New Music: A$AP Rocky - 'Above'

Flacko rises “Above.” Just one day after dropping “5IVE $TAR$,” A$AP Rocky unleashes an experimental follow-up, produced by Frans Mernick.

This time, Jodye unveils a mellow, sing-songy delivery over an atmospheric instrumental. “Walls slowly closin’ in,” he sings. “I feel the time slowly runnin’ out / I think my mind slowly losin’ focus / Lately I’ve been through the motions.”

Clocking in at only 81 seconds, the track ends abruptly, as if the tape recorder was suddenly stopped. The creative cut lends itself to Rocky’s “testing” theme, which appears on the artwork for “5IVE $TAR$” and “Above.”

It’s unclear whether the new tracks will be part of Rocky’s forthcoming follow-up to 2015’s At.Long.Last.A$AP, but the New York rhymer has been teasing the project for quite some time, implying that it may even be titled Testing.

“My new album is really about testing new sounds,” he told GQ last year. “People are scared to test new sounds, so they go with what’s current ’cause it’s the easy thing to do. The top 100 songs sound a certain way. People cater more to that because it’s a bigger demographic behind that, or it’s a guaranteed demographic behind that. I prefer to experiment and have my crowd grow with me and to reach new crowds. I don’t just rap-I actually make music. That’s why it takes time. These sonics represent me.”