As we gear up for the release of ASAP Rocky’s new album Don’t Be Dumb, the rapper’s making it clear that if you’ve already heard a song from it that he didn’t officially release, it won’t be on the album.
Speaking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music’s New Music Daily, Rocky expressed how much he values the music he records for his new project. “It’s very important and special if it makes it on the album,” he said. “Most of the songs that I usually perform and shit like that, motherfuckers leak it.”
“And once it’s leaked, it’s just like, ha, it’s not on the project,” he continued. “I might perform it here or there, but it’s leaked. It is what it is. It’s out already. A lot of these records didn’t make it because they got leaked at some point.”
This isn’t the first time that Rocky has been public about his disdain for leaks. Back in May, he called leakers “dummies” on social media. “Every time, it’s back to the drawing board," he said.
Rocky’s probably referring to songs like “Palestine” that have popped up on places like Reddit and X. One of the only new songs that he’s officially released from the album is “Highjack," a song that features singer Jessica Pratt and includes a couple of bars seemingly dissing Drake.
On one, he tells people to “not compare that pussy boy to me,” followed by “These n***as want my wife bad, the people want my next track,” which is also a reference to his wife, Rihanna.
Another song set to appear on the album is “RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n).” Rocky told Complex last year about how the song came together with Pharrell.
“It was fire. I came down to visit him,” he said. “Chad [Hugo] from [The] Neptunes was there. The vibes were good, the studio had a lot of good feng shui and good vibrations.”
“ASAP Ferg actually surprised me and came down to a session because he and P was working on something separately,” he continued. “And the energy behind that was just like right away. I knew Pharrell was feeling it, I was feeling it. I connected with it. When I heard the beat, it just sounded disruptive.”
ASAP Rocky recently told Zane Lowe what kind of sound to expect on Don’t Be Dumb. “We coming with a whole new aesthetic on everything, especially with German expressionism and the whole ghetto futurism GR1M thing,”
Don’t Be Dumb is slated to drop on Aug. 30.