What kind of rapper is asap rocky

He argued that the historically vibrant neighborhood has lost its character and that where once kids had fun in the streets there are now "police everywhere.

Rocky said his sense of style was influenced by watching hip-hop videos as a kid. When he was starting out, Rocky made a habit of referring to himself as a weirdo because of the way he dressed and the kind of music he listened to, but he's done with that now.

The influence of Houston hip-hop on Rocky's music is well established, and while listening to the legendary Houston hip-hop group the Geto Boyz was his first exposure to the sound, it was "Still Tippin'" in that turned his world upside down. Though Rocky acknowledged that "a lot of the most dope hip-hop is coming out of Atlanta," he said too many rappers from the ATL are imitating each other, specifically comparing Que's hit " O.

The album debuted at number one on the Billboard , making it Rocky's second consecutive album to debut at number one and has received positive reviews from music critics. He is also a noted record producer, producing under the pseudonym Lord Flacko. His father was from Barbados, and his mother is American. He has an older sister, Erika B. Mayers' first name was taken from the hip hop artist Rakim, one half of the Eric B.

Mayers started rapping at the age of 9, when he moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He learned how to rap from his older brother, who also wore the French braids hairdo that Mayers later adopted.

When Mayers was 12 years old, his father went to jail in connection with selling drugs; he died in When Mayers was 13, his brother was killed in Harlem. The death inspired Rocky to take rapping more seriously. Rocky's taste in fashion is what got him into the Mob in the first place. Rocky recognized a fellow traveler and befriended him, and Relli started bringing him to Mob hangouts.

Once he was in, Rocky proceeded to transform the crew into a potent force in the fashion world. One of their earliest statements was making purses look hard, over a decade before bright Birkins and Louis Vuitton crossbodies became hip-hop's most ubiquitous accessories.

You put your weed in there, you put your money in there, you put your pistol in there, you put your MetroCard in there, you put your lean in there. Rocky's red-carpet get-down, meanwhile, was to show up dripping like a rich grandmother, with a silk scarf jauntily knotted around his head as casually as a hoodie, a pile of pearls swinging from his neck, and a lacy blouse, buttoned low.

If that doesn't sound particularly radical today, that's because Rocky's been carrying the flag at the front of menswear's charge toward more fluid silhouettes and accessories since Instagram was invented.

In fact, a decade before he wore a kilt on the cover of GQ, he wore one in Harlem. Did he care? I do it on some punk shit. Like the similarly fashion-obsessed Kanye West and Frank Ocean, Rocky has parlayed his status and fame and style into a gate-crashing multidimensional artistic practice. He is an actor, having appeared in 's Monster, which follows a year-old honor student on trial for involvement in a murder in Harlem.

He is a designer who is as comfortable overhauling his favorite Needles track pants as he is creating stilettos with Amina Muaddi, as he did last year. His dream collaboration, he tells me, would not be in music or fashion but with A24, the cool-guy Hollywood film distributor behind 's Waves, one of Rocky's favorite films—a relentlessly gripping and profoundly vibey picture that vividly reflects Rocky's own creative priorities.

Nothing—not money, not fame, not the prospect of top chart positions or gold Grammys or other traditional metrics of musical success—gets Rocky out of bed like the pursuit of elevated taste value.

Anything can have elevated taste value, and to Rocky, it's painfully obvious when something, especially an outfit, does not. That shit don't make that shit fleek. If you wear a good fit around Rocky, he'll remember it for the rest of his life. Ask him to tell a story from a night out in Harlem a decade ago and he'll start by listing what everyone wore, down to the shoelaces.

Rocky's fashion projects have a much smaller audience than his music does, but his impact on the fashion world has arguably been more profound. He claims to be the inspiration behind DJ collective turned streetwear brand Been Trill, which helped launch the fashion careers of Matthew Williams, Virgil Abloh, and Heron Preston, the first two of which are now among the most powerful American designers in Paris, and the third has a new creative directorship at Calvin Klein.

He was an early booster of Shayne Oliver's provocative Hood By Air label, which continues to influence avant-garde streetwear. He has impeccable taste in collaborators to this day, often working with designers and brands—Marine Serre, Jonathan Anderson, Japanese hippie-streetwear label Needles—just before they blast off into the stratosphere.

As a result, Rocky's imprimatur on a garment instantly makes fashion insiders pay attention, and designers look to him for approval and endorsement. Given his style-god status among late-millennial and Gen Z fashion freaks, Rocky's co-sign is downright crucial.

After the successes of Kanye West's Yeezy imprint and the pastel-hued Golf Wang label belonging to Tyler, the Creator, is Rocky planning to launch a full-fledged brand of his own? Again: elevated taste value. Rocky and Rihanna try not to be photographed together by the paparazzi. A few nights after we talked, Rocky joined Rihanna at West Hollywood celebrity hang Delilah, his first trip to a club since before the pandemic started.

Rihanna arrived first, slipping into a private dining room. Rocky followed several minutes later, as if perhaps his presence was coincidental. Well after the rest of L. On a Zoom call a few days later, I ask Rocky about the outfit he wore that night—a black leather trucker jacket, black Rick Owens boots, and black leather pants from his Marine Serre collaboration.

A fit that originated during one of his bleakest moments, it was now worn during one of his happiest and most triumphant, waltzing out of a club with one of the coolest, most beautiful and successful women in the world, all while half pretending he isn't really living this particular dream at all.

Rocky's sitting in his garden in front of a fountain. He takes a drag from a joint the size of a Cohiba and leans back. How will I execute this? God is good. For real. And everything that I envisioned in prison came to fruition. And I prayed! I really wanted to bless that situation and move on from it in a positive way. We use cookies to improve our service for you.

You can find more information in our data protection declaration. A rapper facing jail time for a street fight in Stockholm and a high-profile call from President Trump: Just what exactly is going on? His first and second albums debuted at number one on the Billboard chart and he is considered one of the most influential hip hop artists on the scene today. Rocky has also garnered plenty of fame for his sense of style and is seen by many as a fashion icon.

He was the face of haute couture label Dior's Fall campaign. He's the founder of a rather mysterious creative agency, called AWGE — the meaning of the acronym and the group is never to be revealed, according to rule number 1 of the collective. While on tour in Sweden earlier this month, an amateur video published by US celebrity news outlet TMZ shows the rapper involved in a scuffle on the streets of Stockholm.