The start of 2026 has been huge for music releases. In fact, many of these projects have come from artists who have been on hiatus with music drops. These include the long-awaited “Don’t Be Dumb” by A$AP Rocky and “The Romantic” by Bruno Mars, which comes out in February.
However, one of these large album drops was hyped since last year: the newest project by Houston-born hip-hop rapper/singer Don Toliver, “Octane.”
With this being his fifth studio album, Toliver has already demonstrated his talents as a rapper in today’s musical landscape. After being co-signed by Grammy-nominated rapper Travis Scott, he has already put out three studio albums under Scott’s label, Cactus Jack.
His previous album, 2024’s “Hardstone Psycho,” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart on June 29th, marking the first time in his career he has achieved this. In addition, he accumulated 76,500 equivalent album sales in his first week.
In 2025, he released a song for F1: The Movie titled “Lose My Mind”, which features Los Angeles rapper Doja Cat. Along with this, he released the single “Tiramasu” in September and featured on a couple of tracks on “Jackboys 2,” a collaboration album by artists from Cactus Jack.
On July 25th, Toliver would go on Fault Magazine to announce a new album on the way. The album was originally planned for a 2025 release.
“Octane” starts off with a bang. The title track, “E85,” hits hard right from the start with a heavy instrumental and Don Toliver’s signature vocals. It is a great opening track for the album all around.
The second track, titled “Body,” samples Justin Timberlake’s classic song “Rock Your Body.” Unlike his previous project, which drew inspiration from hard-hitting rock, “Octane” is a more archetypal Toliver outing, using more melodic, sample-heavy sound.
As for the features, they are few and far between. In contrast to his last project, it seems Toliver wants the audience to focus on him with this album. The five features are the aforementioned Travis Scott, Yeat, Rema, singer/rapper Teezo Touchdown and SahBabiil.
Each feature brings a different flavor to the album, but the one that shines the most is Travis Scott’s verse on the track “Rosary.” The best part is that both he and Don Toliver blend so well and have such chemistry together, making this a standout.
Other highlights on the album include the track “Gemstone,” which starts off strong with a powerful, brassy instrumental and it keeps the momentum going with heavy synths and bass. Another excellent song later in the album is “Pleasure’s Mine,” which is very diverse in style.
Overall, the album can be described with one word: “vibes.” It starts off strong with many tracks likely to be hits for Don Toliver, but as the LP progresses, some tracks sound the same, with a few deep cuts as mentioned before.
One could say this album is reminiscent of Lil Tecca’s most recent project, “Dopamine,” known for its short songs and few features. Unfortunately, this is not Toliver’s best album; in my opinion, “Hardstone Psycho” goes harder overall.
But if you do enjoy him, this is definitely one of the better albums in his catalog and you certainly get a fine listen out of this.
