A$AP Rocky, “Punk Rocky”, Rocky Road, “Don’t Be Dumb” In 7
Time is a flat circle. Here I am, once again, I repeat, once again, on my soap box that is the four corners of your preferred screen pleading for us to listen with our ears and not our social media timelines.
The first week of 2026 welcomes A$AP Rocky’s latest single, “Punk Rocky,” for our audial pleasure… and what a pleasure it is. You can’t tell me this isn’t at least adjacent to an up-tempo “L$D,” blended with influences from “Fashion Killa,” mixed with 2025/2026 A$AP Rocky. And much like “L$D,” we get some compelling visuals to elevate the vision.
Rocky is no stranger to great visuals that are basically short films tastefully drawing inspiration from renowned media. Whatever happens in those pre-production meetings the outcome ends up being gold. Or at the very least, they are visually striking and intriguing. In “Punk Rocky,” he, Folkert Verdoorn, and Simon Becks (a.k.a The Three Musketeers) stay true to that standard. Like, just go to 51 seconds in, when Rocky & Co. are getting arrested and slammed onto the cop car matching the beat of the drum’s accents at that moment. Immediately followed by the cop pulling Rocky’s shades from his eyes, forcefully pulling back the mask he puts up, revealing lips that speak: “sometimes I forget what love is.” So many layers in those few seconds alone. And they don’t shy away from the symbolic surrealism from start to finish.
I think my biggest highlight here is having the crash dummy throughout. It feels like a call-back to “TESTING;” an album that left critics and fans with a consensual bad taste in the face hole. Related to the aforementioned bar about love: sitting with that kind of reception to your most recent full-length project (almost EIGHT YEARS AGO) can’t be the best feeling as an artist who seems to care about the art as much as Rocky does. Watching that sequence from 3:50 to 4:15 when he is quite literally tending to his wounds until the raging antagonist sends said crash dummy flying through the window, forcing him to skedaddle Tom Cruise-style through the other window… all while A FAN (none other than the Winona Ryder) is left confused in the rubble???? Maybe I’m reaching, maybe not. Either way, I’ll leave that thought with you.
We’re finally in the end game after many iterations of “coming soon” with “Don’t Be Dumb” releasing January 16th, National Nothing Day. Hopefully choosing that day & expressing it is more of a message to do nothing but listen to the album… and it won’t end up a meme of how the album is a big fat nothing burger. I’ll be here listening and my anticipation level since last Spring has now increased from ‘neutrally optimistic’ to ‘attentively piqued’.
Pre-save digitally or even pre-order physically here. Stay noted.