W
e’re here because
A$AP Rocky is gear-
ing up to release his new
album, Testing. It will be his
third solo project, his first in
three years. It will also be his
first album without the guid-
ing hand of A$AP Yams, the
rapper’s best friend, part-
ner and, for a lack of a better
term, spiritual guru. (Yams
died from an accidental over-
dose in 2015.) “It wasn’t the
same without Yams,” Rocky
says in a low voice. “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 any-
body who loses somebody.”
The album was initial-
ly slated for a 2017 release,
but was pushed back be-
cause Rocky wanted to per-
fect it. “Everything has to
be aligned correctly,” he re-
cently told Peter Rosenberg
during Complex’s new show
Open Late. “One little thing,
one little mishap, one little
imperfection could throw off
a whole cycle. I would prefer
to put out music to change
people’s mood or uplift or
get a feeling or a reaction,
opposed to just making
music to stay relevant for
the sake of popularity.”
But the buzz picked back
up at the top of 2018 when
Rocky began to drop new
songs on SoundCloud: “5ive
$tar$,” “Money Bags Free-
style (Dean Blunt Medita-
tion),” and “Above.” At first,
the artworks featured an
image of a car wheel with
a yellow strip over it with
the word “TESTING.” Later,
it was changed to a yellow
background and the word
“DUMMIE” in all black caps.
Then, in early April, he re-
leased a new single, “A$AP
Forever,” along with an ac-
companying music video
directed by frequent col-
laborator
Dexter
Navy.
Now, Rocky is ready for his
comeback. “I’m starting to
get inspired again,” he says.
“Everybody’s making music
and shit. I don’t wanna put
out shit when everybody’s all
quiet. Nah. Now, the champi-
ons are coming back out and
making real music. It’s like
friendly sparring. It’s time.”
“It’s
like
the
second
coming of Jesus,” A$AP Ant
adds. “But we never went
nowhere though. We was
chillin’
getting
money.”
Which is true: For the past
few years, Rocky took some
time to focus on his busi-
nesses and develop new art-
ists. “I really wanted to take
time out to show people I
was an entrepreneur,” he told
GQ. “I’m a businessman—
you gotta take me serious.”
Rocky doesn’t like the term
“label boss,” and avoids any
question about it. The A$AP
Mob, though, throws around
words like “motivation” and
“good brother” when they de-
scribe Rocky, Head Honcho.
“[He] makes us work
harder, y’know what I’m
saying?” says Ant, who notes
that Rocky was the one who
convinced him to rap. “He
wanna do the right things
and put his homies on and do
things for his family, put his
family in a better position.”
“It’s like playing with the
Lakers when they was just
winning,”
A$AP
Twelvyy
adds. “All my bros is elite,
and Rocky and Yambo set
crazy examples for our
brothers to just be great
and be super creative.”
A$AP Lou says: “He knows
how to roll out the red
carpet. He knows how to put
the blueprint out for you.”
The two names Rocky
signed in his years since his
last album and most recent
beneficiaries of that Rocky
Effect are Playboi Carti, the
Atlanta star responsible for
last year’s summer banger
“Magnolia” and the recent
Die Lit, and Smooky Mar-
Gielaa, the 15-year-old Bronx
native who turned heads
with his melodic features on
A$AP Mob’s Cozy Tapes, Vol 2:
Too Cozy. “I think they talent-
ed,” Rocky says. “Smooky’s
young, full of energy. He re-
minds me of myself in so
many ways. He reminds me
of artists like Bobby Shmur-
da or something like that.
And Carti, he a playboy. He
up next. I think what he’s
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