It's been too long. Though we appreciate and respect the level of experimentation in which A$AP Rocky has been divulging, putting on display the bold decision-making and creative risks that have long driven his career and taking them to the next level, there's an undeniable cloud of nostalgia hanging over the heads of even his most loyal longtime fans. Art often takes time - something that a multidisciplinary creative genius like Rocky doesn't have a lot of - but it's about time that he puts on hold all his other undertakings, gets his hands dirty, and focuses all his energy into his own music. Not the music of his friends, not his fashion, not his endless harem of women, but simply the thing that made all the others possible.

 

His release, Bad Company, which features bad company indeed with a guest spot from Tennessee come-up, BlocBoy JB, is the kind of step in the right direction that we're talking about. BlocBoy's addictingly arrogant and expectedly high-energy verse aside, Rocky brings the smooth yet simultaneously hard-hitting flow, penmanship, and attitude that we've all been in love with since the Purple Swag days. 

 

Hopefully, if and when his project does eventually drop, it brings with it a balanced blend of old and new, experimental and traditional Flacko styles that while pushing the boundaries of hip-hop and providing the courageous experimentation required of a project to do so, also bears some resemblance to the style that not so long ago made Rocky a bold artist pioneering the course of the modern scene. 

 

No matter what, we're just happy to have yet another new track and to know that the Rocky of old is still alive and well, just on the back-burner as his new direction rightfully, understandably, and artistically takes priority.