On January 21st 2026, A$AP Rocky dropped his first album in eight years. Throughout his time away from the scene, he dropped multiple singles and had many leaks leading up to this album.
His first track, Order of Protection, reflects upon his time away, opening with “It’s been a lil’ while since I’ve been in the league – A couple lil’ trials, a couple of leaks”. His reflection highlights his releases where he tread into new territory, ranging from good, solid tracks to poorly executed rush tracks like Tailor Swif, where the music seems like an accomplice to the music video.
The sound of the album is reminiscent of something he has not done, leaning more into an Atlanta or Memphis sound. Order of Protection stems from earlier sounds, using sharp 808’s and strong choral melodies in the background. Personally, the track is one of the weaker songs on the album, using a lot of repeated elements from his earlier work. The second track Helicopter descends more into what this album was anticipated to be: bouncy bass, more subdued 808’s, using more strings and synth with heavier production. “Helicopter” stood out the most. It felt different from the rest of the album and had a unique sound that made it more memorable than most of the other tracks,” Senior Jameson Kelty said. The song is generally a more developed and better song, with better lyrics, production, and instrumentation.
STOLE YA FLOW, however, shifts. This track was previewed amongst the heat of Drake and Kendrick’s beef. Senior Marcellus Brown says, “‘I’d say “STOLE YA FLOW’ was one of the weaker tracks. It wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t really leave an impression and was bland compared to the rest of the album.” Rocky goes after Drake and lets loose. The track’s beat is distorted and haunting, as if Rocky was coming back to haunt Drake. This is a great track when acting as a lead-up track; however, on it’s own it leaves a little to be desired.
The tracks STAY HERE 4 LIFE and PLAYA are very much poppy and light love tracks to Rihanna and focus on the dynamic of their love and relationship. PLAYA, in particular, dispelling rumours of A$AP cheating in his relationships.
NO TRESSPASSING is another great track and a standout on the album. The clean production leans more into southern hip-hop motifs. It’s grimy, dirty with large beats and faint horns, and Sauce Walka absolutely goes off on his verse and lets loose. The second half of this album takes a more experimental turn.
Track 9 is awesome. A$AP delves into more industrial noise rap, reminiscent of Death Grips. It has phenomenal production and sounds coming at you from every direction. It just keeps going and is a little repetitive, but still great. In my opinion, AIRFORCE (BLACK DEMARCO) is one of the worst tracks on the whole album. It has almost slippery synth tracks and fluffy indie sections, but with rage rap influence and harsh instrumentals. The instrumentals do not mesh well and very well could have been corrected by transitioning from one part to another.
WHISKEY is a decent track that combines Westside Gunn’s vocals and Damon Albarn’s vocals and allows for them to do the work; however, instrumentally, it is lacking. The track ROBBERY is almost what this track could have been. It’s awesome, sampling Caravan by Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol, it features Doechii and is lax, and it’s a very cool lounge jazz rap track. Brown agrees on how the track is more fun and highlights the different energy. “Robbery’ stood out the most to me. It just had a different energy compared to the rest of the album, and it was more memorable and fun,” Brown said. It almost directly paints out a robbery with Doechii’s and A$AP’s vocals being laidback relaxed, and easy going, and then they decide to rob the club they are in, which is when the track explodes, shifting the tone.
The album concludes with DON’T BE DUMB /TRIP BABY and THE END. Both tracks close the album well and tie it together very well. DON’T BE DUMB /TRIP BABY is almost ballad-like and very waltzy, with A$AP kind of gliding over the beat with a delicate touch. His rapping over it is almost too normal or plain; he doesn’t use much inflection as we have seen on tracks like ROBBERY, and I think that it would benefit this track a lot, adding more dynamics and feel to it.
THE END is a haunting track describing how the world will end from the perspective of a child. IT highlights and critiques modern and systemic issues within the U.S. It has a haunting choral track layered in echoing ‘This is the way the world ends’. Jessica Pratt’s verse shifts from a hauntingly complex and produced part to a mostly raw and somber folk track, which truly ends the album well.
This album opens a new chapter for A$AP as he brings back past motifs, however, with a new twist and more experimental feel on the second half of the Album. The first half of the album is reminiscent of his past work, however, with fresh elements and inspiration from Southern Hip-Hop. This album is overall a very solid record as we see A$AP return and experiment into new sounds and elements he hasn’t experimented with before.
