As rap critic Jeff Weiss wrote succinctly in a review for Pitchfork: “Rocky embodies the sweat-free cool of someone who has stolen the test and memorized the answers ahead of time." As long as this happens to be the case, perhaps it doesn’t matter whether the parts of his music are always greater than their cumulative sums. Par for the course, A$AP’s curatorial ear and overflowing charisma allowed him to coast on his laurels. Even still, there was much to like across these albums, even amongst the transparent commercial pandering and the messy clutter, respectively. On $AP, for example, Rocky’s obvious attempts to craft a crossover hit led to the release of uninspired, albeit successful cuts like “ Fuckin’ Problems” and “ Wild for the Night.” Similarly, AT.$AP was home to several failed forays into psychedelic experimentation that bogged down an already overstuffed album with self-indulgent tangents. Unfortunately, these albums had their fair share of missteps, too. “Roaches on the wall, roaches on the dresser / Everybody had roaches but our roaches ain't respect us,” he spits, using vivid imagery to momentarily recall the work of some of his more focused peers. Employing intricate flows and descriptive lyrics to document the surreal aspects of his rapid ascendance from poverty to fame, Rocky absolutely floats over one of the most inspired productions in recent memory. Consider, for example, the standout track “Suddenly” from A$AP’s first full-length LP. Having released just two full-length LPs in this time-both of them roughly comparable in quality to his initial mixtape-the sample size of his output is still small enough for us to talk ourselves into believing he has something more to offer.Īcross his two full-length LPs, $AP and AT.$AP, there are certainly moments where the rapper seems to be making the leap into rap’s upper class, just as we’d initially hoped he might back in 2011.
Hopefully people will make better music and influence me to make even better music.Fast forward nearly seven years to the present date, and it’s a bit disappointing to note that the same sentiment reviewers had expressed about Rocky’s music in 2011 could easily still apply to his music today. This is going to be an amazing fucking album and I’m going to hopefully change a bunch of people’s lives again. You know, this shit is a cliché at this point. I want to take a different approach, and I want to challenge the viewer who is tired of hearing the same old shit. I’m still trying to give you a beautiful canvas, but something different. “I’m trying to make sure that I take precaution to where I’m not just drawing out of the lines all crazy, mixing my colors. “I’m experimenting in a more calculated way,” Rocky explained. The direction maintains the same crash test theme we’ve previously seen in several teasers and in another clip uploaded to Elliot Wilson’s socials, it is confirmed that the effort will feature appearances from Kid Cudi, Skepta, and Moby.Įarlier in the year, Rocky sat down with Peter Rosenberg’s on the personality’s "Open Late" show and opened up about his excitement with the body of work.
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