Rating: A-
Three million dollars: That’s a lot of faith to put in a
relatively untested new artist, but RCA/Sony took that gamble when they signed
A$AP Rocky on the strength of his first two singles “Peso” and “Purple Swag.” Both
songs were products of the YouTube era of music, where music videos and a
carefully cultivated image are more important to a new artist’s success than at
perhaps any point in the history of popular music. Rocky has been better than
most at this, and both videos are hazy codeine-drenched slices of Rocky’s
post-regional rap identity. He was able to build on this initial promise and
attention with his debut mixtape LiveLoveA$AP,
which was one of the most enjoyable mixtapes of 2011, even if it was more style
than substance. This style, influenced just as much by Screw tapes and Bone
Thugs-n-Harmony as by artists from his native Harlem, was so compelling that
Rocky’s good but not great rapping and limited subject matter seemed like
strengths rather than weaknesses. Flashy rhyming and conscious rapping didn’t
have much of a home in the world of A$AP.
A$AP Rocky seemed like a poor fit for a major label. In
spite of his marketable image and gift for hooks, LiveLoveA$AP was not a commercial affair. Cloud rap, best
exemplified on the tape by Clams Casino’s staticky, hazy beats, and screwed
choruses appeared likely to remain underground favorites rather than fodder for
Top 40 radio. Rocky’s major label debut seemed destined to either be
compromised by commercial crossover attempts or to be a pale recreation of his
first mixtape. Months of delays and several missed release dates appeared to
confirm suspicions of label interference. In the midst of these delays, the
A$AP Mob, made up of Rocky and several of his cohorts of vastly varying skill
levels, released their debut mixtape Lords
Never Worry, a mess of low rent beats, inconsistent rapping, and generic
songwriting. Dig past the disappointment and the watering down of the A$AP
aesthetic, and it was clear that Rocky had jumped ahead by leaps and bounds as
a rapper, especially on “Bath Salt,” the tape’s single. After two great verses
by the Flatbush Zombies and a terrible verse by A$AP Ant, Rocky took the time
to make it clear that his charisma and image are backed up by real skill as a
rapper. Even still, Rocky’s impeccable quality and image control appeared to be
faltering, and anticipation wavered for Long.Live.A$AP,
Rocky’s major label debut.
In hindsight, it’s likely that Lords Never Worry was so weak because Rocky had to hand the reins over
to his less talented crewmates as he was too busy working on his own album.
Fears that RCA/Sony would tamper with the A$AP sound were similarly unfounded.
On Long.Live.A$AP, Rocky has managed
to both expand and beef up his sound without compromising what made it so
appealing in the first place. Blatant crossover attempts are conspicuously
absent, and so is the rest of the A$AP Mob (although A$AP Ferg, the most
talented and interesting member besides Rocky, appears on the bonus track
“Ghetto Symphony” and A$AP Ty Beats contributes additional production to
“Suddenly”). There’s no chaff on this record, which comes in at a lean 49
minutes. The title track is a statement of renewed purpose over the most
menacing beat on the record (and with a hook sung by Rocky in a charmingly
amateurish falsetto), and it sets the tone for the rest of the album.[1]
The economy of the record and Rocky’s quality control also
extend to the album’s guests, all of whom bring their best to this record. “PMW
(All I Really Need)” continues the hot streak that Rocky has had collaborating
with Schoolboy Q.[2]
Santigold handles hook duties on “Hell,” and is one of the album’s best
examples of how Rocky has managed to subvert the standard expectations for a
major label hip hop record in the 2010s. Rather than getting a high profile
R&B hook to anchor a crossover-attempt of a single, he got the lower
profile Santigold to deliver a dancehall-inflected hook over one of the haziest
and most heavily reverbed beats Clams Casino has ever made. The combination
should be jarring and ineffective, but it somehow works perfectly. The
dancehall vibe is furthered on “Wild for the Night,” produced by Skrillex. The
Skrillex collaboration is the most head-scratching choice on the album, and
it’s also the weakest and most out of place song here, breaking the overall
vibe with shrill, overly caffeinated dubstep. Considering Skrillex’s past work,
however, it’s far from a disaster, and Rocky has gotten Skrillex to rein in
some of his worst impulses. It’s also probably the only place you’re likely to
hear dubstep screeching and screwed vocals in the same place, which isn’t as
weird of a combination in practice as it is on paper. Thankfully, “Wild for the
Night” is sandwiched between two of the three songs that best illustrate Rocky’s
accomplishments on Long.Live.A$AP.
