On January 16th, 2026, A$AP Rocky released his long-awaited album Don’t Be Dumb after an eight year break, making it his first album in the 2020s. The album was heavily guided by film legend Tim Burton, giving his music a new perspective. His previous album, Testing, was released in 2018 and received mixed reviews from critics and fans. Due to the mixed reviews, his next project had to be good: with the new addition to his catalog, he accomplishes this, but still leaves a little to be desired.
The album opens with the track “ORDER OF PROTECTION,” which addresses all the things that have happened to him between his projects. This intro track illustrates the strongest part of A$AP Rocky’s new album, which is the masterfully crafted production that turns his album into a unparalleled listening experience. The song with the best production comes towards the end of the album runtime, on the track “DON’T BE DUMB / TRIP BABY,” where he reunites with producer Clams Casino, who produced some of Rocky’s greatest hits like “LVL” and “Demons.”
The first part of the album swings in strongly with energetic tracks such as “HELICOPTER” and “STOLE YA FLOW.” On track five, “STAY HERE 4 LIFE,” R&B artist Brent Faiyaz gave a wonderful feature, making it a standout track. This feature ties the song together nicely, but the same thing cannot be said for the other features throughout the album.
Other features, such as Westside Gunn on “WHISKEY (RELEASE ME),” are so brief that it leaves the listener wondering if the song is unfinished, since Westside Gunn only does ad-libs on the outro of the song. Features from A$AP Rocky’s signed artists are noticeably missing from the album’s runtime. Artists such as ICYTWAT, THOTO KLK, and TOMMY REVENGE would have greatly improved the album and skyrocketed their careers in the process. The removal of artists signed to his AWGE record label is strange since he previewed and teased songs featuring them that were promised to be on the album.
The album is a great experience the whole way through, but it leaves something to be desired when listeners reach the end. Even though the album has been in production for eight years, it seems like Don’t Be Dumb was struggling to pick an identity to live up to the hype. In the album’s early stages, it was originally supposed to be a sequel to his 2018 album Testing, with an industrial sound. This changed when A$AP Rocky decided to make the album a political commentary, coinciding with his fashion show/line, American Sabotage
The album has bits and pieces of each of these aesthetics/identities, but with all of these perspectives on the album it comes out having no clear identity whatsoever to define itself as. Despite being in production for eight years and being delayed multiple times, Don’t Be Dumb by A$AP Rocky is projected to sell 200,000 units in its first week, making it a successful comeback.
