A$AP Rocky, a return between rap, punk, Winona Ryder and Tim Burton
The countdown to the new album by A$AP Rockythis time, it seems really real. “Don’t Be Dumb”, the album that follows “Testing”, is expected on January 16th and marks a particularly significant comeback: Rocky’s last official album dates back to 2018, and they’ve moved on since then years of silenceslateral experiments, leaks, collaborations and profound changes, both artistic and personal. A long time, which weighs heavily and which inevitably raises expectations. The first official taste is the single “Punk Rocky”, a song that immediately clarifies one thing: Rocky has no intention of chasing radio formulas or easy trajectories. The piece moves on a riff dream pop overloaded, almost hypnotic, crossed by an obvious punk soulmore attitudinal than declared.
It’s a sideways rap track, deliberately uneven and crookedwhich also opens up to European suggestions and a certain UK tone to it Slowthaiconfirming the desire to push outside the most canonical boundaries of rap. The video, full of freak characters, further strengthens this direction. A$AP Rocky co-directed it together with Folkert Verdoorn and Simon Becks, confirming once again how central the visual dimension is. Throughout his career, Rocky has always created cutting-edge videos, capable of generating strong, often disturbing or visionary imagery, to the point that his audiovisual works are regularly analyzed and studied for their ability to translate music into powerful and recognizable images. Alongside him appears Winona Ryder, at the height of her success thanks to “Stranger Things”, in the role of an enigmatic neighbor in an apparently ordinary suburban neighborhood. His presence takes on a precise symbolic value: Ryder is in fact a historical muse of Tim Burton. A bond that further strengthens the aesthetic coherence of “Don’t Be Dumb”.
It is no coincidence that the album cover is signed by Burton. A creative axis that pushes Rocky towards an increasingly cinematic dimension, far from the idea of a simple rap record and ever closer to a layered artistic project. In recent years, other songs related to this phase have circulated, such as “Highjack”, created with Jessica Pratt, and the provocative “Taylor Swif”. However, it is important to underline that it is not at all certain that these tracks will end up in the final tracklist: some were released as isolated singles, others as leaks, and rather seem like fragments of a constantly changing creative path. In fact, several rumors speak of an album in which A$AP Rocky will offer more representations of himself, not only from the point of view of image, but above all of sound. The idea is that of a deeply contaminated rap, crossed by different genres, punk attitudes, orchestrations and alternative deviations. In this sense, “Punk Rocky” functions as an early manifesto: not a definitive synthesis, but an opening of possibilities.
Meanwhile, Rocky continues to move on multiple levels. He contributed to the soundtrack of “Highest 2 Lowest”, the new Spike Lee film in which he stars alongside Denzel Washingtonand last September she had her third child with Rihannaconfirming a phase of life in which personal dimension and artistic ambition seem to proceed in parallel. In the video for “Punk Rocky”, in addition to Winona Ryder, Thundercat and Danny Elfman also appearto seal a project that presents itself as a crossroads of languages, generations and imaginaries. “Don’t Be Dumb,” out January 16, promises to be not only the return of A$AP Rocky after a long absence, but a declaration of freedom for one of the boldest rappers of recent years.
