A$AP Rocky Tells All In Latest Interview
A$AP Rocky has already blown us away once today with the announcement that he is headlining Listen Out festivals nationwide. Now, he's telling all in an interview with Complex and spilling the tea on his upcoming album, signing Playboi Carti and more.
When talking about his new album 'Testing', A$AP Rocky discussed the absence of A$AP Yams in production; “It wasn’t the same without Yams. But it’s with any legacy that loses a pioneer; you gotta keep going. Yams is a spirit. He’s an energy. He was always about discovering new talent and trying to put new people on. I think that’s what validated him in hip-hop. We miss him. RIP to A$AP Yams. I had to do what Puff had to do when Biggie died, or anybody who loses somebody.”
A$AP Rocky has signed both Playboi Carti and Smooky MarGielaa and said: “I think they talented. Smooky’s young, full of energy. He reminds me of myself in so many ways. He reminds me of artists like Bobby Shmurda or something like that. And Carti, he a playboy. He up next. I think what he’s doing is an infusion of ambient, space sounds mixed with trap traditional music.”
Talking about 'Testing', A$AP Rocky said “It’s a significant point and time in my career. I have a lot of artists that are signed to me—big superstars, rockstars. I’m in other fields within my career. But I needed to circle back and show them this is where it started. This is the origin of my legacy and why I really do this shit.”
“I’ve discovered sounds that I’ve never heard before, so I’m trying to manifest all of that into my new stuff. Do you ever hear people when they describe that LSD experience and they tell you about colors that they never seen before? That’s what I’m trying to describe. It’s like the manifestation of drugs…without being so vocal about it... It’s an experience. It’s jiggy. It’s lit. I’m tryna go platinum first week. Let’s get it. On some Cardi B shit times 12, you heard?”
“I feel like I’m one of the best contemporary artists out right now. My music is ahead of its time. The masses usually catch on two, three, four, five years later.”
Speaking on meeting Kid Cudi, Rocky said “He got on the camera and was like, ‘Yo what up? That song with you and ScHoolboy, ‘Hands On The Wheel,’ that’s tight.’ I was like, ‘Oh shit. Tight.’ The Cudder is the fucking man. I love Cudi, man. He’s dope as fuck. He’s a dope big bro.”
A$AP Rocky got to work with Kanye West, Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean, and said that “Working with those two guys has been quite the experience. I’m glad that, on a creative level, everybody gets it. And not only that, those guys are elite. Those guys are geniuses.”
“Kanye turned the hotel we were staying at into a Yeezy compound. He was designing sneakers in one suite, making music in one suite, and I was making music in my suite. It was crazy. We shut down the whole hotel.”
A$AP also said that he was "so blessed to be here. I could be dead right now. I could be in jail. I could be poor. I could be homeless still. But I’m here and I’m talking to you, stoned, happy as ever. Y’know what I’m saying? I’m lucky to be doing what I’m doing, in the capacity that we do it in. We’re blessed. Never get that confused. I don’t think I would be sitting here after seven years of doing this, and doing a cover for Complex, if I wasn’t acknowledged for the stuff I did.”
“I really do it for my trophies, and my trophies is those people who come up to you on the street who don’t want a picture but wanna tell you how you changed their life, or how a decision you did influenced their decisions in life, or just how much they appreciate you. That’s my Grammy, that’s my Oscar, that’s my everything. I’m just trying to show kids how to make it on their own without having to do the same old thing. And you could be yourself while doing this.”
“I’m always gon’ do what I want when it comes to making music and shit. I feel like to an extent, you gotta give a fuck. But maybe just a little bit.”
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