it’s the summer of 2011 and the power of social media and online music streaming is right around the corner but it hasn’t changed the world yet but ASAP Rocky a 23-year-old rapper from New York who basically became an international Star Overnight is a big signal that times are changing he sits at the center of a record-breaking $3 million bidding war after dropping just two songs to the public I bring out on stage with me and he didn’t have a deal at the time I brought him on stage man people went crazy make some for ASAP rock at the
same time though his music was unlike anything that had ever come out of New York before taking heavy inspiration from Houston and Memphis his slow trippy psychedelic songs were controversial 6 months earlier though he was just a kid in Harlem making songs about smoking weed and hanging out he had only been in a recording studio two times in his life please welcome ASAP Rocky now he was leading a movement that would take over the rap game you want some more crazy [ __ ] you want some more but behind the sudden explosion of
Fame stands a young guy dealing with a lifetime of trauma his father spent the last 15 years of his life in prison his brother was murdered when he was a child he spent years homeless in New York City with his mom you know I used to live into a homeless shelter those 2 3 years was just crazy you know being homeless you know so it was a lot who you are everybody has struggled it doesn’t matter how fortunate you are everybody has struggle cuz life is struggle you know you got to struggle to survive so the question was how can a kid carrying
that much pain grow up and change music forever and would the rocket ship towards Fame take its toll on someone who had already been through so much this video is brought to you by nebula the only place where you can watch my original documentary danger music the true story behind some of the most disgusting scary Dangerous Music ever made so go to [Music] nebula.
com of the best creators on the internet more about that later in 1988 Renee black an assistant nurse from New York City with roots in South Africa had a son she and her boyfriend Adrien Myers named him Rakim after one of the stars of the legendary New York rap Duo Eric B and Rakim who were just getting big in the city at the time and Rakim or rocky as he would be known from a young age was born and raised in Harlem one of the most legendary and influential areas of New York City for well over a 100 years Harlem has been known for producing
countless writers actors musicians and more and the neighborhood’s influence didn’t shrink when its black population skyrocketed in the 1930s in in fact it only got even bigger Billy Holiday Louie Armstrong Marcus Garvey and Duke Ellington all grew up in the area after World War II people like James Baldwin Harry bellonte Sammy Davis Jr and Malcolm X all came out of the neighborhood and made their own Global impacts and then in the age of hip-hop Big L Jim Jones qtip and many more became hugely influential rappers all
starting their careers on the streets of Harlem basically Harlem is possibly the craziest cultural Melting Pot in the history of the US in a neighborhood of less than 200,000 people people it’s genuinely crazy how much Global impact in history could come out of one tiny area but while Rocky might have grown up in the middle of the most significant vibrant neighborhood in the greatest city in the world it was also a double-edged sword because Harlem when Rocky was a kid in the 9s was by far the most dangerous and impoverished part of
Manhattan an island of violence and drug trafficking in the middle of the financial capital of the world and Rocky’s childhood mirrored that harsh reality around him after being devastated by the crack epidemic schools in Harlem were failing violence was was a fact of life and opportunity had vanished he wasn’t just growing up in poverty he was born into the kind of environment most Americans only see on screens the Harlem that Rocky was born into was kind of just sad and eventually even Rocky’s family got up and left when
he was 9 years old his parents moved the family to Harrisburg Pennsylvania a small town 3 hours away in the Appalachian Mountains and Harrisburg is where Rocky discovered hip-hop he later told a story about how he went to the music store at the mall and had to discover between buying a set tape of the Mortal Kombat soundtrack or a Rakim album ultimately his older brother convinced him to get the rap album and in that moment when he was only 10 or 11 years old his lifelong passion for hip-hop was born unfortunately though
the Troubles of Harlem followed his family not far behind up until like I was 11 man I had a good life man I’m not going to sit here and lie man I had it all as a child all you want is Jordans and toys and candy and you know and clothes and stuff and my pops used to give me all that [ __ ] man he was a big time Hustler Rocky’s father who he always describes as a cleancut guy who dressed formally and told his kids to be true to themselves had in fact mve them to Pennsylvania so he could traffic drugs more easily my dad went to jail
They seized all the money took away everything and there’s an interview with MTV from 2013 when Rocky was starting to become a bigger player in the music industry in the interview Rocky gave a tour of the exact locations in Harlem that defined his childhood in New York he started at an old apartment building on 116th in morning Side Drive and at first it sounded pretty normal it hasn’t changed much every time I come back I hear the same stories maybe someone got shot someone had a baby or someone went to jail but then the interview got dark
it turns out that life didn’t really change for the better after his mom brought the family back to New York in fact the struggle got worse when Rocky was 13 years old his older brother the same kid who inspired his hairstyle and introduced him to rapping was murdered just a block away from where they lived 10 years ago ruy 26 Ricky was shot and he died that same day I know for a fact my brother has something to do with my success even before he died he had something to do with it so just when things felt like
they couldn’t get worse the family ended up living in a homeless shelter at 104th in Broadway not long after they just didn’t have anywhere else to go had no choice the shelter was on 104th in Broadway it was called vol Volunteers of America there were a lot of hard times in that place but it wasn’t the end of the world because life is what you make it there’s always people out there who have it better but this is a place that helps women and families get on their feet and before you know it things are all right it’s no different than living
