Growth proves fitting to A$AP Rocky on ‘Don’t Be Dumb’
A plethora of established artists and multi-genre switch ups can please all on A$AP Rocky’s long-awaited return.
★★★☆☆
Photo: Press
The past few years have hovered in a kind of limbo for A$AP Rocky, balancing newfound fatherhood with the world’s scrutiny following his felony assault trial. Yet he emerged unshaken, navigating a departure from music to explore ventures in fashion, film, and other creative industries.
These side projects have kept him firmly in the public eye, slowly building anticipation that now culminates in his fourth studio album, Don’t Be Dumb. This arrives after an eight-year gap from 2018’s Testing, which, true to name, saw A$AP Rocky swerve away from his cloud-rap roots in favour of a more experimental palette, steeped in vintage hip-hop textures.
On Don’t Be Dumb, Rakim Mayers doubles down on that restlessness, pushing even further than his last outing by adopting a boldly multi-genre approach across the album’s stacked fifteen-track runtime. Jumping assertively from chaotic trap to unexpected detours through punk and jazz, Mayers proves that his swagger approach to revamping his sound allows him to ease away from the demographic while still retaining the same cultural pull that first defined him.
First hinting at a new record back in 2023, Mayers dropped Highjack, Tailor Swif, and Ruby Rosary, each intended as singles for the forthcoming album. However, he later backtracked, citing leaks and a desire to challenge himself with a fresh approach, extending the wait even further.
By late 2025, an announcement of an album cover designed by Tim Burton and the release of singles PUNK ROCKY and HELICOPTER had quieted doubts, signalling that Don’t Be Dumb was finally ready to command attention.
Lead single PUNK ROCKY pulls a complete departure for Mayers, cosplaying an indie rock record rather than its commercial rap appearance, embracing a punk-infused rap sound that’s only just beginning to bleed into the mainstream.
Built around a psychedelic rock-leaning instrumental, the track switches between heavily reverbed, hazy vocals and bursts of short, aggressive bars, capturing the album’s restless energy.
This departure of sound proves both visionary and underwhelming, with experimentation being nothing new for Mayers, but the simplicity of the lyrical delivery and content strikes as surprising, undermining the ambition of the sound itself.
The rollout was equally ambitious, with a music video stacked with cameo appearances from Winona Ryder, Thundercat and Danny Elfman, alongside an album feature list that bridges generations, pairing icons like Gorillaz and will.i.am with upcoming heavyweights such as Doechii and Tyler, the Creator.
Second single HELICOPTER leans closer to familiar territory, showcasing Mayers’ perfected craft of this sound. Mayers poses boastful yet reflective on his gradual gain of wealth while flexing his impact on trends and culture over a busy trap beat defined by its relentless forward motion.
The track’s thematic core is unmistakably preposterous, circling around images of excess with Mayers cruising in an all-pink Mercedes and spinning it “like a helicopter.”
The trap influence persists on STOLE YA FLOW with echoed ad-libs giving the track an aggressive edge, but unlike its predecessor, the track’s bass and driving flow verge on overstimulation, with the overall sound struggling to cohere its message across its chaos.
Don’t Be Dumb seemingly separates itself by periods of inconsistency and mastery with continuous cycles of overstimulating or unadventurous slumps paired next to Mayers’ strategic genre switches and lyrical precision.
PLAYA returns a sense of lyrical coherence as Mayers explores the emotional resonance of fatherhood and monogamy, reflecting on his former rebel lifestyle with a clear preference for the stability and intimacy of his current life, describing himself as a “Playa,” despite stereotypical belief.
Mayers leans even further into the experimental on the latter half of the record, with tracks defined by relentless shifts between disparate genres and daring production choices.
Whether it’s Mayers and Doechii’s smoky, jazz aesthetic on ROBBERY or the Yeezus-inspired acid techno synths on AIR FORCE (BLACK DEMARCO), the adventurous sonic ambition underlining the album’s latter songs packs the most punch, delivering some of Don’t Be Dumb’s most memorable moments.
These stylistic choices carry through to the album’s clear highlight, the self-titled DON’T BE DUMB / TRIP BABY. A clear throwback to Rocky’s psychedelic dream-rap era on LSD and I Smoked Away My Brain, the track grabs his stoner audience by the throat, weaving hazy production with lyrics of longing and desire: “Right about now, I’d do anything just to see your face.”
Ultimately, it’s unclear whether the consistency of Don’t Be Dumb can restore A$AP Rocky to the cultural prominence he once commanded in the 2010s but, with an eight-year gap between records, any comeback would surely be classed as a tall order.
Nevertheless, the album impresses, showcasing some of Mayers’ most compelling lyrical work since his breakout. While the sequencing falters in places and a few tracks feel skippable, Don’t Be Dumb contains enough inventive moments to reaffirm Rocky as an essential figure in the rap scene.
Even the album’s features, though limited in contribution, feel crucial through their seamless fusing of songs and smoothing transitions between genres. Above all, Rocky’s ambition to craft something adventurous remains striking as he could have easily played it safe, sticking to familiar sounds, yet he consistently pushes his music into uncharted territory.
Don’t Be Dumb is out now via A$AP Rocky Recordings.
