Hi, everyone. Dumbthony Dumbtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of the new A$AP Rocky album, Don't Be Dumb.

Here we have the new, fourth, long-awaited, full-length album from New York rapper, actor, songwriter, conceptualizer A$AP Rocky – a record that has been in the making for years... For years and years. In fact, Rocky said this thing was done back in 2022, and yet, the gap between this and his last official album Testing almost spanned a decade. So clearly, Rocky is not working up to the pace of many of his contemporaries who have very much surpassed him commercially in recent years.

But still, you can't take away from the fact that Rocky very much gave us what was a cultural reset in the early 2010s with his classic cloud rap mixtape, LIVE.LOVE.A$AP. Then, he effortlessly dished out some commercial smashes on his official debut album a few years later. But as good as that record was and as promising as Rocky's career seemed to be at this point in time, he was spreading himself thin early on. Because, not only was he sculpting his own sound and career, but he was also trying to turn the team he came up with into a larger force in music and entertainment assignment, the A$AP Mob.

In the early 2010s, rap clicks and collectives were very much back in style, but very few of them had the talent and vision to garner long term interest outside of their core members. This was very much true for the mob as well, who additionally had to struggle with numerous members and affiliates moving on and putting their focus elsewhere.

Some pretty key members of the A$AP Mob also passed away tragically over the years, too — be it A$AP Yams or Chynna —and there have even been internal tensions within the collective, which recently boiled over into a pretty crazy court case that ended last year and had A$AP Relli accusing A$AP Rocky of shooting him. (Now, A$AP Rocky was obviously found not guilty, but you have to wonder what something like that does to long-term friendships and creative partnerships.)

However, all this stuff is not even half, I would say, of what has been eating up Rocky's time and bandwidth over the past 10 years. He entered into a very public relationship with Rihanna, became a father two times over, was arrested and stuck over in Sweden for a considerable amount of time. He also spent time branching out creatively into film and fashion and had multiple collaborations and recording sessions for songs that ultimately didn't end up making this album — some of which leaked, some of which dropped officially, but again, didn't make the cut here. Also for a while, it was rumored a none other than Morrissey was going to be on this record, but he didn't end up on this thing. (Bullet dodged there!)

Yeah, the timeline this record could have existed in...

The idea that Rocky might be venturing into some unexpected or weird territory on this record is no real surprise because his last album, Testing, seemed to mostly be dictated by this restless need to experiment. It seems like Rocky didn't want fans to expect anything too predictable out of this project either. Because, I mean, just look at the single to this thing, "Punk Rocky", which at the very least does live up to the promise of being a rock track. Although, I wouldn't frame it as punk as much as I would very reverb-y, bland, Brooklyn indie rock from 2010 — the sorts of forgettable, bland music blog darlings that A$AP Rocky was a very refreshing alternative to at the time. And while I didn't really like it all that much, I guess at least he's not just rehashing his breakout mixtape sound, I guess.

In terms of how this album might sound, there wasn't really too much more to go off other than a handful of leaks and some other tracks that didn't end up making it onto the final record, like the song "Tailor Swif", which originally came attached to this incredible, mind-blowing music video that, if it came out today, you would think it was made entirely by AI given all the zany shit going on throughout it. There was also a "Highjack" featuring Jessica Pratt, which I loved. I wish it actually ended it up on this album, but Jessica Pratt does end up on the closing track, "THE END", to Don't Be Dumb, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Overall, I'm not really sure if Don't Be Dumb is going to be enough to bring Rocky back to the cultural prominence he once had in the early 2010s. The album isn't quite that good, I would say, but it's still a decent return to form and proof that Rocky can still put together a competent set of bangers when he wants to, as well as some of the most lyrically focused songs he's dropped in years.

Don't Be Dumb does start off on a weak foot, in my opinion, with "ORDER OF PROTECTION", a song that lyrically feels very much like an explanation or a mea culpa for having been gone for so long. While it's assuring that Rocky is back for sure, could this have not been set to a bolder hook, or at least a beat that doesn't sound like I'm attending a funeral? Isn't this album an experience I'm supposed to be excited about? Thankfully, the momentum on this record picks up pretty quickly and stays high throughout much of the first half.

The song "HELICOPTER", in my opinion, is much more like it: a twisted trap banger with crisp claps, rolling-style cowbells, siren synths, and a beefy bass line. It's simple but effective. Rocky continues to have slick bars, flows, unparalleled charisma for days.

Then, "STOLE YA FLOW" is a track that he previewed in the midst of the Kendrick-Drake beef of 2024. It was his own track dedicated to Champagne Papi — who, around this time, was originally framing this battle, this beef, as a 20 v. 1 because Metro Boomin' and Future's track "Like That" with Kendrick opened up the floodgates and essentially made it okay for others to step in and start taking their own jabs, too. In my opinion, few were more justified in doing so than Rocky. There are literally Twitter threads dedicated to every single time in a lyric, a demo, a performance, whatever, Drake has bitterly brought up A$AP Rocky and Rihanna due to the fact that she doesn't want to have anything to do with him anymore. Some of these mentions came as recently as 2024 and have been pretty constant over the years, as well as increasingly weird. So don't let the biased weirdos on social media or in the music media, convince you that this track from Rocky is just coming out of nowhere.