in the projects but it’s not easy and that’s when you start idolizing the drug dealers and the hustlers if you’re from any kind of [ __ ] up environment you’ll start to idolize stupid [ __ ] still though a 14-year-old Rocky wasn’t immune to the pressure and the influence of the outside world within a few years he was dealing drugs in Harlem and by the time he was 16 he was booked into jail for attempted murder after he started shooting at a local bully who had pissed him off after the shooting he was booked
into Riker’s Island New York City’s largest jail Infamous for violence and physical and mental abuse of its inmates and often ranked as one of the worst jails in the United States but his cellmate was a kid from Brooklyn just a few years older than him who at only 18 years old was already used to Life Behind Bars and ended up protecting Rocky the whole time he was there making sure that people stayed away from the kid who pretty obviously didn’t belong it was only years later once Rocky became a famous rapper that he realized
The Kid From Brooklyn who protected him on Rikers Island had become a well-known artist in his own way going by the name kasanova it was ASAP Rocky who was talking about you and he said that when he was in jail you actually helped him you looked out for him a home girl of M was I guess in the same area as him and he was like uh I guess a a topic came up about jail and he was like I don’t like jail uh- I’m never going to jail again or whatever the case be and she’s like you ain’t been to jail he’s like what I’ve been to jail I know dude name cast
no he saved me you know what I’m saying showed me the Rope Rocky was only locked up for 2 weeks until his family got him bailed out but he later said that that experience changed his life forever making him realize that he never wanted to be in that situation again prove by telling [ __ ] I’ve been on on an island I was in jail all that don’t mean nothing to me that’s not what it’s about it’s about staying out of there and that’s why that’s what I meant when I said when I said to y’all I love y’all and I get it cuz I was there too he
wasn’t a tough guy he was in fact just a creative kid who was interested in fashion music and art and he always had been and not long after that he would meet the friends who would change his life forever without whom ASAP Rocky the world famous rapper would probably never exist in 2006 the year after Rocky was fighting for his life on Riker’s Island a half Puerto Rican half Dominican kid from Harlem named Steven Rodriguez who went by yams was making a name for himself in the music industry yams wasn’t a producer or rapper himself
though instead he was the creative director a real creative director though not a rich kid who walks around in tacky outfits pretending to be artistic because after landing the opportunity to be an unpaid intern packing up mixtapes for Dipset he eventually built a hugely well-known Tumblr account that he used to promote underground rappers with memes and reposts he had the taste and the natural ability to build up and Market just about anything and in 2007 he formed the ASAP Mob short for always strive to prosper with a few friends
from around Harlem at first it was more of a group group of people who knew each other doing their own thing dressing up hanging out downtown and posting photos more than anything [Music] else pretty soon realized that if he was able to manage producers and make money off of it why not build his own brand and take full creative control meanwhile across Harlem Rocky who was now 19 or 20 was making his own music with a different crew my crew was named MDB right and ASAP like I was in between like both Crews type [ __ ] right MDB was
more like a get money like Harlem type of crew type [ __ ] ASAP was like more of like Get Fly go downtown get some get girls get money type [ __ ] right from the Bronx and Harlem kind from the Bronx and Harlem type [ __ ] right but we would go down to Soho we’ll go down to like Lower East Side and all that downtown and [ __ ] hang out fig yeah yeah type [ __ ] at and when yams first heard about him never having met him before even though they were from the same neighborhood and knew a lot of the same people he
immediately realized that Rocky might be something special and when I met them it was in Harlem it was it was a mixture of Bronx and Harlem dudes when I came in I’m just like yo I know how to take this [ __ ] to the next level but you know I was on some rapping [ __ ] they was just everybody was on some just get Fly and fashion model [ __ ] right so I was just trying to figure out how to monetize it or whatever you know what I’m saying and capitalize so and ASAP used to treat yams like he was like Yoda or some [ __ ]
like for real yeah they praising yams wanted to rewrite the rules of New York hip-hop he had the taste the vision and the ambition to build something bigger than himself all he needed was a blank slate to work on and he immediately felt like Rocky could be the perfect person to take from a local rapper with a man bun to a global phenomenon who changes hip-hop forever first though he had to teach Rocky how to make a good song yams later said this about meeting Rocky for the first time when I first met him he
sounded like kid cuy mixed with Lil Wayne he used to sound more like a stoner rapper and I just wasn’t trying to hear it not trying to hear about people getting high and smoking does I was trying to hear some real [ __ ] when I first met Rocky he had only recorded three tracks and had barely ever gone in the studio before he didn’t know how to work it sounded like he was mumbling he needed to get everything together and so once he convinced Rocky to follow his lead nothing would be the same again he later said so I got linked up with Rocky
and stuff like that and then me him click just like that I knew what was a perfect sound for him and he he he he know what he wanted for him self stylistically because the effort that yams put in to build Rocky up paid off a lot faster than anyone expected one minute he was a badly dressed 22-year-old rapper in Harlem with a pin straight man bun sounding more like Ice JJ Fish than an actual artist and then practically overnight he was the future of New York hip-hop because it would only take one single song before Rocky’s
career was set in stone Rocky’s first single after linking up with yams Purple Swag didn’t sound like anything that had ever come out of New York City before but it hit hard as hell and it became an instant hit with an iconic video and a sound that was described as Andre 3000 meets Houston east coast rap with a slow druggy Southern Sound it was something that had really never been done before it ended up hitting local radio stations in under a week leading to a domino effect that made ASAP Rocky a huge Topic
