Variety, spontaneity, and raw passion are the immediate emotions evoked by A$AP ROCKY’s newest project; “Don’t Be Dumb”. His first album in 8 years is a culmination of all that is, was, and will be A$AP ROCKY.

“Don’t Be Dumb” is one of the most complete projects that I’ve had the pleasure of listening to in recent memory, not just musically; but visually.

With album art by the iconic Tim Burton setting up the tone for an experimental and touching album, and although Burton wasn’t involved in the directing of the music videos, they feel reminiscent of Burton’s macabre satirical films.

Thematically it stays true to not only the tone set by the album art and edgy experimental stylings, but the aesthetic that ROCKY has fostered of a search for innovation and improvement in a genre that’s mainstream tends to go through periods of stagnation.

The highlight for me both musically and visually was “PUNK ROCKY”, the most cinematic visualizer featuring Winona Ryder (a Tim Burton film regular).

Besides Ryder, this album boasts features from both long-time industry collaborators like Tyler The Creator, Westside Gunn, will.i.am and the Gorillaz as well as highlighting newer artists like BossMan Dlow, Doechii and Brent Faiyaz.

This album is honestly one of the few times that I’ve felt that an egregious rollout time (8 years of anticipation) was worth the product; ROCKY spared no creative detail, didn’t allow his fans to rush him and kept his lack of album releases supplemented by singles and fashion collabs throughout the years to ensure that we never fully forgot that ROCKY was working, and an icon.

Obviously, I have nothing but rave reviews to provide this album, but let’s get into the songs that truly moved boundaries and did so while being completely entertaining and uncompromising.

The first track that felt like an open and welcome defiance of ROCKY’s norms was the aforementioned “PUNK ROCKY”. This song brings ROCKY into a new environment.

Almost a pop or soft rock hit, ROCKY provides ethereal vocals and funky guitar and drum hits all together in a track that is reminiscent of Kenny Mason’s early body of work.

The other track was “WHISKEY (RELEASE ME)”. A jazz rap track that starts out melodic and transitions into unrelenting ad-libs and flow from ROCKY.

ROCKY manages to kill a track that somehow combines the types of beats that I’m used to hearing from young Nudy with a track that we’d expect Westside Gunn on and, surprise surprise he is on; providing a beautiful outro of his classic adlibs.

This feels more like an homage from ROCKY rather than a safeguard against over-stepping into Gunn’s musical realm, but either way it’s great to see this type of collaboration as ROCKY moves into a seemingly new era musically.

The last track that felt like a stand-out was “ROBBERY”, not the craziest as far as experimentation but an all-rounder from both ROCKY and the featured artist Doechii. Fast delivery, creative bars, and a very complimentary combination of musical stylings.

Overall, nothing on this album left me wanting; executed to perfection is the only way that “Don’t Be Dumb” can be described.

The only things that left me wanting were what didn’t make it on, a feature from Denzel Curry Would’ve been great, maybe exploring the stylings of “PUNK ROCKY” and “WHISKEY” more, perhaps playing it too safe when it came to creating a story with the track progression. But I’m going to choose to take it as a sign of more experimentation and opportunities to be explored in the future (Just hopefully not another 8 years in the future).

I give Don’t Be Dumb a 9.8/10, go give it a listen for yourself.