Lyrically, on this one, Rocky is pretty focused, getting in his digs about Drake's cosmetic surgery, bombing at Tyler, the Creator's Flognaw, biting Rocky's style, being an absent father. And of course, he's with the woman Drake is very obsessed with: Rihanna. He's got to bring that up, and it's all set to a very nightmarish beat. While I think it's a good track — one of the most solid here — in a way, I do think Rocky let Drake off easy. But, given where Rocky and Drake are right now, I don't know if he needed to do much more.

Now, interestingly from here, the record lightens up a bit in terms of mood and attitude. We get "STAY HERE 4 LIFE", which is very much a track that's about falling in love. It's a cute, little pop rap number with some super bright, smooth feature vocals from Brent Faiyaz — or at least they're said to be. Truth be told, Rocky has been guarded coming out of the gate with the full feature and production list behind this album. Though, it's been said the keys on this track or sampled straight from Ken Carson's "mewtwo" track. Clairo may have even recently posted on her Instagram story, confirming that one of her songs is actually sampled in the title track of the record.

One of the few true credits on the record actually just comes on the front cover with Rocky shouting out none other than Tim Burton, who had a very clear hand in the visual direction of this album, along with some of the music video visuals, too. I'm sure Danny Elfman came as a bit of a package deal with Timmy as he was recently spotted even performing with Rocky during his SNL visit.

Either way, this track is an incredibly sweet moment on the album, and it's just about a love that's getting very serious, very devoted, exclusive. I love that Rocky is able to get these feelings and emotions across while giving us an instrumental and a style that is so indebted to chopped and screwed, to just Southern hip-hop in general. Again, I just love how these sorts of sounds and touchstones remain to be a major influence on him, regardless of what era he is in his career.

The song "PLAYA" very much doubles down on these lovey-dovey vibes, too. The song essentially serves to dispel rumors around Rocky being a player in the first place and features a glistening, groovy beat. It's like his own LL Cool J "I Need Love" moment.

Things get grim and dark once again with "NO TRESPASSING", which is like some grimy, murderous ear candy. Following this, we have another highlight on the record, "STOP SNITCHING", which is actually pretty focused — it's really Rocky's own take on the topic and maybe makes sense given the recent trial he had to go through. Instrumentally, the track gives off some devilish Houston vibes with a huge beat, woozy keys, distant horns, too, and what's said to be a Sauce Walka feature where... dude, that guy gets completely unhinged here.

Now, the second half of the the record, comparatively speaking, is actually much more experimental and out there than the first. It seems like nearly every track on this section of the record is trying to subvert people's expectations in some way, but they really range in quality, focus, and whether or not they come across genuinely interesting or weird.

First off, we have the track "STFU", which is this industrial noise rap banger that dare I say at some points sounds a little Death Grips-coded. It features some freaky, aggressive, loud, over-the-top features, chaotic sounds coming at you from every direction. But, what I think keeps it from really hitting the mark is that it doesn't develop all that much over the course of its lifetime. Rocky maybe raps on the track just a bit too normally: for a song that's so insane and over the top, he just wants to sound way too cool, calm, and collected in it.

Then we also have "AIR FORCE (BLACK DEMARCO)", which, I do think there is something to the very synthy, repetitive, almost rage-influenced rap passages and also the super pillowy, indie ballad sections. But together, they come across as very oil and water and Rocky maybe could have fixed that by coming up with an effective transition from one moment to the next.

The track "WHISKEY" does feel like Rocky is doing his best efforts to be that curator that we know and love — curator of vibes, of good interesting guests on an LP. Because, while Westside Gunn's vocals, as well as Damon Albarn's (or Gorillaz's 2D's vocals), are very prominently featured on this track, they don't really do much in this song other than provide a bit of filler and background noise when their input, their creativity here, could have been so much greater. Like, the song "ROBBERY" featuring Doechii – it's a really cool, theatrical lounge jazz number with hand drums, upright bass, cocktail hour pianos, and whispery rapped vocals from Rocky, like him and Doechii are sneaking into the event. Doechii's bars come across really seductive and smart before she and Rocky just decide to start robbing the place. It's a very interesting concept and one of the best here, to say the least.

On the two-part title track to this record, Rocky continues to explore his softer side and more blissful instrumentation. And while an eventual beat switch does keep things interesting, I think I would have much rather heard him bring the original idea of this track to a really ambitious conclusion rather than just throwing whatever at the wall.

Thankfully, from here, though, we get a pretty strong closer, which, while I don't think the vague notions of what's wrong with the world right now come across from Rocky all that sharp in his lyrics, I do very much echo the song's sentiments that does really feel like socially and culturally, we are at a breaking point right now. End times sorts of vibes for sure, with some very eerie refrains of, "This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends," as sung by a kid, with Jessica Pratt eventually following up on the back end of the song. It's a cool, strange, unnerving and linear progression that finishes off the album right.

This record was a bit of a roller coaster. It had many hard-hitting, catchy standout moments, but then some misfires, too. At the very least, the misfire saw Rocky taking risks and trying new things. What I'm hoping from here is that this is really Rocky coming back to us and just getting things booted up once again, reminding us he can still make a project that's worth hyping up and talking about when he decides to do it.

I hope he decides with an even more impressive work sometime in the near future, because, while Don't Be Dumb was certainly a respectable project, was it worth the entirety of this wait? I don't know about that. This is why I'm feeling about a light 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano. A$AP Rocky. Forever.