doing is an infusion of am-
bient, space sounds mixed
with trap traditional music.”
Rocky first met Smooky at
a club in New York City, and
Carti at SXSW in 2015. Both
are now part of his secret
creative collective AWGE,
but when I ask if AWGE
is a label, and if Carti and
Smooky are signees, he leans
back in his chair, and moves
his interlocked fingers up
and down to the rhythm of
his voice, as if to emphasize
his point. “Don’t ask me that
14
question again on camera.”
It’s unclear why AWGE
needs to stay a secret, since
Rocky reps the presumed
acronym constantly. Right
now, he’s wearing a dia-
mond encrusted AWGE ring
on the ring finger of his left
hand, a green/white truck-
er hat with “AWGE” printed
across the front, and a black
track jacket with yellow
piping on the sleeves from
AWGE’s collaboration with
Japanese brand Needles.
AWGE was first introduced
to the world in 2015, but
there still isn’t much that’s
known about the mysteri-
ous agency. Rocky has said
that the concept of start-
ing a creative collective was
partly inspired by Vice. “The
way they had the infrastruc-
ture of Vice: the employ-
ees, the freelancers, the art,
the edge—and the many
moving components: film,
music, magazines, etc.—it
was an inspiration,” he said
during an interview with
the Rap Radar podcast. “I
wanted to follow that format,
that blueprint. I was never
exposed to something like
that. That’s what AWGE is.”
To help carry out his vision,
he assembled a cabal of cre-
ators, artists, and stylists.
Right now, AWGE is simply
a list of names. The artist
Robert Gallardo is official-
ly credited as “creative” on
the AWGE website, along-
side stylist and former Com-
plex editor Matthew Henson
(fashion), Midnight Studios
designer Shane Gonzales
AWGE PHOTOGRAPHY