A$AP Rocky - Live.Love.A$AP (Retrospective)
Let me take you back ten years. Everybody is going crazy over the Drake leaks in anticipation of his sophomore album. The cloudy R&B atmosphere that Drake would go on to stamp the game with was beginning to develop. On the flipside of things, a similar cultural shift was about to take place as “cloud rap” was growing in popularity thanks to acts like SpaceGhostPurrp and the Raider Klan. Hip-hop had finally begun to really accept the internet and in this new post-regional game a new voice was emerging from the most fashionable borough of New York. I’m talking of course about Harlem’s A$AP Rocky. New York around this time had a reputation for losing its way. New York didn’t sound like New York, and when it did it sounded like rappers were trying to reinvent the wheel.
Then came Rocky & the A$AP Mob. Well many New York rappers were accused of biting the South, Rocky kept the New York swagger all his own despite the obvious Southern influence. He was arguably the beginning of New York finding its way back to the greatness that we see today. This could be thanks in large part to Rocky taking cues from Houston rather than Atlanta. It could be the Clams Casino beats. It could also be the guidance and architecture from the late great A$AP Yams. The tape just feels like getting fly and smelling funky with the fellas serving junkies. This tape would go on to propel Rocky to stardom, touring with Drake, signing Playboi Carti, serving looks on the runway, dating Rihanna, you know the vibes. And it all started with this tape right here.
From the hypnotic, funky loops of the two singles “Pe$o” & “Purple Swag” to the early internet-era aesthetics of “Bass”, “Palace” & “Wassup” to the overall throwed-ness of “Houston Old Head” “Trilla” & “Kissin Pink” the tape never strays too far from it’s own unique vibe. Who could forget the ScHoolboy Q collaboration “Brand New Guy”? Here’s to hoping we still get more Rocky & Q collabs in the future. Even ten years later I’d still be excited for a project from the two. For me personally, this was my senior year of high school. I wasn’t a weed smoker at the time, but the newfound freedom I was experiencing, getting ready to enter the real world for the first time, it’s a really special time in anybody’s life. Me, I was really into fully experiencing projects for the first time thanks to the internet making it so easy to do. I remember hearing the mixtape in full off of Datpiff and being mesmerized by the sequencing, the production, the floaty flows, the overall presentation and aethetic. Rocky brought us all into his world. A pretty motherf****ng world. Get jiggy with Live.Love.A$AP, now on all streaming services.
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