Harlem native A$AP Rocky’s new record Long.Live.A$AP is very, very good. In a world in which mainstream hip-hop is quickly fusing with EDM, Rocky and his associates – the rest of Rocky’s Harlem A$AP crew and Compton’s Top Dawg, just to name a few – are the most convincing voices still making original, forward-thinking rap music.
You may have heard Rocky’s stellar EP Live.Love.A$AP and marveled at the emcee’s talent for wrapping catchy hooks in clever wordplay and deceptively simple cadences. The screwed-up, bouncy single “Goldie” pairs a thin, whimsical melody with clanky dub percussion and a tauntingly static bass line; the result is a little like someone rapping over a slowed-down Devo album. But it pushes and pulls at you.
Rocky is either going at full tilt and syncopating everything or drawling two-syllable rhymes (for example, on “Goldie”: “Life’s a mothafucka, ain’t it? / These other rappers anus / So tell me what your name is / I’mma tell it to my stainless,” or on “Fashion Killa”: “Her attitude Rihanna / she get it from her mama”). With Rocky, as with his West Coast counterpart Kendrick Lamar, you never know where you’re going to land until you do. Rocky’s delivery is equal parts Jay-Z circa The Black Album and Gudda Gudda.
This is Rocky’s M.O., it seems: make pop music but do it your way. Make it smart. Make rap that has all the aggression and attitude of, say, a DJ Khaled / Rick Ross instrumental, but douse it in Nyquil before you write your rhymes. It’s the tension between Rocky’s all-day-HAM delivery and the understated thump-thump of beats by Hit-Boy, Clams Casino, Noah “40″ Shebib, and Danger Mouse. Of course this varies somewhat depending on the producer – the 40-produced album highlight “Fuckin’ Problems” has a raw rap tension that the Clams’ track “LVL” transmutes into an almost-religious haze. But somehow Rocky manages even to wrong foot the lasers-chainsaws-and-explosions Skrillex collab “Wild for the Night.” (Something should also be said about Rocky’s curatorial abilities as well – the roster of collaborators and producers is the créme-de-la-créme. In fact, the best verse on the record might come not from Rocky himself but from Big K.R.I.T. on the laid-back posse cut “1 Train.”)
If there was ever a worry that A$AP Rocky was all hype and no substance, Long.Live.A$AP should serve to reverse that fear. Buy this record now. Right now goddammit!
Bars: 5 / 5
A$AP Rocky – Fuckin’ Problems feat. Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar.
07 – F__kin’ Problems feat. Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar
A$AP Rocky – LVL
04 – LVL
A$AP Rocky – 1 Train feat. Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Yelawolf, Danny Brown, Action Bronson & Big K.R.I.T.
09 – 1 Train feat. Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Yelawolf, Danny Brown, Action Bronson & Big K.R.I.T.