A$AP Rocky has released a new single called “Same Problems?” while revealing some details about his forthcoming album.
Featuring background vocals from Lil Yachty and Miguel, the self-produced song finds the A$AP Mob leader in a plaintive mood as he mourns the seemingly endless deaths in Hip Hop.
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“N-ggas dyin’ every other night / N-ggas cryin’, that’s a part of life / Lyin’ to my face, tryna say that it’s all good / No, I’m not alright,” he softly raps over the stripped-down production before asking: “How many problems get solved if we don’t get involved?”
The track was premiered during Rocky’s Amazon Music performance in December, during which photos of 2Pac, Biggie, Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, Mac Miller and other late rappers flashed on the giant on-stage screen behind him.
In a rare interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Pretty Flacko explained the inspiration behind “Same Problems?,” admitting he felt guilty for perpetuating violence through his music.
“I think I was feeling remorse. I think I was feeling plight,” he said. “I think I was also feeling a sense of guilt, because every time we lose somebody in our community, we all, especially me, have a habit of just saying things like, ‘It’s messed up. It’s wrong. Why do these kind of things happen?’
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“I never took time out to really understand that I was part of the problem because I was contributing those kind of lyrics and whatnot to songs. Without preaching too much, I just wanted to touch on something a bit different opposed to just being braggadocios, flamboyant and just regular rap content for me.”
In the same interview, Rocky also shed light on his long-awaited fourth album, which is reportedly titled Don’t Be Dumb. In addition to Lil Yachty and Miguel, the project will feature other “heavy hitters” like Tyler, The Creator and Thundercat.
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“We got some help from a lot of friends there. We got Miguel, we got Tyler, The Creator, we got Lil Yachty here, we got Thundercat,” he told Zane Lowe. “Those are some heavy hitters.”
As for his relationship with Tyler — with whom he’s worked numerous times in the past — he said: “That’s why we take so long. It’s him, bro. He play too much man. He want to joke and prank people all day, man. He’s the biggest prankster.”
A$AP Rocky went on to say that the album is coming soon and that it will be some of the most grown, self-aware music he’s made.
“It’s finished and we just putting the finishing touches on it. It’s coming for sure,” he promised. “I think we all need time for growth. I think that it’s pointless for artists to put out music when they have no fuel or no subject matter. Sometimes, I need to live a bit to give you the right subject matter to convey my experiences.”
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He added: “The new stuff is me being vulnerable, and it’s just no filter, and just where I’m at, at my stage. My age and how I see things, my peers, the younger kids, the older cats, it’s just my perspective. We come in with some whole new fresh shit. If we talking about inspiration and style and stuff like that, creativity, I do that in my sleep and we’re coming with that.
“I think now, my perspective has aged a bit. It’s like fine wine, and I’m starting to become more aware of things that I was oblivious to, things that I ignored, and a lot of things I was ignorant to. I’m more aware. I’ve experienced it firsthand or it’s just in my face every day. I think about encapsulating into albums. I try to figure out how to do that every time.”
The Harlem native previously touched on his forthcoming LP in an interview with GQ last month, promising a heavy Metro Boomin presence.
“I’m gonna put it to you like this: This next album needs to be just called Flacko Boomin, you hear me?” he said. “Most artists wanna make [collabs just because they’re hot]. For us, it’s like, that’s really my n-gga.”
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The last full-length album fans got from A$AP Rocky was 2018’s Testing, which boasted appearances from the likes of Frank Ocean, 21 Savage and Kodak Black and debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with 75,000 first-week units.
