Don't Be Dumb Album Review: A$AP Rocky Is Here To Shut Down Your Snarky Comments

When A$AP Rocky released Testing in 2018, the void that was his friend, mentor and creative other half, A$AP Yams, gaped at you at every track from the album. Born Steve Rodriguez, Yams has often been described as the Yoda to Rocky’s Luke Skywalker. His musical finesse not only shaped most of Rocky’s music, but it was also his very adeptly curated Tumblr blog that created the image that is A$AP Rocky out of Rakim Mayers, shooting him to the stratosphere of new-school experimental hip-hop fame.

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But then Yams passed away from an accidental drug overdose in January 2015. In May 2015, At.Long.Last.A$AP marked the final project where we would hear the duo together. 

So Testing was where Rocky was on his own from start to finish. And without the near encyclopedic hip-hop knowledge and vision of the A$AP Mob creative director reigning him in, the album strayed so far into experimental territory that it stopped making sense altogether. Mind you, though, it still hit Billboard 200 at No. 4, with Praise the Lord (Da Shine) being the most quintessential A$AP Rocky song you’d hear.

A lot has changed since then. Rocky's collective, the A$AP Mob broke up. Fashion has knocked on his door a lot more often. A relationship with Rihanna put him in the spotlight so much that at one point, it seemed like his whole identity. Then, in November 2021, a felony charge of assault with a semi-automatic firearm led to a six-year-long legal battle that culminated in February 2025. 

Amidst all this, Rakim Mayers was a changed man. And his much-delayed album underwent just as many changes.

So the thing that Don’t Be Dumb had to address was not so much the question of whether Rocky can still be a musician without Yams (many decided that the answer was no with Testing). It was the joke that he didn’t care about music in the first place. 

With 15 tracks, and features from Tyler, The Creator and Hans Zimmer, to Brent Faiyaz and Bossman Dlow (or is it Sauce Walka?), Don’t Be Dumb is a numb, slightly irritated and tired Rocky brandishing his signature cocky smile and a middle finger to everyone who questioned his musical capacities.

To no one’s surprise, Don’t Be Dumb is the culmination of all that the last seven years have been for the Harlem rapper. The failures of the legislation, the shadow of his legal battle breathes down on the album’s neck. We go from “A order of protection for f------- with me” in the first track to “Judge want my ass, smoke a pack in the court / Kickin’ in your door, all black Air Force” in Air Force (Black Demarco). There are legal terms and indirect callouts scattered all along to the people involved in the case.

As for the questions that follow him around, the more experimental STFU says it all: 

“When are you and Rihanna?

Shut the f---- up!

Like, when’s the new album gonna?

Shut the f---- up!”

But that doesn’t mean family doesn't take the centre stage in his life. Fatherhood earns the same place in his braggadocio as his sneakers and jewellery do. Rocky is a proud father in Playa, “Takin’ care of your kids, boy, that’s player shit / One b----, boy, that’s player shit / No baby mama drama, no new friends.” In Stole Ya Flow, he’s even prouder of the mother of his kids, Rihanna: “Now I’m a father, my b---- badder than my toddler/My baby momma Rihanna, so we unbothered.” 

There’s also the old back-and-forth with Drake (Stole Ya Flow and Order of Protection), while in Stop Snitching and Robbery he teams up with Sauce Walka and Doechii, respectively, to talk about the idea of image theft and the exasperation of seeing his curated A$AP Rocky image becoming the trademark for every second rapper on the scene. 

Amidst all this, the album still falls short in certain places. The production feels too stuffy at places, some rhymes are there just for the heck of it, and just as you want more introspective music in his discography, the social commentary falls flat in tracks. For example, in The End, he attempts to reach for everything from commentaries on the Klan to global warming (interesting given Rocky's tryst with fashion houses). But the production and features do more than make up for the falls here, when the beat switches and Jessica Pratt’s ethereal vocals elevate the mood into more introspective territory.  

Arguably, the best in this case is the Brent Faiyaz feature on Stay Here 4 Life. Sampled from Ken Carson’s Mewtwo (which itself is a sample), it's reminiscent of Faiyaz’s own track Full Moon (Fall In Tokyo). Another highlight is Doechii and Rocky trading bars on the jazzy Robbery (we need more jazz Rocky, to be honest). Full disclosure, though: it could have done much better with a full verse from Westside Gunn instead of adlibs. Tyler, The Creater on Fish And Steak is a welcome addition too.   

Everything said and done, Don't Be Dumb is easily one of the better A$AP Rocky albums out there. The replay value is quite great. The experimental nature is right there, without being too over the top. Is it Album Of The Year material? Close, but maybe not a certified winner (we still have J. Cole's The Fall Off coming out this February, and it's only the start of the year).

What isn't a maybe in all this, is that A$AP Yams is definitely looking down and smiling at his friend for the album he created. A$AP Rocky is so back.