⟵ BOYFRIEND, GIRLFRIEND • SORRY NOT SORRY
"SORRY NOT SORRY" is the closing track for The Estate Sale (2023), the deluxe version of Call Me If You Get Lost (2021). It is an introspective track that sees Tyler both embrace and work against an apology for his changed behavior as he's come to mainstream success. The song is known for its memorable music video, which features a version of Tyler killing the persona for every preceding album — from early ACE in Bastard (2009) to the Tyler Baudelaire of CMIYGL (2021). DJ Drama's ad-libs are heard at the beginning and end of the song.
Lyrics[]
Tyler starts the song's only verse with heartfelt apologies to his mother for becoming less connected over the years, to Odd Future for the group dissolving due to "egos [taking] the pen," to the guys he "had to hide," and to the girls he "had to lie to" in regards to his sexuality. The last line flows into "who ain't need to know if I was by the lake switchin' tides, too"; fans have pointed out that the "by" in that line could be a homophone to the word "bi," short for bisexuality. One of the last lines he raps (before he breaks into an aggressive voice) concerns fans "[making] up fibs, just to talk about [his] private life 'cause [they're] weird." This is believed to be in reference to the public's scrutiny on him and his supposed girlfriend Reign Judge, who was only 20 to him being 30 when CMIYGL was released.
After another vocal take cuts in complaining about him going on about trauma (seemingly as the Goblin character as implied in the video), Tyler's apologies start to come off as sarcastic. Although he respects peoples pronouns, he states that he doesn't mean any harm when he accidentally misgenders them when first meeting them. He also comments on car pollution but expresses his affinity for vehicles (akin to the Greta line from "GROUP B.")
Tyler builds on his car affinity as being one of the things that he's worked for in his rap career as another aggressive vocal take cuts in. The same vocal take touches on how Tyler, both in his music and in his public appearance, has moved on from the provocative imagery of his earlier career into the more mature and tame music of his newer music.
The last stretch of Tyler's verse has him get more and more built up about the subject matter. Although he finds pleasure in wearing expensive jewelry, he references blood diamonds, the types of diamonds that are sourced by extensive, brutal labor in Africa — which in turn is an allusion to his ancestry. The last several lines of the track has Tyler lashing out against his critics, who he pins as people who are insulting him merely because of his success. At the very end, he says he has two words, which turn out to be "fuck 'em" instead of the near-titular "I'm sorry."
Music video[]
The song's music video depicts a group of people (his mother, a fictional male love interest, a fictional female love interest, and others) watching a bunch of Tylers in some sort of nature-themed stage. Each of the Tylers represent an era of Tyler's discography: there is a character for Bastard, Goblin, Wolf, Cherry Bomb, Flower Boy, Igor, and Call Me If You Get Lost.
There is also one Tyler that is shown shirtless; this Tyler is not tied to any album and therefore can be seen as an "anti-Tyler" for reasons explained below. There is also some speculation that this is St. Chroma, the persona that Tyler created for Chromakopia, but this has not been confirmed.
Throughout the video, the camera focuses on some of the identifiable Tylers' faces as they rap the lyrics to the track. Slowly, the old Tylers start to disappear in the background, only for it to be revealed that the "anti-Tyler" has been dragging them off and beating them. By the time that it becomes apparent to the viewers that has been happening, the main Tyler (Tyler Baudelaire for CMIYGL) is the only one remaining and is beaten to death by the "anti-Tyler" as the song's outro plays.