We wanted to put a focus on one of the biggest rappers of our time, A$AP Rocky. We’ll run down some of the lesser-known facts about the Harlem star, whose past was very different from his current superstar status.
Born Rakim Mayers, on October 3rd, 1988, he was named after one half of the hip-hop duo Eric B & Rakim, with his older sister getting the first half as Erika B. His older brother Ricky Mayers was his first rap inspiration and Rakim started already at the tender age of 9 years old to hone his rap craft.
The early years of A$AP’s life were rife with turmoil. At 12 years old his father was incarcerated for drug charges and the following year his brother Ricky was murdered in Harlem, forcing the family to subsequently move around homeless shelters and Rocky ended up selling crack cocaine on the streets at the age of 15. In 2004 Rocky was arrested and spent two weeks in the infamous Rikers Island penitentiary for drug dealing. Whilst in prison, Rocky by chance shared a cell with future rapper Casanova, which along with the death of his brother fuelled him to take his rap talent more seriously. Inspired by larger rap constellation like Wu-Tang Clan, Rocky in 2007 joined the A$AP Mob, which was more a collective of creative talents, than a pure rap outfit, consisting of rappers, producers, music video directors, fashion designers, and bikers who shared similar interests in music, fashion, style, and art.
The A$AP acronym has many, slightly hazily defined meanings, from
Always Strive And Prosper;
Assassinating Snitches and Police, and even the multi-purpose -
Acronym Symbolizing Any Purpose. In the beginning, Rocky worked with three of A$AP Mob’s producers in particular to develop the spacey, cloud rap sound that has come to define his music.
Clams Casino, A$AP Ty Beats and SpaceGhostPurpp. He self-released two singles in 2011,
"Peso" and
"Purple Swag” which both became instant street hits. Peso was also particularly interesting as Rocky name dropped fashion designers like
Rick Owens and
Raf Simons, which were more refined,
in-the-know, type designers than what had previously been a part of hip-hop rhetoric. Signing the same year with the Sony/RCA subdivision of Polo Grounds Music for $3 million, the deal was also special in that it incorporated, not only his own solo projects, but those of the whole A$AP Mob collective, under their own record label
A$AP Worldwide. The same year Rocky’s father passed away, just before the start of his meteoric rise to fame. His father was a big influence on him fashion-wise being the spark that guided his oftentimes brave fashion decisions, telling him to:
“always feel comfortable with whatever decision you make because you chose to do it. Just because something doesn’t fit doesn’t mean it’s not right.”
2013 saw the release of the debut album
Long.Live.A$AP which was a huge success and featured artists such as,
Kendrick Lamar, Florence Welch, 2 Chainz, Joey Bada$$, Santigold and A$AP Ferg, and the big hit with
Drake, F**kin’ Problems. The sophomore album in 2015
At.Long.Last.A$AP took a much tripper direction musically which had in large part been influenced by Rocky's use of
psychedelics like LSD. In interviews Rocky spoke candidly about his use of the hallucinogenic drug: “It helps me cope with life,” he told Billboard. “I’ve been doing this stuff since I got into the industry. People are scared to talk about it.” As with his debut album, the record came with a heavy personal loss when the death of his creative partner, friend, and mentor,
A$AP Yams (Steven Rodriguez) who had been a large stability and sounding board in his creative life.
Last year Rocky dropped his third album “Testing” which included the stand out collab hit with
Skepta “Praise the lord” which was evidently recorded whilst the duo was on LSD together. The story of A$AP’s life has always been entwined with the tales of his many women. Recently stating he had to purchase a
$100'000 bed to cope with the pressure of his
multitude of orgies, a practice that dated all the way back to the seventh grade, where in a recent interview he recanted how during his middle school years, the events transpired.
“The first time was in this apartment building. We took the elevator to the roof, and everybody put their coats on the ground. There were like five girls and 10 guys, and we all just took turns. And hopefully you didn’t have a little dick because they’re going to tease you! At that time, I wasn’t the biggest guy, but come on, cut me some slack, I was in the seventh grade! Fucking bullies!”
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