A$AP ROCKY DROPS HEAVY-HITTING NEW COLLABORATION 'HIGHJACK' WITH JESSICA PRATT AND JON BATISTE

The single arrives ahead of Rocky's forthcoming album "Don't Be Dumb," scheduled to be released Aug. 30

After a six-year break, A$AP Rocky is back in album mode.

The Testing creator, 35, dropped off the single "HIGHJACK" on streaming services on Friday, Aug. 2, his first since "RIOT (ROWDY PIPE'N)" with Pharrell Williams, released just over one year earlier on July 21, 2023.

"HIGHJACK" sees the rapper tap Jessica Pratt and Jon Batiste to deliver ethereal vocals behind his signature drums and a muddled organ sample, which come courtesy of production handled by Rocky, Hitkidd, Zach Fogarty, Greg Kurstin, Jordan Patrick and Rex Kudo.

The "Praise the Lord" creator told Zane Lowe during an appearance on Apple Music 1 that "HIGHJACK" is part of him ushering in "a whole new aesthetic on everything," describing the songs "sonics" as "German expressionism and the whole ghetto futurism grim thing."

As for collaborating with Pratt and Batiste, Rocky told Lowe, "I just love alternative. I love just different sounds and whatnot. [Pratt] kind of gave me this kind of Portishead meets Stevie Nicks vibe a little bit. Right. So I always f---ed with her as a artist, and so I figured it was necessary to get her, Jon Batiste on this one and kind of make it feel soulful to bring it on home in the outro."

Indeed, the track serves as almost a metaphorical victory march for Rocky claiming his seniority in hip-hop's hierarchy, with the artist rapping "Tired of them n----s sleepin' on me, I don't like naps/ N----s f--- around and stole the flow and y'all like that?" A point he doubles down on by also rapping, "Before we dropped 'Peso' on you n----s, you ain't like RAF," referring to his debut single, which also served as the lead track on his 2011 critically acclaimed breakout mixtape Live. Love. ASAP.

Rocky also mentioned his longtime girlfriend and mother of his two children, Rihanna, calling the FENTY creator his "wife" in the song, rapping, "These n----s want my wife bad / the people want my next track."

A day before the release of "HIGHJACK," on Aug. 1, Rocky celebrated the birthday of his and Rihanna's second son, Riot Rose, and shared some cute images and videos on Instagram of himself with the baby as well as the stars' older son, RZA, 2.

Rocky also touched on fatherhood during his conversation with Lowe, stating, "It's just like, time speeds up when you become a dad, man. It's crazy. It's insane. Surreal."

To cap things off, the rapper teased the next track he plans to release: "Hood Happy" featuring Fatman Scoop, Flavour Flav, Slick Rick, Morrissey and Busta Rhymes, describing the collaboration to Lowe as an amalgamation of "my parents' favorite rappers" and "my favorite rappers."

"RIOT (ROWDY PIPE'N)," "HIGHJACK" and "Hood Happy" are all set to appear on Don't Be Dumb, which will arrive on streaming services Aug. 30.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.

2024-08-02T17:28:29Z dg43tfdfdgfd