ASAP ROCKY ENDS THE WAIT WITH DON'T BE DUMB, AND DRAKE BETTER BE LISTENING
By Chief Editor | 1/16/2026
Rocky experiments across jazz, punk, metal, R&B, and hip-hop on his first album in 8 years. Multiple Drake disses appear throughout, including bars about 'stealing flows' and BBL references.
Key Points
- Rocky experiments across jazz, punk, metal, R&B, and hip-hop on his first album in 8 years
- Multiple Drake disses appear throughout, including bars about 'stealing flows' and BBL references
- Tim Burton designed the cover art while Danny Elfman scored portions of the album
The Harlem rapper sits in a Burton-designed fever dream, six alter egos staring back from vinyl sleeves. **Don't Be Dumb** just dropped and Rocky sounds like he's been plotting every sonic pivot for 2,793 days straight.
**This is Rocky refusing the algorithm.** After eight years of delays, sample clearances, and legal drama, he delivered 15 tracks that move through genres like walking city blocks. Jazz bleeds into metal, punk crashes into soul, and trap beats morph into indie arrangements. The credits read like a creative director's wishlist: Danny Elfman scoring movie moments, Tim Burton crafting visual narratives, Tyler the Creator and Thundercat weaving sonic textures.
**The genre hopping isn't chaos, it's calculated rebellion.** "STFU" throws you into metal territories with Slay Squad while "Whiskey (Release Me)" melts into sensual R&B. "Punk Rocky" leans alternative with Winona Ryder visuals, then "Robbery" with Doechii shifts entirely. Each track captures different personas, different moods, different creative impulses Rocky couldn't contain in traditional rap boxes. The Alchemist, Pharrell, Metro Boomin, and Madlib all contribute to this sonic patchwork.
**But the real story lives in the Drake shots scattered throughout.** On "Stole Ya Flow," Rocky gets direct: "First you stole my flow, so I stole yo' b*tch / N***as getting BBLs, lucky we don't body shame." The Rihanna reference hits hardest, the BBL line connects to last year's Kendrick beef, and the copying accusations address years of subliminal tension. "No Trespassing" continues with Texas move references, while "Playa" contrasts his stable family life with others' "baby mama drama." Rocky confirmed the target in interviews but played coy: "It's whoever feel like it's about them."
**Don't Be Dumb** sold 130,000 vinyl units before streaming, became Spotify's most pre-saved hip-hop album, and topped iTunes immediately. Rocky's genre experiments pay off where it counts: creating something that sounds like 2026 while honoring hip-hop's boundary-pushing tradition. The rollout surgeon just performed his most complex operation yet.