in New York basically overnight it’s really good to hear myself on a radio today you know I mean that’s [ __ ] like that is pretty dope we don’t to turn on the radio I don’t know no I don’t know any DJ Personnel I don’t know no DJs they play all that ASAP [ __ ] off their own free will when he first came out with these songs Purple Swag and peso he immediately had all eyes on him but a lot of people had a big issue with a degree to which his sound was influenced by Southern hip-hop but it wasn’t just a light-hearted debate either a lot of
people may have felt he was coming up with a revolutionary new idea but many others felt he was abandoning and disrespecting New York’s Legacy while stealing from the south at the same time that might sound pretty unimaginable today but back then staying true to your city or state was pretty important and ASAP Rocky is one of the earliest examples of someone breaking through that barrier now despite the fact that this kid is from New York he doesn’t really sound like a New York rapper to me I would have never guessed this guy
was from the East Coast if he didn’t bring it up in his music so often but what many critics failed to predict was that he wasn’t simply disrespecting New York rap or biting another City’s sound people could say uh anything they want about Rocky talk about oh he he he sound like he’s from here he sounds like he’s from there I don’t care what nobody says people don’t know what New York rap sounds like in 2012 cuz it’s been so messed up for the past 5 years you can get with the program or stain a pass and pop bottles and to corny records and
things of that nature it’s it’s about daring to differ and I feel like that’s really missing in hip-hop these days people are scared to be different or be themselves for that matter the thing is though that Rocky wasn’t moving different just to be different there are actually dozens of interviews of Rocky from this time sitting in long-forgotten corners of YouTube that show it wasn’t that he didn’t care it was that he had his own Vision he didn’t want to compromise he wasn’t just some disrespectful kid he was someone chasing
a goal on a whole other level with his own beliefs and culture even Rocky’s interviews from back then were controversial because he seemed to have no problem saying stuff that most people in his position wouldn’t I’m I kick down the door for kids that my that’s my age older and younger to be able to wear Jeremy Scott sneakers rips in their jeans and not feel gay because that’s what you know Society of the urban community tries to portray that if you do certain things like you know snug fashion highend fashion other things
that’s not really in the criteria of the small State of Mind of the urban community you’re gay different is gay I used to be homophobic but as I got older I realized that wasn’t the way to do things you know what I’m saying like I don’t discriminate against anybody for the sexual preference for their skin color that’s immature you know not only that not only do I know the difference between that but I’m wise enough to know that that’s just stupid and wrong and I’m just trying to set the bar that you can do what the [ __ ] you want to do
because the world is yours again though Rocky coming out with such a random yet authentic personality wasn’t him being weird it was him embracing his real life and what he really thought and leveraging it to the biggest extent he could and the craziest part was that Rocky had done all of this without ever looking for approval from people in the city one of the biggest quotes from him after this big break was I don’t even consider myself to be a real New York rapper I don’t even like New York rappers not only did Rocky and yams not
seek approval from their City to help on the come up they outright rejected it and ultimately listeners loved Rocky’s first two singles so much that yams had industry contacts beefing with him because he wasn’t even picking up the phone to have a conversation about signing Rocky to a label after Purple Swag dropped that was the most annoying time everyone in the industry hated me they were saying [ __ ] yams why doesn’t he pick up the phone Rocky needs actual serious management but what happened was I turned my phone off people were just
bothering us they were trying to give us the new artist deal the $50,000 to $100,000 [ __ ] deal and I said I’m good but all the signs point to one culprit yams yams got him to to try a new sound and new lyrics he pushed him to get better at rapping he ran blogs that he used to put Rocky’s Music in front of an online audience he set up the blueprint for Rocky to sign a neck breaking eye watering record deal when they were both 23 years old I’m the boss of the whole operation like nothing goes through without me and Rocky approving
at first and whatever Rocky does I make sure I’m I’m hands on with all of that stuff I would consider Rocky to be Luke Skywalker and I’ll probably be like Yodo most importantly though yams had the rare gift of being able to perfectly understand how to make things blow up online in a time when that wasn’t even a thought in most people’s minds today record labels practically forc their artists to make trendy Tik Tok videos dancing in front of cameras doing everything but making music in the hopes of making themselves go viral but back
then what yams did with Rocky was practically unheard of and that’s why it worked so well with fashion photos memes videos quotes not chasing industry co-signs or label support but instead building a digital presence that ensured people all over the world would perceive Rocky as a rising icon and while people might have been intimidated or angry or even offended by that at first in reality it was nothing but a sign of how the entire industry would operate in just a few years was it crazy sort of the impact you made so quickly on
hip-hop do you find yeah I find that fascinating I find it crazy it’s radical for the simple fact that I did all of it off of mixtape it’s not a commercial album meaning there was no money invested or pushed into it you know was no machine behind it it was all organic and natural it’s not like it was forced like you turn on your TV every 5 minutes you hear the song it wasn’t like that you know it was just something that you know people did on their own time was that a crazy trip though or did you sort of expect that did you just have that
feeling you know I’m going to do this it’s good because you know you’re a talented dude yeah I always felt talented I just didn’t I always wanted that and I always hoped for it and I always felt like it was possible and that’s how I try to keep my attitude because they needed something different in hip-hop I changed SI out within a year yeah yeah man nowadays many commentators say that it might do more harm than good to rely on your local identity to get established but when Rocky did it was like he and yams had
