Let’s hope anyone expecting a marriage proposal in the near future hasn’t seen the video for “D.M.B.” A$AP Rocky’s first solo single since 2019, because it’s going to be pretty hard to top an ask involving a gold grill that reads “MARRY ME.”
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Released on May 5, “D.M.B.” (not short for “Dave Matthews Band,” but “DAT’S MAH B!*$H”), comes with a music video prominently featuring Rocky’s girlfriend (should we say fiancée?), Rihanna. The pair announced that they were having a child together in late January, and have been in the news essentially non-stop since then. In March, rumors of an engagement spread online, and given the statement mouthpiece Rocky wears in the video–and Rihanna’s corresponding “I DO” one– that speculation is unlikely to die down. (It’s obviously unclear whether the two are actually engaged.)
Rocky directed the video himself, which has a pleasing film grain to it and features he and Rihanna lamping on the fire escape of a massive New York housing complex, dining in an elegant, dimly lit restaurant, and splitting a blunt. It also features multiple iterations of Rihanna excitedly greeting Rocky after he gets out of prison, which is eye-catching since Rocky was arrested on April 20 in connection with a Los Angeles-area shooting, and spent time in a Swedish prison in 2019. A scene towards the end of the video shows the two walking down a hallway and being showered with applause and rose petals. Rocky is in a black suit and Rihanna is in a red dress holding a bouquet, all of which certainly fits the marriage motif.
On the song’s second verse, Rocky celebrates a woman who, while unnamed, could pretty clearly only be the 34-year-old billionaire he’s dating. “She got bank accounts too / With big amounts, shit you couldn’t count,” he raps, later adding, “It’s your tough love that I’m bound to
/ I fuck it up, then it’s round two.” During the track’s tender bridge, he repeatedly refers to the track’s subject as “My goddess.”
Hardcore Rocky fans will probably recognize the song, albeit from a surprising source. The rapper unveiled the first snippet of “D.M.B.” as part of a commercial he did for Swedish fintech company Klarna in June 2021. The song plays over the speakers at a convenience store as Rocky uses the app to buy some chips and…magically change into a black suit and new grill. “D.M.B.” co-producer Skepta also appears briefly in the commercial.)
In a May 2021 GQ cover story, Rocky spoke about his upcoming album, tentatively titled All Smiles. The LP will be his first since 2018’s polarizing Testing. Rocky called the record a “ghetto love tale” and highlighted its maturity in the interview, all of which is consistent with what we hear on “D.M.B.”