Eight years don’t pass quietly. On Don’t Be Dumb, A$AP Rocky returns carrying the weight of a life lived in public — pushed releases, a coupling with Rihanna, three children, two criminal trials and a pivot into acting. Yet, through it all, Rocky remains one of cloud rap’s most celebrated architects. Since his 2011 mixtape debut LIVE.LOVE.A$AP, he’s brought atmospheric, reverbed productions to the mainstream. What resonates about Rocky is his ability to create without boxing himself into genre, continually experimenting in ways that feel both accessible and new. Tracks like “L$D” and “I Smoked Away My Brain,” alongside inventive cross-scene pairings with Imogen Heap, Skrillex and the A$AP Mob, cement a discography built on curiosity. But, unlike his previous works, Don’t Be Dumb isn’t a leap forward — instead, it returns to a restrained version of the experimentation that made him compelling in the first place.
The album’s real ambition lies in its visuals. Rocky teams with fantastical, gothic filmmaker and animator Tim Burton to craft a world of characters that appear on Don’t Be Dumb’s cover art and throughout the album’s music videos. He coins the aesthetic they’ve created “ghetto expressionism,” a warped fusion of “German Expressionism and ghetto futurism,” shaped by childhood obsessions with “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Vincent” and adult fixations on “Nosferatu” and “Metropolis.” Under Burton’s pen, Rocky’s personas fragment into Gr1m, Mr. Mayers, Rugahand, Babushka Boi, Dummy and Shirthead — all introduced in the “PUNK ROCKY” music video.
“PUNK ROCKY,” the album’s first single released on Jan. 5, is neither punk rock nor classic rap. It opens with an indie guitar riff and drums by Danny Elfman — famed composer and frequent Burton collaborator — layered over Tame Impala-esque kick drum beats and Rocky’s breezy, “Sundress”-style verses. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does frame Don’t Be Dumb as a possible reflection of Rocky’s past lo-fi style.
The second single, “HELICOPTER,” could not be more different. Its hectic, PlayStation 2-era graphics and Grand Theft Auto-inspired video leans fully into Rocky’s world-building, blending ’90s–2000s game aesthetics with Visual Effects-driven chaos. Elements of this imagery materialized last year at Rolling Loud Cali, where Rocky appeared dramatically suspended from a helicopter and performed behind a mic-ed podium. Visually, it’s political — nodding to courtroom symbolism, his public persona, government surveillance and control. While a filmic reminder of Rocky’s flair for spectacle, sonically, the track is repetitive and droning.
As he told Perfect Magazine, “Everything I do is based off building legacy. That’s why I’m not so eager to just drop, drop, drop.” Fans were primed for something audacious — a carefully calculated statement from an artist at the height of his creative powers.
Yet much of Don’t Be Dumb doesn’t sustain that ambition.
The feature list is solid but could have been wilder. Rocky scrapped collaborations with Ariel Pink, John Maus and Mac DeMarco after leaks last year, still referencing DeMarco on “AIR FORCE (BLACK DEMARCO)” without actually including him. Regardless, Don’t Be Dumb is a star-studded release, almost excessively pushing Rocky’s affinity for scale and celebrity.
There are standout moments. “ROBBERY” blends jazz and rap over a Thelonious Monk sample. Many “mwah”s from Doechii, many tired lines from Rocky. Still, it’s an interesting deviation from Rocky’s usual catalog. “THE END,” featuring Jessica Pratt and will.i.am is futuristic and nihilistic in its sound. It’s one of the few times on the album Rocky lands introspection; the haunting chorus warns of humanity’s collapse while verses tackle religion, racism, institutional decay and the climate crisis. “DON’T BE DUMB/TRIP BABY” — one of my favorite tracks on the album — samples Clairo’s “Sinking” but has a beat shift to a much less impressive second half. “STFU” is noise but in a good way. The background beat expertly melds gothic-wave arpeggiated synths, growling vocals and sounds of crashing glass.
Other tracks don’t fully impress. On “WHISKEY,” Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn contributes his signature far-away, distorted vocals, while literally all Westside Gunn provides is ad-libs (which is iconic for his music but feels unneeded here). “STOLE YA FLOW” is an admitted Drake diss that includes a funny jab at the rumor Drake got a Brazilian butt lift, but not much else.
Across the album, Don’t Be Dumb is grandiose. Rocky plays with visuals of excess — SWAT teams, helicopters, police, riots, upside-down American flags, fatherhood and animated alter egos that splinter his essence. Persona play isn’t new — Gorillaz, Tyler, the Creator, Kid Cudi and MF DOOM have all done it — but bringing them to life cinematically with Burton is. During his hiatus and on DBD, Rocky chased range: charting singles, acting in A24’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” (Mary Bronstein, “Yeast”) collaborating with Spike Lee. Yet, these ventures feel like shadows of the music that first defined him. The artistry is palpable, the world-building is bold, but the music rarely keeps pace.
Rocky dubs himself “Him Burton,” a self-mythologizing nod to the craft he’s been honing for over a decade. I still remember the first time I heard “Jukebox Joints” on the electric AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP — his music made me, and countless others, rethink what rap could be. Since the 2010s, we’ve known him as “that pretty motherfucker” with inventive flows, bold production choices and brash confidence. Time away has made reclaiming that excellence an arduous task; Don’t Be Dumb captures an artist wrestling with the weight of expectation as much as with sound itself.
The album leaves you wondering: How does a generational artist sustain risk after eight years of anticipation? And can pageantry alone keep Rocky’s “legacy” alive if the sound no longer feels revolutionary?
Daily Arts Writer Esha Nair can be reached at eshanair@umich.edu.