flipped the whole game on its head and so in a way ignoring those local label calls offering 50 or $100,000 to sign Rocky was probably the best decision yams ever made because RCA ended up giving ASAP Rocky a $3 million deal after he had only dropped two songs an amount of money that was almost unheard of many people called it the biggest record deal since 50 Cent first single peso which received a ton of attention online but it was his follow-up track Purple Swag that managed to snag him a 2-year $3 million record deal before he
even released a full mixtape and then just a couple of days after Rocky was signed for $3 million with only two songs out he dropped one of the best mixtapes ever made live love ASAP wasn’t just a mixtape it was the dawn of a new era dropping on Halloween in 2011 it was the the musical equivalent of designer fashion familiar yet alien at the same time the artist that I’m just like [ __ ] I just flew pass them because it’s like they they don’t have any kind of creative aesthetic it’s just you know you know let’s get a bottle in a car and
some [ __ ] and get in front of the camera it wasn’t just Rocky’s big first statement it was a big step forward for rap as a whole live love ASAP definitely wasn’t universally loved though in fact a lot of people just hated ASAP Rocky when this first came out and he was getting prob every criticism you could imagine you know what I think this is once again kind of like um the tler situation I think this is a young C you know the dude’s 23 24 years old he made he made an album for people that were young this is not something that people
our age are going to listen to not only that like when I put this on I literally just like me I literally got to track and I turned it off finally got I was like man I I I was like this can’t be the right album yeah that’s it’s [ __ ] horrible and and I hate to talk bad about the dude CU I heard he’s a really nice guy but this album is horrendous so this [ __ ] got a $3 million deal and there’s still dudes out there struggling but still its impact was going to be massive anyway with Rocky becoming an absolute rock
star for kids in the younger generation it didn’t really matter what the critic said the tide had already changed in his favor and we can’t talk about live love ASAP without diving deep into the Ethereal soundscapes crafted by clam’s Casino a New Jersey based producer who wasn’t just a collaborator with Rocky but instead the architect who helped shape the foundation of Rocky’s early sound bringing the magic ingredient that made live love ASAP a classic mixtape overnight and keeps it Timeless to this day clam’s beats were beautiful and
dreamlike these hazy floating compositions that still sound new in 2025 and I’m not the only one who thinks that either a new remix of a Rocky and clam’s casino song was just re released a year ago and it has half a billion streams on Spotify despite being built off a song from 2011 because what clam’s casino brought to live love ASAP was more than just beats it was atmosphere almost no one was making music like this at the time but even the people who were weren’t shooting up into the mainstream like Rocky was but that Loi psychedelic
dreamlike trap inspired sound would go on to inspire so many other artists like Playboy cardi young lean and hundreds more in the end Liv love ASAP did a ton to get that dreamy fuzzy sound out there in the world and that’s mostly thanks to yams and his skill for curating sounds Rocky wasn’t the best rapper ever at least not yet but there’s an originality to everything that makes it stand out to this day in under 6 months ASAP Rocky had gone from being a nobody sitting up in Harlem making songs about smoking
weed to being one of the hottest rappers in the game in the summer of 2012 he was at Coachella the Pitchfork Music Festival only further proving that him and yams had unlocked the cheat code for a new era of [Music] artists but Rocky became an instant icon with just one mixtape out in the world the fan base the impact and the cult of personality around him was unprecedented Rocky and his crew were so tapped in that everyone wanted to be like them if you were into hip-hop or not they were making an impact all over the world
people loved Rocky he was on stage getting bras thrown at him he had so many groupies that he later discussed the sex addiction he developed back then whether it was men or women with men wanting to dress like him and women wanting to be with him he was reaching a different level of underground meets mainstream Fame at the same time but even ASAP Rocky couldn’t be loved by everybody and I’ve mentioned this already but the sound that propelled him to fame so quickly was in a lot of ways thanks to the team of producers and
curators around him another person who was a big part of that growth was Space Ghost per who wrapped on two songs from live love ASAP and also produced a track for the mixtape as well ASAP raggy you know what I mean that pretty [ __ ] you know it’s my twins face those [ __ ] Parts but not long after that he ended up accusing Rocky of stealing his lyrics and he even said that he had been jumped and beat up in New York by guys from ASAP Mob when he told them he didn’t want to work with the crew anymore space go per man what’s going on with that b f
him him straight up you know what I’m saying he one of those cats like a lot of guys just hang around me try to get high you know when they dip off start throwing dirt on the young BL they can’t stop the pretty mother you know what I’m saying still though a lot of people discuss to this day how much influence Space Ghost had on ASAP Mob early on he helped establish the Aesthetics and the sounds that they brought to a bigger stage The Story Goes that Rocky was heavily influenced by Space Ghost flows beats fashion and even lyricism with
Space Ghost per having started building on the hazy cloudy Houston Memphis Sound before ASAP Rocky and yams did but even though he was influential his aggressive lashing out and controversial tactics made it difficult for people to understand if he was being truthful from the start [ __ ] Miami [ __ ] [ __ ] Atlanta [ __ ] Chicago [ __ ] all you [ __ ] [ __ ] La [ __ ] Texas [ __ ] [ __ ] La wait [ __ ] New York and ultimately because of his tragic struggle with mental illness his story talent and influence is mostly