The presence of Drake and 2 Chainz on “Fuckin’ Problems” makes it the closest
thing this album has to a potential radio single, and the guests are expertly
deployed for maximum effect. 2 Chainz is allowed to do what he does best,
yelling ignorant shit, on the hook, and Drake has one of the best verses of his
inconsistent career.[3]
“Fuckin’ Problems” is the best indication of how Rocky will do on RCA. He is
unlikely to allow sales considerations to get in the way of his vision, and Top
40 radio-sanctioned guests like 2 Chainz and Drake are bent to fit the A$AP
mold.
“1 Train,” which immediately follows “Wild for the Night,”
initially appears to be an anomaly in Rocky’s carefully constructed lane. The
song follows the “Triumph” model with its emphasis on lyricism, lack of a hook,
and six-minute runtime. Its Wu-Tang-esque beat, courtesy of Hit-Boy, is the
most distinctly New York-sounding beat Rocky has ever rapped over, a far cry
from the regionally omnivorous style he’s known for. New York classicists Joey
Bada$$ and Action Bronson support this view of the track, but the other guests
hail from the South (Yelawolf, Big K.R.I.T.), Detroit (Danny Brown), and L.A.
(Kendrick Lamar). Instead of being merely a New York revival track, “1 Train”
is a showcase for a new hip hop underground for whom regional boundaries are no
longer the stylistic straightjackets they once were.
The first lines on Long.Live.A$AP
are “I thought I’d die in prison, expensive taste in women/Ain’t had no pot to
piss in, now my kitchen full of dishes.” This look back at his past foreshadows
the final track “Suddenly,” which is the culmination of everything A$AP Rocky
has done up to this point while simultaneously pointing toward a bright future
for the 24-year-old rapper. The beat, coproduced by Hector Delgado and Rocky
himself (under the name LORD FLACKO), would be right at home on LiveLoveA$AP, but lyrically it’s the
most assured and impressive song he’s ever done. Trying his hand at
storytelling, which he proves surprisingly adept at, he traces his life from
his childhood growing up in a crime-filled Harlem to his current success,
placing himself in the lineage of Eazy-E, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and Busta
Rhymes (from Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Brooklyn, respectively, illustrating
the roots of his regionally omnivorous style). He follows this first verse with
a bridge that serves as a mission statement delivered with an uncanny
appropriation of the Bone Thugs flow:
I only got one vision, that’s for
kids in every color, religion
That listen, that you gotta beat the system, stay the fuck out the prisons
They try to blind our vision, but we all got children and siblings
You my brother, you my kin, fuck the color of your skin
That listen, that you gotta beat the system, stay the fuck out the prisons
They try to blind our vision, but we all got children and siblings
You my brother, you my kin, fuck the color of your skin
After the bridge, he takes one last short verse to show off
just how far he’s come as a rapper with a dizzying display of effortlessly
nimble rapping and internal rhyming. Rocky makes it clear on “Suddenly” and
throughout the album that he believes his rapid ascent in the hip hop world was
completely deserved, and Long.Live.A$AP
is the statement that unquestionably positions him as one of the most exciting
major hip hop artists of this era.
"Goldie"
"1 Train" (feat. Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Yelawolf, Danny Brown, Action Bronson & Big K.R.I.T.)
"Suddenly"
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