{"id":24525,"date":"2026-01-28T11:05:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=24525"},"modified":"2026-02-16T11:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:15:28","slug":"dont-be-dumb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/dont-be-dumb\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Don\u2019t Be Dumb\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The album cover for \u201cDon\u2019t Be Dumb.\u201d | Photo from Spotify<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jan. 28, 2026 | <\/span>Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a nearly eight-year wait, which saw him go through highs and lows, including a dramatic arrest in Sweden, starting a family with Rihanna and being found not guilty on felony assault charges that accused him of assaulting his childhood friend and business partner A$AP Relli with a firearm, A$AP Rocky has finally released his new album, \u201cDon\u2019t Be Dumb.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lead singles for the project, \u201cPUNK ROCKY\u201d and \u201cHELICOPTER,\u201d couldn\u2019t sound more different from each other. \u201cPUNK ROCKY\u201d is a more laid-back and smooth song which, as the title suggests, has heavy punk rock influences. Meanwhile, \u201cHELICOPTER\u201d has an aggressive, almost industrial type of sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feature list is stacked with big names, including Tyler, The Creator, Brent Faiyaz and Gorillaz. However, in my opinion, it\u2019s the slightly lesser-known Sauce Walka who has the most interesting feature on the album on the song \u201cSTOP SNITCHING,\u201d where he floats over an ominous instrumental. I was also pleasantly surprised by will.i.am\u2019s contributions on the song \u201cTHE END,\u201d where he does an incredible job of capturing the dark, apocalyptic vibe of the production, giving a verse that sets Rocky up perfectly for the remainder of the track. Doechii trades verses with Rocky on what was probably the most out-of-left-field sounding song on the entire album, titled \u201cROBBERY\u201d. While the beat is slightly off-putting for me, I think it works relatively well, and Doechii and Rocky match each other\u2019s energy. Doechii really feels like the perfect fit for the strange beat thanks to her ability to pull off unique flows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My personal favorite performances from Rocky himself come on the songs \u201cPLAYA\u201d, \u201cNO TRESSPASSING\u201d and the title track, \u201cDON\u2019T BE DUMB\/TRIP BABY.\u201d The Thundercat and Cardo Got Wings production on \u201cPLAYA\u201d reminds me of some of the beats that the hip-hop and rock group N.E.R.D. made popular in the 2000s. It has such a smooth bounce to it, and Rocky approaches it with a catchy melody, while rapping about the fulfillment of settling down and building a life with one person. \u201cNO TRESSPASSING\u201d has an intro that sounds like a smoke-filled room with Rocky looking back on his early career. The song then shifts into an energetic West Coast beat with an attention-grabbing synth. Once again, Rocky showcases his ability to attack a beat at an elite level, which makes the song hard not to love. \u201cDON\u2019T BE DUMB\/TRIP BABY\u201d samples Clairo\u2019s song \u201cSinking\u201d and probably has the best lyrical performance on the entire album, with Rocky focusing on themes of love and personal growth. The first half of the production is spacey before switching to a more uptempo beat, sticking to similar themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, it\u2019s a really enjoyable project with a few minor flaws. There are a few things I\u2019d have liked to see explored a bit more, such as the intro on \u201cNO TRESSPASSING,\u201d and I wish we\u2019d seen the kind of lyrical performance Rocky had on \u201cDON\u2019T BE DUMB\/TRIP BABY\u201d more prominently throughout the album. As mentioned, Rocky had a lot to discuss, and it feels like he didn\u2019t dive as deep as he could have. The production, as amazing as it is, still doesn\u2019t hit the highs that it did on his past projects, although that may just be a testament to how great that production was more than anything else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that being said, I\u2019m just glad it finally came out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RATING: <\/strong>7.5\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a nearly eight-year wait, which saw him go through highs and lows, including a dramatic arrest in Sweden, starting a family with Rihanna and being found not guilty on felony assault charges that accused him of assaulting his childhood friend and business partner A$AP Relli with a firearm, A$AP Rocky has finally released his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"\u2018Don\u2019t Be Dumb\u2019","_seopress_titles_desc":"After almost eight years, is \u201cDon\u2019t Be Dumb\u201d worth the wait?","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8801,6445,8806,8805,4772,8804,8807,8809,6453,8811,8802,8803,722,8808,8810],"class_list":["post-24525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-aap-relli","tag-aap-rocky","tag-brent-faiyaz","tag-cardo-got-wings","tag-doechii","tag-dont-be-dumb","tag-gorillaz","tag-n-e-r-d","tag-rihanna","tag-sauce-walka","tag-the-creator","tag-thundercat","tag-tyler","tag-westside-gunn","tag-will-i-am"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24534,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24525\/revisions\/24534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}