forgotten even though Rocky kept growing in the mainstream for years he was even later spotted living on the streets in Florida suffering from episodes of mental illness tragically space goes per fell off the map and never really had a place in the music industry again after his falling out with Rocky long live ASAP dropped in the winter of 2013 a more mature bigger better version of the debut mixtape heard around the world an album with basically a million-dollar budget where Rocky and yams could do whatever they wanted and for this
project they had a mission they wanted to make the statement that ASAP Rocky could be a huge artist and keep his sound at the same time Wild For The Night is this really weird song that shows Rocky’s versatility with him collaborating with Skrillex creating this chaotic EDM rap hybrid that most people make fun of today but definitely went hard back then and then one train is the Kendrick Lamar Joey Badass yellow wolf Danny Brown Action Bronson big crit posy cut 6 minutes long with no hook just bars after bars over a haunting
minimal beat and then fashion killer was a pretty big sleeper hit that reveals Rocky’s softer side and cements his connection to the Fashion World with its smooth light production making it a cool laid-back song that was almost more pop Than Rap with more choruses than rap verses and then there are a lot of parts off Long Live ASAP that are downright weird honestly even weirder than anything from his mixtape jod is this demonic song where Rocky raps harder than ever on top of this ’90s video game sample that sounds like a gargoyle and
then there’s I come apart that finds him working directly with the lead vocalists from the British Indie poop band Florence and the Machine to create this beautiful genre defying pop ballad and all of this comes together to just showcase this wild willingness to experiment outside traditional HP boundaries it’s these moments of artistic risk-taking that revealed ASAP Rocky wasn’t just chasing hits he was genuinely pushing himself creatively he was willing to take risks and do things that weren’t being done one of the more
interesting songs from this era that didn’t make it onto the final album was riding with Lana Del re it was originally intended to be a single for Long Live ASAP but it was cancelled after it leaked in an unfinished state ASAP Rocky later said this her music is dope she’s a huge inspiration for me and I feel like she’s a female version of me Rocky had started off saying he he didn’t want to be a New York rapper and he meant it with a debut album featuring Drake Kendrick Lamar’s Skrillex Florence in the machine and even Danger Mouse and
clam’s casino he was making good on that promise 2 years later ASAP Rocky was on a whole other level he was no longer the weird kid making kind of underground music that didn’t fit with the rest of New York and sure enough he and yams were still working together as close as ever and for the next project they had a new Direction in mind after already having perfected Cloud wrap they were chasing after a new vibe this time they set their sights on psychedelic rap putting together ideas from neo soul singer songwriters and even Rock and
folk to make something new again the album would be executive produced by Danger Mouse a producer from New York known for working in the past with artists like Nora Jones Red Hot Chili Peppers MF Doom and Adele it doesn’t get more diverse than that I’ve always wanted to work with him and he worked with me man and is he’s been a mentor since and a big brother and more than anything just a a really good daring friend he’s a he’s a good friend to a friend of mine and I really appreciate him and got me through some hard times
in my life you know and always been there for me always had my back even when it doesn’t have anything to do with business and not only did they have a legendary 30 times Grammy nominated goat like Danger Mouse in the studio they also had help from massive figures like Mark Ronson Juicy J Mike Dean and even Kanye West among many others the album would feature artists like future Mia Lil Wayne Rod Stewart and even Bones the world they were building with this project was that of a massive Blockbuster with Niche and mainstream
taste I mean people in hip-hop they haven’t hurt I would you can’t categorize this as a trip hop album or a cloud rap album it’s just like you don’t how do you categorize it so I I feel like it’s just a contemporary album and for me I wanted to try my best to create a masterpiece and inspire people and put them on in things because like I said my my error a lot of them are oblivious they don’t know about like alternative music or psychedelic music for that matter so I try to put them on to it but then just a week after they dropped the
lead single for this new album yams died suddenly at the age of 26 at first ASAP Mob announced that he had tragically passed from complications of sleep apnea but further investigation showed that he had accidentally overdosed on drugs either way in that moment the soul of the ASAP Mob was gone worst of all was something that Rocky would only start to discuss many years later that he was the one who found yam’s body on the day he died yams wasn’t just Rocky’s creative partner he was the Visionary the leader
The Mastermind that guided and created everything about the ASAP Mob he was the one who put Rocky on the right path worked with him and made him into who he was he had figured out how to market the music what it should sound like and everything in between most people seemed to agree that without yams Rocky probably never would have made it in music and right when they had evolved to the next level of music together Rocky lost his brother his mentor and his creative partner in one terrible moment hundreds and thousands of Articles were
written about yam’s passing at just 26 years old he had already become one of the most influential creative entrepreneurs of his generation at long last ASAP was hugely successful people liked it even more than long live ASAP with critics praising its psychedelic soundscapes and emotional depth the album debuted at number one on the billboard charts and it represented Rocky’s artistic growth with tracks like the dreamy atmosphere of LSD everyday featuring Rod Stewart and the crazy Chemistry Between Rocky and school boy Q
on electric body before long it started to be seen as one of the best rap albums of the 2010s the album also prominently features guitar and vocals from an amateur British artist named Joe Fox that Rocky met while on a late night walk in London in 2014 and so with a sound defined by the low-key alternative production from Danger Mouse The Haunting beauty of Joe Fox’s vocals and guitar and a long list of diverse influences and ideas at long last a was a huge creative victory for Rocky and yams at the time it was so hyped that
