Tyler, the Creator and Steve Lacy have both entered album rollout mode in the last two weeks, but what exactly have they put out, and what can we take away from the updates we have so far?

For Best Progressive R&B Album Grammy winner Steve Lacy, fans have been treated to a flurry of Instagram posts since Oct. 7. It is not the first time Steve Lacy has frantically used his social media to communicate to fans, and this time he has been heavily teasing the drop of a new album. Lacy has been posting memes, photos of him at the studio, and potential features like Thundercat and Solange. All of these posts carry the undertones of an album coming soon.

For Steve Lacy, it has been over two years since his last musical release, the last time being the drop of the widely acclaimed Gemini Rights in July 2022. When it comes to album releases, Lacy’s teasing attitude has been met with impatient anticipation by the fanbase. Since October 7th, Lacy has posted 70 times on his Instagram account, and many of the comments under each post are questions demanding him to reveal when the album is coming. 

Given that Steve Lacy has yet to disclose an album title or cover, I would say we are pretty early in this rollout. 

On the other hand, there is an imminent and definite album rollout in the case of Tyler, the Creator. Tyler posted a teaser music video to Instagram and Youtube entitled St. Chroma on Oct. 15. Since then, Tyler has announced the new album Chromakopia, which fans can expect to come out Oct. 28.

Since the release of Bastard in 2009, Tyler consistently put out an album every other year until 2021. In 2023, Tyler released bonus tracks for his Grammy winning album Call Me If You Get Lost. This time around fans have had to wait an extra year for a new full length album, based on his closely studied album release pattern.

It has already been a great year for musical releases, with albums from Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Bladee, Clairo, and Charli XCX only rounding out the first three letters of the alphabet. Still, the promise of albums from serial award-winners Steve Lacy and Tyler the Creator might spell out trouble for artists who thought they had the hottest release of the year.