A$AP Rocky’s fever dream continues. On Monday, the artist unleashed new track “Helicopter” alongside a chaotic video featuring a rooftop rager, police clashes, and turbulent ending. The song comes ahead of his new album, Don’t Be Dumb, arriving Friday, Jan. 16.
The animated video echoes the classic aesthetics of Grand Theft Auto, blending saturated colors and sweeping cityscapes with satirical, outlandish scenarios. Rocky promoted the song on Instagram with a Playstation-inspired cover and in another post, insisted, “DONTBEDUMB CHANGING THE GAME !!! A$VP. THIS VIDEO IS NOT Ai GENERATED!” In the visual, a cartoon Rocky rides around in a hot pink mini “pussy whip” with matching hair rollers (which he first debuted during his summer tour) and hijacks a helicopter — at one point dangling from it — while rapping the bass-heavy chorus.
Last week, Rocky delighted fans with the first official musical offering from his upcoming album, “Punk Rocky,” which also released with an accompanying video with appearances from Winona Ryder, Thundercat, and Danny Elfman. Like “Helicopter,” the visual followed Rocky through a surreal journey involving his friends, bumbling police, and an extreme conclusion.
The soon-to-be-released album is shaping up to be one of Rocky’s most creative yet. For the long-awaited project, Rocky collaborated with Tim Burton, who designed parts of the LP’s artwork and a subsequent film that’s set to accompany the record, and Elman, who scored many of the tracks.
In an interview with Variety, Rocky teased the album’s subject matter and a bit of insecurity: “This fucking album, it represents who I am right now. It’s just I hope that it’s digestible,” he says. Elsewhere, he added, “It’s odd because as I get older, I’m more conscious about how I view myself. Describing my life sounds very braggadocious, and I want to figure out how to say it to where it feels more humble, relatable, and sincere, as opposed to just shitting on the next person or making the next person feel down, or just evoking negative shit out of people.”