conversations about Rocky being one of the best rappers in the game were starting to be had back then in 2015 it wasn’t unheard of for someone to say that Rocky might be able to reach the caliber that artists like Kendrick Lamar jcole and others were chasing after at the time when they talk about the future of hip-hop and changing the game they mention your name they mentioned Kendrick they mentioned J they mentioned Tyler are you comfortable carrying that weight of course yeah still though the album’s roll out was marked by sadness
since the album roll out had already started when yams passed away the entire process was overshadowed by grief but to honor yam’s Legacy ASAP Mob established an annual Memorial show that became a huge tradition in New York in 2015 and 2016 would be big years for the ASAP Mob yams had been heavily involved in the planning and production of ASAP mob’s first group mixtape cozy tapes volume 1 which ended up reaching the top five of the US hip-hop charts and featured artists like Lil Uzi Tyler the Creator offset skepta and Playboy
cardi and then they did another mixtape less than a year later which again had an All-Star cast and was just as successful with hits like Raph and frat rules but after everything when he passed yams left a huge void in the collective he had started and built from the ground up because today the ASAP Mob is a distant memory the second mixtape despite being a hit was the last thing they would ever do as a group ASAP YMS being gone the family vibe that defined them was replaced by something a lot more uncertain and many ASAP members
seem to have lost their way then ASAP Bari one of the founding members with Ys faced a pretty serious sexual assault allegation in 2017 that resulted in a huge lawsuit it not only damaged his reputation but it caused a lot of strain within the group with members being forced to publicly address the situation and stand with or against him either way putting their reputations on the line no matter what they said ASAP an ended up leaving the group in 2019 and then ASAP 12 despite releasing his debut album in 2017 never managed to break through to
mainstream success even ASAP Nast despite big fashion influence struggled to establish himself as a solo artist but the this the news indust street is you’re not in ASAP are you or you not well I don’t think there is Asap anymore it’s like the whole Collective has like yeah I don’t when is it it’s not a a cozy tape out a new one or it’s I think it’s a thing of the past so it’s Ferg now you’re not ASAP Ferg anymore yeah the community that was once there fell apart the magic was gone and ASAP Mob slowly became a memory of the past for
most of its fans it even got to a point where a lot of the more casual fans thought that ASAP Rocky’s name was ASAP and didn’t even know he was connected to a collective in the past at one point he even ended up paying for the funerals of several ASAP mod members who passed a couple couple years after yams including one who was killed and one who died of a drug overdose but eventually even Rocky started struggling too his third album would end up being his most musically ambitious but it was also deeply divisive and it left critics and fans
confused on the direction of his artistic evolution in a huge way in late 2017 Rocky announced testing an album that he immediately from day one announced would be an experiment and even though it was the first album he worked on without yams with features from Frank Ocean skepta FKA twigs Mobi kid cdy and More in production from people like Dean Blunt Clams Casino and blood orange Rocky’s creative Spirit was clearly just as strong as ever he said French Montana and Frank Ocean on the same song I want to do things that you
would never hear mixtures and combinations that were unheard of but unfortunately for Rocky the risk didn’t exactly pay off testing would be his first studio album to not debut at number one on the billboard charts peing at number four throwing a giant stick in the spokes of his success as someone who previously considered one of the biggest rappers of the time even worse a lot of people absolutely hated this album ASAP Rocky is an awful singer and he’s barely holding it together as a rapper these days I’m feeling a strong for to a light
five on this album and song don’t even sound finished a lot of these songs don’t even sound finished to me like I’m like what is he doing oh my god when when like call drops yeah [ __ ] sleep praise the Lord I was just like this [ __ ] sounds so unfinished I’m like at the same time though it might be my favorite project he ever worked on there’s something melancholic and Bittersweet about a lot of the songs off testing that makes it feel totally unique especially towards the end whether it’s the sad bluesy verse from
Kodak Black singing through a prison phone or the slow trippy emotional Beats from 143rd which producer blood orange said was meant to feel like a cross between ’90s Memphis rap and the legendary rock band the coatu twins testing is a genuinely beautiful and thoughtful project and then there’s the lyrics which are in my opinion some of the realist Rocky ever wrote I don’t think anyone would say lyricism had ever been ASAP Rocky’s main focus he’s always been a really talented good rapper and a lot of his verses were cool and
memorable but it was never quite the part of his music most people talked about but a lot of the lyrics on testing revealed a whole new dimension to Rocky as a person and what he was going through at the time Purity is probably the most obvious example where he and Frank Ocean WRA sentimental lyrics over a Lauren Hill sample and during Rocky’s verse he opens up about his sister’s passing just after the cozy tapes came out talking about how he’s lost someone in his life right around the release of all of his projects with yams dying just
before long last ASAP and his father passing away not long before he dropped long live ASAP in 2013 and while testing does have bangers like praise the Lord [ __ ] sleep and ASAP forever all being pretty successful when this record dropped these more sensitive thoughtful sentimental songs tell an interesting story about the person Rocky was becoming behind the big almost Invincible facade of the fashion icon Rockstar pretty boy rapper but overall for me it’s just as musically interesting as the rest of his work with
a wide range of sounds and moods and a beautiful feeling of melancholy throughout the project when it failed to become a commercial or critical hit though most fans thought that Rocky would come back pretty soon and try again to keep building on his legacy and make sure the game didn’t forget about him I think the last thing people expected was that he wouldn’t drop another album for the next 7 years it wasn’t that ASAP Rocky didn’t make music or just completely disappeared since 2018 though not at all he actually
