Release Date: 16 January 2026
Song Count: 17
Duration: 59 minutes, 49 seconds
Rating: 5.7/10
Description:
Song Count: 17
Duration: 59 minutes, 49 seconds
Rating: 5.7/10
Description:
Well then, here comes a relatively well-acclaimed rap albums from the first half of this year - Don't Be Dumb, the fourth album released by Rakim Mayers, under his more widely known stage name A$AP ROCKY. A full dive back into the art after an 8-year break from full-length releases for the Harlem rapper, this new collection of songs is described as being both practically designed to appeal widely and throwing in a load of experimental and less conventional turns for a work within mainstream hip-hop. It seems that this slight risk taken through these inclusions has paid off for the record as well, debuting at the top of the highest charts when it released in January and being praised as one of Mayers' best works.
Bringing in plenty of additional faces, both ones we have seen and not yet seen here before, into the mix to join in on multiple of the tracks, A$AP ROCKY returns to form in this hour-long experience as he brings his smooth rap flows into a series of different trap beats and occasionally hands the microphone over to his collaborators to take the stage and rap or sing. Hints of jazz fusions, as with the track "ROBBERY", as well as some amounts of experimentation with starts and beats are present, though the sound of the album mostly stays consistent. A majority of the contents find themselves in this particular state of flowing into each other, through their shared sonical colour and coherence, putting less emphasis on these tracks individually and more on the general atmosphere induced by them collectively.
Perhaps listening to this record in full has been the moment of me realising that a lot of trap hip-hop in particular takes a stand as a highly hit-or-miss style of music for me, as in spite of the scarce sprinkles of ingenuity catching my positive attention, the bulk of Don't Be Dumb left me more with ambivalence and almost outright boredom above anything else. Bar for some exceptions like "STAY HERE 4 LIFE", a lot of the songs included end up lacking any sort of major hook to attach oneself onto mentally, the variety of the backdrops used leaves a lot to be desired, and even when vocal deliveries from artists that were not just Mayers were in play, it was admittedly difficult to find any of those performances unique enough to remember. Especially the features of Gorillaz and Tyler, The Creator disappointed me as someone who considers those two musical forces to be some of the most unique voices to catch mainstream attention, and as such, that is the note that the album left me with. But perhaps that is just me fundamentally not clicking with this certain subgenre of rap music that well, so perhaps others will find far more enjoyment out of it than I did.