaling that he's going to have a busy 2026, because it wasn't that long ago when he kicked off a transition into the new year with a freestyle, too. And 2025 was pretty active for Tyler as well. Chromacopia wasn't even out for an entire year, and he decided to come through with Don't Tap the Glass, which for sure is not his most beloved album, but I thought it was very punchy, very enjoyable, some decent summer jams on there, even if it's a record that wasn't consciously as epic or as conceptual or personally as deep and revealing as some of his recent work, be it Igor, be it, again, Chromacopia, so on and so forth.

"Sag Harbor," let's see what it's got. Here we go. Boom. Boom. Okay, this definitely lived up to being a "Sag Harbor" freestyle. We're talking about the Hamptons. We're talking about Martha's Vineyard, Tyler chilling in these ritzy places, but seemingly also not chilling because we're dropping more music, and he's rapping about how he needs some relaxation and a vacation, which I suppose It was makes this very summery, dreamy, beachy instrumental. From what I can see, it's based off of this old-school '80s smooth soul loop. Yeah, it's a pretty good setting, and Tyler gives it this pretty much drumless presentation. Very surprised to see Tyler on the drumless wave on this freestyle, and honestly, vocally, he sounds pretty good on it. Wouldn't mind hearing him do more of this stuff in the future, but maybe with just a touch more structure, that sort of thing, because with that being said, obviously, again, this is a freestyle. The whole vibe is pretty loose. The pen is diaristic, not heading in any super-specific or conceptual direction. But still, a lot of the bars on this track essentially paint a picture of where Tyler's head is at currently and how good his game lyrically is right now.

Because with each passing year and project, seemingly, at least to my ears, it sounds like he's getting better just when it comes to his abilities as a wordsmith, and also just conveying his sense of humor in his rhymes, too. The Blink-182 Travis Barker reference is funny. Not getting these dudes green, switching to an iPhone is like, pow. And no doubt there are going to be a lot, lot, lot of people coming away from this track with their jaws, at least a little bit dropped over this, 'She's sponging my Plankton off of her, it's making her crabby' reference, which is the exact perfect combo of wit, crudeness, and arrested development that you would expect from Tyler, the Creator. It's essentially his brand at this point. Tyler really seems to be getting more comfortable with where he sees himself in hip hop currently, and also in the greater canon as well. This was also becoming super apparent on his "P.O.V." verse with Clipse on their recent record. Here, again, he's making a reference to Clipse, 'grindin like it's '02,' and further into the track, basically saying that his idols are becoming his rivals. He's reaching that level in his own mind, which I think is actually saying something.

Sure, there are lots of rappers you could point to who are out here saying they're the best. And sure, while a lot of fans could make a very compelling case that Tyler isn't the number one rapper and artist in hip hop right now, he's been nothing, if not self-aware of where he fits into the culture around the music for years now, which is a tone that was set by many established hip hop blogs not accepting him off the bat, and Odd Future for that matter, when they were trying to get their start in the early 2010s. So for a long time, Tyler has had this outsider energy and this understanding that he's not exactly on a mainstream track. He's not progressing up a traditional commercial ladder, and yet, through all of his consistency and success, he has somehow found himself in a place where he is actually making some of the best rap records every year that he drops. And he continues to do very impressive, very organic numbers, and as he references in a bar on this song, doing better ticket sales than some artists who have much larger monthly listener numbers than he does.

Because I think if Tyler's success continues to display anything, it's the difference between actual and inflated fame in the music industry currently, because there continue to be a lot of names and faces and artists in every aspect of the entertainment world today, whose success, the vision of that success, seems very borrowed, whereas with Tyler, it's been grown into over a lengthy period of time. Again, that brings me back to my original point, because this claiming that Tyler is one of the greatest comparable in terms of artistry and success to some of the greatest names and voices in hip hop music, this isn't something that he's always been saying. This is a feeling he's been adopting more and more in recent years. And the consistency of his catalog and the improvements in his verses speak for themselves, in my opinion, as he really is living up to these claims for the most part. I think there may be some fans who are maybe not as huge on this more recent era of Tyler, who might interpret this track as, 'Oh, he's just flexing again and ever since, Call Me, he's just been flexing how successful he is constantly.'

While I do agree, this is definitely connected to that in terms of, like, it's a part of his progression. I don't think we could have gotten here, if not for what he did on Call Me If You Get Lost. What he's doing on this track feels a bit more mature and steady and confident in itself in terms of, again, it's wittier references and bars, the way his sense of humor crops up, the very confident, low-key energy that isn't going out of its way to try too hard or act out of desperation to prove itself. Yeah, overall, I would say very good freestyle, enjoying it a lot. And again, just shows the amount of effort and focus Tyler puts into even these little musical sidequests that he jumps into occasionally. It's as much effort, if not more, than what we see a lot of artists put into their core album tracks every year, which, when you're operating on that level so consistently, you're going to break through the noise. All right, those are going to be my thoughts on that. Let me know yours in the comments. I'm sure you will. Over here, next to my head, is another video you can check out.

Hit that up or the link to subscribe to the channel. Anthony Fantano, Tyler, the Creator, "Sag Harbor," forever.