Earlier this Summer (May 25), A$AP Rocky celebrated the five-year anniversary of his third studio album, Testing, still his most recent full-length release. But, as the years have gone by and fans continue to mourn his hiatus, Rocky has been at work crafting his next LP and is now almost ready to unleash it.
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On Thursday (July 20), the New York native released “RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n),” a promotional single for his forthcoming album Don’t Be Dumb. Produced by Pharrell Williams, who most recently worked with Rocky on Nigo’s “Lost and Found Freestyle 2019” (2022) also featuring Tyler, The Creator, the song is a cloudy, atmospheric, yet mosh-pit inducing banger, full of Woo ad-libs that have been popularized by Rocky and his A$AP Mob imprint.
Instead of a traditional music video for “RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n),” Rocky and Beats By Dre put out a commercial promoting the song, which sees Rocky take a trip to the market to pick up diapers for the pop superstar mother of his son, Rihanna. The visual shows the rapper running down the street with a pack of men all donning glowing white head covers, which seems to a be common theme throughout the rollout for Don’t Be Dumb, as these men were also with Rocky when he shot a separate music video earlier this year in Paris.
Along with the release of his new single, Rocky talked with Complex to discuss his recent activity and his impending album. In this conversation, Complex revealed that “RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n),” along with other post-Testing singles, like “Same Problems” (2023), “Shittin’ Me” (2022), and “D.M.B.” (2022), will land on Don’t Be Dumb. When touching on the latest addition to the track list, he said he connected with Williams’ instrumentation instantly.
“I recorded it probably a year ago and a half ago with Pharrell in Miami. It was fire. I came down to visit him. Chad [Hugo] from [The] Neptune was there,” he said. “The vibes were good, the studio had a lot of good feng shui and good vibrations… And the energy behind that was just like right away. I knew Pharrell was feeling it, I was filming it. I connected with it. When I heard the beat, it just sounded disruptive. That’s kind of what I wanted to do, is make a disruptive record.”
Additionally, Rocky mentioned that other marquee musicians have contributed to the production of the album, such as Tyler, the Creator, Dean Blunt, Madlib, Hit-Boy, Boi1da, Alchemist, Metro Boomin, Mike Dean, and more. When rationalizing the album’s title, he succinctly stated that “the death of the dummies is my new vibe.”
Although he did not reveal an arrival date for the project, stating that leaks have continuously caused him to delay its release, he did mention that a collaboration with Rihanna on Don’t Be Dumb was possible but refrained from making any promises.
“I’m always down to collab with my partner,” he said. “She’s a phenomenal creative. Yeah, there’s a lot of things we’re going to collaborate on, from products for children, there’s a lot of things to look forward to.”
Ultimately, Rocky’s tone and answers gave readers an overwhelming sense that the album is right around the corner and that Rocky is tired of keeping it on his shelf away from fans.
“Right now, I think it’s in a place where we tightened it up and we really can’t make or break anything right now,” he said. “We in album mode, it’s time to start rolling out the project. This is just a single for the project. This is really happening.”
Photo by Tina Benitez-Eves
