A$AP Rocky has been forced to bail on the 2024 iHeartRadio Festival at the last minute due to suffering from illness.
The Harlem rapper made the announcement on his Instagram Stories on Thursday evening (September 19) where he wrote: “Unfortunately, I ended up getting sick & I won’t be able to perform at the @iheartfestival.”
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He added: “I’m sorry to my fans & my thankful to @iheartradio for the opportunity! I was looking forward to performing some new music for y’all. Enjoy the show the lineup is [fire emoji].”
Rocky was set to headline the festival, which takes place on September 20-21 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and will also be streamed live on Hulu.
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The lineup still boasts plenty of star power, with the likes of The Weeknd, Doja Cat, Big Sean, Victoria Monét and Camila Cabello set to perform.
iHeartRadio have not announced a replacement headliner.
The “new music” that A$AP Rocky promised to perform during his since-canceled set may have been from his upcoming album Don’t Be Dumb, which he recently delayed.
The long-awaited project was originally supposed to drop on August 30 but is now without a release date, although it’s expected to arrive before the end of the year.
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Speaking to Billboard last month, Rocky blamed the pushback on leaks: “At this point I’ve been working on music for six years, but they leak my music and I get over it and say, ‘Fuck it’. They leak a lot of the music and it ruins it. Like my ‘Taylor Swift’ video. I was pissed off about it, so I never released it.”
Pretty Flacko also shed light on Don’t Be Dumb in the interview, describing it as “grim” and a mix of “German expressionism [and] ghetto futurism.” He also revealed that he played the project for legendary director Tim Burton, who he unsuccessfully attempted to recruit to create the cover art.
“I sat and I played the album for Tim Burton, and he was fucking with it heavy,” the father of two said. “[H]e was rocking his head and he’s like, ‘Wow! I didn’t know you made that kind of music!’”
Rocky did, however, manage to secure musical contributions from Burton’s frequent composer Danny Elfman, including on a song produced by The Alchemist.
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Other prominent producers also expected to make the album include Metro Boomin, Tyler, The Creator, Pharrell, Madlib and Mike Dean.
