A$AP Rocky dangles precariously from a helicopter while black-clad SWAT officers brawl with his white-masked followers below. This isn't a cliffhanger setpiece from the rapper-actor's latest film – it's just how shows on his Don't Be Dumb tour open.
Big production with prop helicopters and a warship
The show is a big production: there are further prop helicopters, including a smaller one in the rafters from which he also raps, a reference to his single Helicopter. The stage recreates the top deck of a naval warship, for reasons that never become clear.
The bizarre set underscores a sense of a man in career transition, unsure who he is any more. In the eight years since his last album, this survivor of homelessness and incarceration became a father three times with Rihanna; he's pivoting towards movies – good ones – and co-chairs the Met Gala. His new record sought to redefine him as an artist, juggling more of his trademark pugilistic rap with ambitious stylistic experiments and unexpected collaborations, including Damon Albarn and Danny Elfman.
Paralysed by choice
But Rocky seemed paralysed by choice, unable to choose a lane. Was he a reformed Lothario declaring his devotion to Rihanna? Or the wildling of yore, “still smoking my weed” and rekindling beef with Drake? The album reached No 1 without offering a definitive answer.
Now he's got a warship to strut along, pursued by 30 dancers in SWAT gear, and a besotted audience starting circle pits to wonky fight song STFU, bouncing en masse to the death-rattle funk of Riot (Rowdy Pipe'n), and twirling their white shirts like helicopter blades at his command.
Most energised on wildcard tracks
Tonight, Rocky seems most energised performing the haunted dream-pop frug of Punk Rocky, his swoonsome Thundercat collab Stay Here 4 Life, or the hypnotic slither of L$D. The wildcard sound of these tracks suggests he's searching for a creative mode that will fit him as well as his earlier sizzurp-slaked anthems.
But as he ably negotiates the special effects and gonzo props of his big, bonkers stage show, it's also hard to shake the suspicion that, if Hollywood offered Rocky a truly career-changing role, hip-hop wouldn't see him for dust. He is a man in motion, for sure – but his direction remains undefined.
A$AP Rocky plays 3Arena, Dublin, on 2 September; then tours the UK until 5 September.
