Morrissey didn't make the cut on ASAP Rocky’s new album, Don’t Be Dumb, despite the rapper previously teasing a collab with him.
Released on Friday (January 16), fans expected to see Morrissey on the new album — specifically on a track called "Hood Happy," which Rocky claimed the Smiths frontman was on back in 2024.
Speculation about a collaboration began in 2018 when Rocky said, at the time, that he wanted to "fuck with Morrissey on some Smiths shit."
"Make some emo, real, retro-infusion, muthafuckin' 2018 shit, man," he added. Two years later, Rocky claimed that Morrissey had been contributing vocals to his forthcoming album (at the time, called All Smiles).
It’s worth noting that Morrissey probably did appear on an earlier version of Don’t Be Dumb, but Rocky decided to release a version of the album that’s mostly new due to previous leaks. During a recent appearance on The New York Times podcast Popcast, the rapper said that 85 percent of the music on his new album was recorded since late 2024 in response to the leaks.
Don’t Be Dumb is Rocky’s first album since 2018. The project was delayed multiple times — so much so that he even joked it was "never dropping" before finally arriving with cover art created by legendary filmmaker Tim Burton.
Speaking to Complex in 2023, Rocky said of the album leakers: "They gotta stop leaking it! These dummies got to stop leaking shit. Every time, we have to go back to the drawing board, but right now I think it’s in a place where we tightened it up and we really can’t make or break anything right now. We in album mode, it’s time to start rolling out the project."