Don't Die Before You're Dead

Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2025

AJ Tracey

Death is at the forefront of AJ Tracey’s mind on his third studio album; the title, Don’t Die Before You’re Dead, makes that more than clear. And although success has granted the West London rapper a certain level of immortality, no one, not even Tracey—who has seen his career go from strength to strength since he put his home borough on the map with the 2019 hit single “Ladbroke Grove”—lives forever.

“I’ve been through a lot of things since I dropped the second album,” he tells Apple Music’s Dotty. “Life is beautiful, but it’s also quite tough sometimes…We all go through it, but I come out the other side stronger and with a different perspective on life.” The reason for his preoccupation is laid out in “3rd Time Lucky,” which finds him sorting through his emotions as his mother recovers from cancer, over solemn chords reminiscent of Sting’s “Shape of My Heart.” The track is a rare moment of vulnerability on an album that often pulses with the desire for women, pleasure, and leisure, and an even rarer window into Tracey’s interior world—but the album title’s morbidly inverse framing of the message that life should be lived to its fullest is revealing. “Heavens beneath mum’s feet, for her whole life, she had the world on her shoulder,” he raps in the opening seconds of “3rd Time Lucky.” It’s an airtight bar, vacuum sealing an intense tangle of emotions inside another, grittier layer of meaning behind his sentiment: Hang on, even when you think it’s over. Don’t die before you’re dead.

Despite the heaviness at the heart of the record, Don’t Die Before You’re Dead is an otherwise energetic offering that showcases the level of charisma on the mic that has made Tracey a festival favorite, his sharp enunciation and rhythmic flow often adding an extra percussive element to the production. “Crush” flips a sample from a classic Brandy ballad into a flirty back and forth with Jorja Smith, “Chat Rooms” thumps with the beat of jersey club drums. There’s a healthy dose of braggadocio in the recipe for tracks like “Second Nature” and “Paid in Full,” perfectly counterbalanced by tracks like “West Life,” with its winking references to ’90s girl groups or “Red Wine,” an indie-pop collaboration with Ivor Novello winner Master Peace which emerges as an unexpected highlight as it closes out the record.

It makes for a well-rounded body of work, proving there’s no avenue Tracey isn’t prepared to explore, both artistically and emotionally, in his quest to make the most of his time on Earth. “I thought I need to give people what they need and not what they want, but sometimes they’re going to express to you like, ‘If you do this, maybe you’re going to tap into something,’” says Tracey. “Sometimes you’ve got to just go into that unknown, man.”