announced his fourth album All Smiles just a year after testing dropped but that seemed to have been eventually delayed and then scrapped shortly after that though he got into a relationship with Rihanna who we called the love of his life and not long after they had two kids and pretty quickly for Rocky now in his early 30s fatherhood became a huge priority he said this I don’t think there are many people in my culture who advocate for fatherhood and Parenthood the player Persona is very pushed when you think about a rapper you think about
adolescence and the single bachelor lifestyle what completes my life now is being Pres as a partner and a parent my evolution is embodying and embracing fatherhood Parenthood companionship and family it was a pretty big turn for someone who had once said he was addicted to sex since he was a teenager and it’s not like he wasn’t busy with work either shortly after modeling for BGA last year he launched a ready to wear collection under Aug at Paris Fashion Week his creative agency that was also responsible for a lot of the
amazing music videos and visuals he’s put out over the years Rocky described the collection as ghetto expressionism inspired by the Aesthetics of Tim Burton films and artists like Outcast from Fashion Magazine the impression Rocky’s collection features unconventional designs such as backlist business suits and layered hip-hop style outfits with multiple waistbands the rapper described the collection as political satire inspired by poverty homelessness mass incarceration and capitalism notable looks included models carrying garbage
bags full of money and outfits embellished with references to American symbols like the flag and Uncle Sam Rocky Drew inspiration from personal experiences including growing up in a homeless shelter of course during the this time Rocky also dropped a whiskey brand modeled for Gucci perfume and dropped Puma sneakers with F1 but it wasn’t all positive in 2019 Rocky was arrested and jailed in Sweden after getting into an argument with a group of people who had been following him around Stockholm spending a month in a Swedish
jail on assault charges before getting cleared to go home after president Donald Trump threatened trade restrictions against the Swedish government if they didn’t send him back right after that the covid pandemic hit which delayed countless album releases and then shortly after that in addition to becoming a father and a family man Rocky was arrested by LAPD and charged with assault with a deadly weapon beginning a legal battle that would cost millions of dollars and go on for more than 2 years the story was that he got
confronted by a former ASAP member in La over whether or not he would pay for the funeral for another ASAP member who passed not long before and the situation allegedly led to Rocky shooting at his former friend when the argument got physical although it was later shown that Rocky had in fact covered the funeral out of pocket the murky specifics around the alleged shooting eventually turned into a trial that got pushed out for several years with Rocky facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison eventually he was finally found
not guilty by a jury on February 18th 2025 but despite the favorable outcome Rocky was forced to push back his fourth album into sometime in 2025 after he had already promised that his fourth record don’t be dumb would first come out on August 30th then in the fall and then in the winter of 2024 with his legal battle going on for longer than expected though all these targets were missed and there’s still no official release date in the spring of the next year and in the Years following testing Rocky dropped more than 10 lead singles all of
them stylistically interesting but most if not all of them being failed starts to various album rollouts especially for don’t be dumb when in the summer of 2024 he was on a press run and it seemed like the album was really about to drop and it ended up not coming out it led to a lot of these kind of weird half forgotten singles that didn’t make as big of an impact as they were supposed to just because the album rollouts never really got finished which is actually really sad because a lot of these songs like DMB
hijack Taylor Swift and same problems are some of the most interesting tracks Rocky’s dropped in a long time there’s unique production beautiful songwriting interesting themes and an atmosphere unlike anything else he’s worked on and it’s sad to see them go underappreciated it’s been 7even years since testing and during that time Drake has dropped eight fulllength projects Kendrick Lamar put out two huge albums Kanye West dropped five records I mean it’s been a lifetime when testing dropped I was a teenager who didn’t even
have a driving license yet and now I’m 25 years old I think a lot of Rocky’s original fans feel the same way too but the thing about Rocky is that he stuck so close to the Artistry and all the music he did make that it’s still Timeless today there’s a reason why Rocky’s Music from 15 years ago still goes viral today when almost no other artist could say the same not I’m an overall artist I’m not just just a rapper and and that’s why I appeal to people because I grew up around like hipsters and stuff like that Vice
magazine supported us in the beginning plus Rocky had a huge influence on artists that would come after him that’s like that’s that’s around the time just like his his it was going too crazy like everything influen was was just flco Rocky man he like a whole package though you know what I’m saying like he is and so ultimately while Rocky’s time at the top of the charts might be behind him his legacy speaks to something that’s more important than just numbers my concern isn’t being the best my concern is doing my best that’s just about it
and for any artist trying to find the path Rocky’s career is proof that authenticity and courage matters a lot more than following Trends or playing it safe I realized that the reason why most people most artists make the music that they make is because they want to sell records to make money because they feel like that’s what’s needed for pop culture and I’m here to tell them that you can make alternative music and make more money than your favorite pop rapper and there’s another lesson in there too despite becoming known around in the
world famous for so many different things and becoming this Larger than Life almost absurd cartoon character Rocky’s past never completely disappeared in a 2024 interview with billboard where he took a video team through Harlem he stops to pause for a minute and reflect on his brother’s death talking about Ricky being killed when Rocky was 13 years old dying on the same block he was born on most people think of him as a big crazy rock star who’s defined by an obsession with women in sex and drugs and expensive fashion
