Summary
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A$AP Rocky has released a surrealist music video for “PUNK ROCKY” featuring a guest appearance by film icon Winona Ryder as a distorted suburban neighbor
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The visual features a groundbreaking technical feat where Rocky literally sings through his eyes, using CGI to transform his bruised pupils into a secondary mouth for the song’s vocals
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The video serves as the final creative preview for the highly anticipated album Don’t Be Dumb, which marks Rocky’s major return to the music landscape in early 2026
The road to Don’t Be Dumb has been anything but conventional, and A$AP Rocky’s latest visual for “PUNK ROCKY” proves that the Harlem polymath is still hip-hop’s premier surrealist. Released on January 5, 2026, the video is a vivid, Tim Burton-esque trip into a distorted suburban landscape, further bridging the gap between Rocky’s high-fashion grit and avant-garde cinema.
The headline-grabbing highlight is the appearance of iconic actress Winona Ryder, who stars as a cheerful yet eccentric neighbor watching the chaos unfold from her front porch. In a nod to her cult-classic heritage, Ryder eventually joins the fray, donning a babushka and serving cookies to a band that includes cameos from Danny Elfman on drums, Thundercat, and A$AP Nast. The visual, co-directed by Rocky himself under “The Three Musketeers” moniker, perfectly mirrors the track’s genre-blurring fusion of overdriven punk guitars and hazy dream-pop.
Perhaps the most haunting technical feat in the video is the literalization of Rocky’s bruised romance; after an altercation with local police, Rocky sports a black eye that takes on a life of its own. In a stunning display of surrealist VFX, he sings through his eye, with the pupil and iris morphing into a mouth that croons the song’s vulnerable lyrics. This “eyeball performance” serves as the emotional anchor for a video that features five of Rocky’s Don’t Be Dumb alter egos. With the album officially slated for a January 16 release, “PUNK ROCKY” is a definitive signal that Rocky isn’t just making music—il’s building a universe.
