When it comes to building excitement for an album, artists have a variety of options. Some outright announce it and then release singles. Some give cryptic answers such as “I’m working on it” and “soon” in interviews. Others delete all their posts on social media and change their profile picture to something mysterious - usually a solid color. But, few have been as creative with their promotion as ASAP Rocky was this past weekend.
A long time coming
Fans have been waiting for the latest album from the New York rapper for over a year. He has released some songs on the popular music streaming service SoundCloud in the past few months, which many did not approve of.
Listeners voiced their opinions all over social media while others defended him for his experimenting. These tracks were called “dummies” in reference to the crash dummy theme surrounding his upcoming album titled “Testing.”
The first official single released in March was titled “Bad Company” and featured Memphis rapper Blocboy JB, who created the viral “Shoot” dance. The artwork for the song featured Rocky seated in a car with a crash test dummy while wearing a jumpsuit with the traditional crash test symbol. In the midst of all of these songs releasing, he also changed his profile picture to this symbol and regularly used the construction sign emoji in his social media posts. Next to be released was the track “ASAP Forever,” which featured artist Moby.
Rocky debuted the song on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” along with another track titled “Distorted Records." This live performance featured Rocky in the same jumpsuit from the “Bad Company” artwork as he performed inside a test lab like area complete with scientists watching him.
A reveal unlike any other
This past Sunday night, May 20, fans received a notification that ASAP Rocky was going live on YouTube.
Not many knew what to expect from this as the rapper made no prior announcement. At the beginning, the screen showed a graphic of Rocky on top of a car in a jumpsuit once again. The words “Lab Rat,” in big bold yellow letters, with a much smaller “Starring ASAP Rocky” typed above it. The stream began with footage of attendees mingling and walking before the piece itself began.
It is somewhat hard to describe, so you can just watch it for yourself here.
The release is this week
Rocky has revealed he has worked with Kanye West, Frank Ocean and Tyler, The Creator on the album. After the art piece concluded after a runtime of an hour and a half, Rocky reappeared, holding what it appeared to be the vinyl version of the album. Minutes later he tweeted the album artwork with the caption “ALBUM DONE.” “Testing” is set to release this Friday, May 25.