but that doesn’t mean that those two things the big Rockstar rapper and the kid kid who had been through a lot of pain aren’t connected in 2015 after the death of yams he said I’m a happy spirit and I feel like Time Heals life is about good people with good energy and I’ll be fine God is good and I keep Hope and Faith it is kind of something that Rocky has always kept at the edge of his persona but one journalist did ask him about this to his face they said it leaves me wondering whether the many tragedies in ASAP Rocky’s life left
scars on him I raised the question with him but it’s not a subject he wants to discuss very much he ERS with ambivalence saying probably before falling quiet until I change the subject and so it isn’t exactly something that he yells out loudly in his music and he even avoids the topic in interviews but it’s clearly something that’s followed him through his career art and life even while he was changing the game making big hits and Classic Albums you’ll sometimes catch a lyric or a song where Rocky looks straight at the trauma and
the grief just for a minute and then goes right back to his optimistic creative Persona on testing he talks about his career even being curs feeling like he couldn’t escape tragedy no matter how high he climbed and so throughout his whole discography there are these powerful moments of vulnerability where he drops the Invincible Persona and opens up about his struggles these glimpses into his psyche whether it’s about his brother’s death losing yams or reflecting on his journey from homeless shelters to fame
it adds layers of depth these moments may not Define Rocky’s catalog of music but it shows that his Persona isn’t just about being cool it’s his own way of taking back control and healing from things he’s been through by Reinventing himself with with art and fashion and self-expression he changed his own life forever being a dad to two kids making music that’s more imaginative than ever before while people still bump his old stuff like it’s new all of that is genuinely the happiest ending someone like him could ask for he might have
stopped chasing the title of the biggest rapper in the game but when your legacy is already solidified and when you’ve already changed everything why not take a step back and change yourself for the better as well most of all though the story of ASAP Rocky it shows People Like Us trying to find our own paths that your past doesn’t have to Define your future I think for a lot of people who come from a difficult background it feels impossible to take risks it feels impossible to reinvent yourself or even express your emotions to the outside
world when it feels like you’ve been through so much ASAP Rocky in his own way shows that that doesn’t have to stop us from being who we want to be which in the end is worth more than all the streams and record sales in the world and there have been many times I feel like I don’t even get to choose what to cover on my channel because of the algorithm the pressure to prolific it can be stronger than the pressure to be creative even this video was risky to make because Rocky may have a fascinating story but you never know if
people will care about this or just want to swipe through shorts and Tik toks instead of watching a full documentary one of the projects I really struggled to make for YouTube was danger music it’s a documentary I made about the history of violent music with all of the raw footage included talking about bands that committed murder and burned down buildings over their music performers that hurt the audience or destroyed the concert venue or threw poop at their fans as part of the show I think it might be obvious why ultimately it’s not
on YouTube because it just isn’t a YouTube video danger music is a nebula original funded by and exclusively available on nebula because of their mission to be the best place for creators to make work that we couldn’t make anywhere else they gave me the resources to make the best documentary I possibly could and I think it turned out really great nebula is a platform I own and co-founded with other creators as a place where we can Elevate ourselves to a level beyond what we were previous ly capable of we’ve come together to create
our own platform and it’s quickly becoming the most interesting fastest growing independent video platform anywhere it’s not our safe haven it’s not a place to hide from the rules it’s a place to grow and Blossom into something completely different nebula has produced Originals like Lindsay Ellis’s ballot of John and Yogo which Dives deep into the unintended consequences of the murder of John lennin it’s a beautiful documentary exploring one of the strangest stories in modern music history and they have even more interesting shows like the
in-depth geopolitics show modern conflicts or jet lag which is a travel game show where the players use the literal real world as their sandbox it’s a unique concept which is exciting and wouldn’t be possible without nebula we’re even producing a movie it’s called the dinner plan it’s directed by Patrick Williams it’s coming out in a few months and it got covered in variety one of the most popular entertainment magazines in the world so nebula is becoming the answer to the question how do you make art or content that’s as high quality
and interesting as traditional media without the corruption and exploitation associated with that industry I’ve always wanted to take my videos to the next level and make them more substantiated and more interesting than ever before and nebula is enabling that for our entire list of creators better stories better production value taking creators to the next level is what nebula is all about and it’s only getting better as time goes on so if you want to join a platform that’s pushing entertainment forward enabling us to
make things we never could have made before you can get access to exclusives like my danger music documentary and highquality thoughtful videos from hundreds of other creators like Adam Neely Todd in the shadows polyphonic FD signifier Bobby broccoli and countless other storytellers you should join nebula today so go check out my show danger music or jet lag or the ballot of John and Yoko by going to nebula.
com anywhere it’s also affordable I even have a nebula exclusive class breaking down my entire video production process from writing to graphics and more which I think a lot of you would enjoy as well it’s not just any project it’s my project and it’s a project you don’t want to miss out on
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
