2026 is shaping up to be the year Don Toliver makes the jump from playlist MVP to something bigger than hip-hop. To put it in perspective, Hits Daily Double has him sitting among the year’s highest-selling albums alongside Bad Bunny, Morgan Wallen, BTS, and Olivia Dean. Different genres. Different audiences. Same tier. Toliver isn’t just one of hip-hop’s most consistent hitmakers anymore. He’s breaking into the top of music, period.

And streaming tells the same story. Spotify reports Octane has already crossed the 1 billion mark, his first project to do so. It’s hard to call this a fluke, or a flash-in-the-pan moment. “When I saw it go No. 1, I was happy, bro. But it kind of felt inevitable,” he told us in our cover story interview from Hypebeast Magazine Issue 37. “The way everything was coming together, it just felt like great timing for me to put out a great piece of work.” That kind of confidence doesn’t come out of nowhere. It comes from hitting the studio and putting the work in.

“Early in my career, I just wasn’t as sure of myself. As good as it sounded,” he explained. “As time progressed and I bumped my head, I gained more and more confidence on the stage, in the studio, more confidence, period.” From “No Idea” to “After Party” to “Too Many Nights,” Toliver’s been building toward this. Octane is what it looks like when it all finally clicks.

In our wide-ranging interview, we spoke with Toliver about how the album came together. What started as a loose idea and a two- to three-week run in Miami at the top of 2025 turned into something much more deliberate by the time he reached Monterey. Creative camps, a new mind frame, and the pressure to deliver all amounted to one of 2026’s most infectious and highest-performing albums. With Octane the picture is clear, Don Toliver has no plans of letting his foot off the gas anytime soon.

Where did the idea for Octane start?

Don Toliver: The idea for the project stemmed from my love for motorsports, cars, and everything in that world. This one was geared more around Group B rally racing. I got infatuated with watching racers race and fans literally spectating right on the racetrack. I kind of felt like that was similar to how we are onstage. When things are going as crazy as they can get and the fans are just turned up, out of control in their own world, it feels like the same thing. You’re racing down there and you’ve got fans with cameras, all rowdy, and the engines are insane. It’s like you’re performing in front of them.

What inspired you to record part of the album at Mount Wilson Observatory?

I wanted to build my own installations [for the album], maybe a giant geodesic dome, but I was like, “That’s a lot of money and a lot of time.” So I ended up stumbling across Mount Wilson and started doing a lot of research on it, what it stood for, what [astronomy pioneer Edwin] Hubble did there. I started my own journey as an amateur astronomer while making the music. I got to make music there, spend time there, do a lot of photography and videography there. I blended all of that together to create this album.

Were there any sessions that really shaped the sound of the album?

When I got to Monterey [California], that’s where I got the structure for the album. Miami was a bunch of great music, but it didn’t have the drive yet.

By the time I got to Monterey, I knew what I wanted to do. I had the vehicles, I had the idea, I had the creative direction kind of in place. I just needed to make music in that mind frame. Once I got to Monterey, I had the actual vision, and the music kind of sculpted itself from there.

Where in the process did a song like “Sweet Home” come together?

“Sweet Home, “Body,” “Gemstone,” and “E85” were made in Monterey.

What was it about the environment in Monterey that pulled that energy out of the music?

It was just a serious camp. I had paid a lot of money to be at Castle Creek, the house where we recorded. It was a beautiful house. I paid a lot of producers. I built a studio within the house. When I get into modes like that, it puts another type of incentive in me.I don’t like to waste my time. I don’t like to waste people’s time. I don’t like to waste my money. So when I say I’m about to do a camp, I’m about to get serious.

When you’re in the studio, would you say your process is more intentional and calculated, or more driven by feeling?

Honestly, I’ve got to hear a beat. If I like the beat, I’ll get on it. Sometimes somebody might pull up and play the beat for me live in person and I’ll jump on it. Other times, I create the melody and make the beat myself and jump on it. But it all starts with hearing the beat.

Over your last few projects, you’ve worked with a pretty consistent circle of collaborators like Teezo Touchdown and 206Derek. Can you talk a little about the creative ecosystem you’ve built and the kinds of people you like to work with?

I just like to work with talented individuals. I feel comfortable with a lot of those guys I’ve worked with on these projects. My whole process with albums and collaborators is sometimes built off relationships, and sometimes it’s built off me just taking a liking to somebody. If I like somebody, I’ll try to reach out and do music with them. If it can be something for my next album, I’d love that. If it can’t, there’s no pressure. We always figure it out.

After Hardstone, you welcomed your first child. Did becoming a father affect how you approached Octane?

Yeah. I just had a lot on my back. This album, for me, was something I knew could change my life for the better and change my son’s life too, if I did what I needed to do. So I had the intention of doing what I needed to do because of him. There was a bigger story and a bigger piece unlocked within all of this.

Read our full cover story on Don Toliver here, and order the Houston hitmaker’s cover of Hypebeast Magazine #37: The Architects Issue on HBX.