A$AP Rocky has released ‘Same Problems’, the first single from his upcoming album, ‘Don’t Be Dumb’.
In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, A$AP Rocky discussed his motivation for the song. “I think I was feeling remorse,” he said. “I think I was feeling plight. 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?’ You ask a bunch of questions and usually … 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. I just kind of wanted to express myself and tell how I felt without preaching. And I think we can all relate. We all got the same problems. The irony that my biggest hit to date was … My first hit was ‘Fuckin’ Problems’. And now 10 years later exactly, I’m putting out a song named ‘Same Problems’. It’s just like problems, problems, you know what I mean?”
The rapper previously debuted the track at his Amazon Music Live concert last month. He confirmed to Lowe that ‘Don’t Be Dumb’ is coming soon, and Stereogum reports that it’ll feature Miguel, Thundercat, Lil Yachty and Tyler, The Creator.
A$AP Rocky expressed his excitement for the upcoming album, saying, “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. 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 process of making music is more free. But I always try to stay on subject.”