ASAP Rocky wears many hats. He’s a fashion designer, a model, an actor, a director, a father, a husband… The list goes on. But is A$AP Rocky still a musician? Amid the grueling wait for his Don’t Be Dumb album, it seems like he’s using that question to fuel as much excitement as he can.

For those unaware, the Harlem creative has a headlining slot at the rescheduled Camp Flog Gnaw Festival on Sunday night (November 23). As part of this, Don’t Be Dumb merch was available for purchase at the carnival starting yesterday (Saturday, November 22). And it didn’t take long for it to hit social media and cause a headache for many fans.

One of the items is nothing to write home about news-wise, while still being a pretty cool AWGE hat. But the other items the @awgecentral Twitter fan page shared is what really got fans joking, coping, or fuming. They are a blurred Don’t Be Dumb shirt with an “Error 404 – Album Never Dropping” pop-up text and a zip-up hoodie that reads “ALBUM NEVER DROPPING.” Yikes…

Camp Flog Gnaw Merch

Still, we got hints that A$AP Rocky’s still dropping Don’t Be Dumb this year. “Danny Elfman, he just did my album with me that I’m putting out this year,” he told his Vanity Fair interview cohorts recently. “He scored a bunch of the songs on my new album.” Rocky has also spoken about dropping the project as a surprise album with no official lead-up, since it’s been a seven-year-long rollout anyway.

Also, A$AP Rocky’s recent Don’t Be Dumb listening party in Los Angeles gave fans hope. But this Camp Flog Gnaw merch isn’t very promising… If you take it super seriously. In reality, if Rocky really is dropping the album this year, it’ll come out of nowhere. If not, then it won’t be that much different than what we’ve already experienced, right?

The danger here is that the hype will completely fizzle out or not lead to immediate success, but maybe that’s a risk he wants to take. In fact, it seems like the only avenue out at this point. So are we getting Don’t Be Dumb as a set-closing surprise drop tonight, sometime before 2025 is out, or never at all? The test of patience continues…