Indie, R&B, cyberpop, alternative rock. Radiohead, The Weeknd, Deftones, Blood Orange. I listen to a wide variety of genres and artists on any given day, and I am overloaded with options. But not a day goes by that I don’t come back to A$AP Rocky. His music moves me in a way not many artists can. He is a mastermind when it comes to sampling other artists’ songs, while maintaining an iconic sound for himself, and has a multitude of songs to listen to, no matter what mood you are in. So when I heard he was dropping a new album, my anticipation of hearing whatever his genius brain had created was overwhelming. It’s been eight years since the rapper and record producer A$AP Rocky released an album, but on Jan. 16, he put out DON’T BE DUMB. This time, he tried something new. His variation in star-studded features and producers created a new sound for him. Songs such as ROBBERY and PLAYA are distinctly different from the rest of his discography. But in songs STAY HERE 4 LIFE and NO SNITCHING, he brought the music back to his roots. After my initial listen to the album, I rated each song out of ten and calculated the average to rate the album as a whole. It came out to 8.2/10, but the songs grew on me, and after my third full listen, the rating came out to about 8.7/10. I loved the album so much that I bought tickets to his tour just a couple of days later.