The A$AP Mob’s resident fashion killa’ dropped his latest album, originally due on this very day, last Tuesday, and the swift reactions that soon surfaced evoked a slew of mixed feelings.
More than two years after the release of his debut album, “Long. Live. A$AP.”, Rakim Myers, better known as A$AP Rocky, finally released his dreamy, drug-fueled sophomore.
Now fully emerged from the underground scene, A$AP Rocky’s music falls under the cloud rap subgenre. True to the category, his tunes seem to float through the air and unfurl like puffs of smoke. His set of 18 songs continues what the rapper started with “Long. Live. A$AP.”, but without the fiery Spring Break-style hits like “Wild for the Night” and “F—kin’ Problems.”
A$AP Rocky effectively displays his musical prowess and never seems to be too overpowered by some of the more unique voices which accompany him on the album like M.I.A., Kanye West, Future, Lil Wayne, and Schoolboy Q, perhaps because of the practiced ear and judgment of the late producer A$AP Yams.
The producer and force behind the A$AP Mob died during the album’s creation. A$AP Rocky’s grief, brought on by the death of Yams, permeates throughout the entire album.
Courtesy: highsnobiety.com
A$AP Rocky, if anything, shows his snide side throughout A.L.L.A., whether through proclamations of extreme wealth (except for, however, his beef with the debt collector, which he touches on in the beginning of “Excuse Me”), fashion references, or jarring lines regarding women. He only touched briefly on police brutality and gang violence but that’s because, as A$AP Rocky said in an interview with “The Guardian” in April, “I think we already have a ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ album. I think that’s enough self-righteous, self-conscious black sh-t going on. I don’t really need to manifest that into my music. I’m black and I’m proud, but I’m more proud to be black and handsome than anything.”
Executive producer Danger Mouse brings the album’s drawl of drumbeats and soundscapes together into something that is best described as “drug-like”. On several tracks, London-based guitarist and vocalist Joe Fox, who A$AP Rocky claims he discovered in the wee hours of the morning on the street, joins the mix, but doesn’t seem to add anything more than a background melody.
As soon as A$AP Rocky dropped the album last week, most everyone commented on his crude line bashing British singer/songwriter and actress, Rita Ora in the 14th track of the album, “Better Things.” The line is, if anything, positively sickening, and to top it all off, A$AP Rocky does not shy away from even more questionable lines.
A$AP Rocky even includes a line about rape, a subject that the rap community has already been criticized for exploiting, most recently exemplified by Rick Ross’s date-rape-themed lyric in Rocko’s “U.O.E.N.O.”
“Past the racism and fake-ism/ Type of hate that make you feel worse than a rape victim,” spits the rapper, who is obviously not sensitive to any actual rape victims in the track “back home”.
Of course, he does show that his heart isn’t entirely made of ice in a line which some say is about A$AP Rocky’s crush on Rihanna:
“Ain’t nothing better than the pretty big forehead b—h,” raps A$AP Rocky in “Jukebox Joint.”
At least A$AP Rocky can appreciate women for their unique features.
Of course, he leaves none of his sartorial interests unmentioned, whether it’s his affinity for Goyard leather trunks, habit of dropping thousands of dollars on Rick Owen’s Adidas at Barney’s, or his wrist wear of choice (and perfect gifts for his criminal recruits, as he said in “Hell” from “Long. Live. A$AP.”), Audemars Piguet watches.
With shining tracks like “L$D”, “Electric Body”, “Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2”, and “Jukebox Joints”, A$ap Rocky’s album certainly continues his murky, cloud rap aesthetic with an all-star set of collaborators and producers. Also, though, the work is an obvious testament to A$ap Rocky’s recent experimentations with psychedelics and women, a phase which seems to pass through the lives of many musicians.
A$AP Rocky’s “A.L.L.A.” is regarded by many a solid album, though at times not altogether clear or appropriate. “At. Long. Last. A$AP.” leaves his fans asking, “What will he do (or say) next?”
