REVIEW: A Sonic and Cultural Vault, ASAP Rocky’s ‘Live. Love. ASAP’ Gets An Upgrade
WAY BACK IN 2012 — I had my first encounter with A$AP Rocky’s music. As a white, hip-hop-obsessed high school freshman living in the suburbs of Chicago, “F**ckin’ Problems” made its mark on me. So, I was slightly susceptible to the visual swagger and inherent coolness attributed to rap music. Still, however, I was a music fan at the end of the day, and had an ability to suss out if an artist was “legit” or not. I was enamored by Rocky’s comfortability in making this single his own, while having the likes of Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and 2 Chainz give him some legendary feature verses. But unbeknownst to me, it was the second single for Rocky’s debut studio album, Long. Live. ASAP. For years, this would be the sound that I would associate with the Harlem-bred rapper, as I found my music through Spotify, where labels push out the music for the charts to pick up on, and then algorithmically trickle down to me.
It would only be years later when I discovered “Peso” and “Purple Swag,” stunned by how this refreshing New Yorker took some Houston flow and mixed it with his own narratives, creating something sonically unique and visually encapsulating. But the impact of these two songs and the rest of Live. Love. ASAP would continue to have a cloud-rap atmosphere online, and — within the industry itself — would continue to add layers of contextual relevance to Rocky’s introduction. Released on Halloween in 2011, this debut mixtape would end up being the closest to Rakim Mayers that audiences would get, as Rocky became somewhat less vulnerable in his later albums, but also more expressive in the public eye through the lens of culture and fashion.
But during the early 2010s, blogs were huge. So the swagger and momentum for Rocky wasn’t initially through the eyes of the GQs and Vogues of the world, but rather through communities like Tumblr, where A$AP Yams had a massively influential presence. Yams, whose real name was Steven Rodriguez, formed A$AP Mob in the mid-2000s and discovered Rocky, propelling his musical career and stylistic direction before his passing in 2015. While it’s hard to necessarily pin-point the contributions that Yams had to Rocky’s music, the rap community and the Mob themselves consistently proclaim their adoration for their collective’s late founder, even throwing a celebratory concert in Brooklyn every year called “Yams Day.”
With that in mind, Live. Love. ASAP has a lot of sentimentalities attached to it, with the consistency in Rocky’s voice tailored by Yams’ guidance and confidence in the young Harlem native’s ability to stand out in a cluttered genre. While the tenth-anniversary release may have skimmed some tracks (most notoriously “Purple Swag: Chapter 2” with SpaceGhostPurpp and A$AP Nast), the 15-song and 49-minute cut is the ideal version of this essential release.
The cloud-rap-infused production still reigns supreme in regards to Rocky’s lyrical cadence: drugged out and nearly slurring in the right moments, and expertly riding a feathery, lucid beat with precision and purpose the very next second. Especially notable on “Wassup,'' produced with ageless finesse by Clams Casino, Rocky nearly leans off the tracks with his smoky, sexual tendencies, but is thrusted back into a satisfyingly addictive flow, balancing him on a beat that deserves someone as hypnotizingly as young Rocky. Other highlights on the tape include obvious classics like “Palace” and “Purple Swag,” but deeper cuts like “Sandman” that weren’t initially seen on the first release have some light shed on them here as well. The latter track, which also happens to be the mixtape’s closer, is as much an emphatic tribute to Yams and his contributions to Rocky’s persona as much as it is a celebratory warning of the traps of drugs and wealth. Produced by Clams Casino and Kelvin Krash, “Sandman” shows Rocky embracing a more independent route, but holding on to Yams’ guidance as much as he possibly can.
Clams Casino sees credits on much of the mixtape — some of the best songs, as well — but it’s important to note SpaceGhostPurpp and A$AP Ty Beats’ contributions to the sound that Rocky was able to ride on, with both producers having a long-lasting legacy of producers and artists who also rode off of the sound they so clearly inspired. Those spurts of history are part of what makes this mixtape so fun to return to: it’s a sonic vault, but also a cultural one, filled to the brim with spacy, hazy vibes that may not always sound timeless, but still have Rocky there to show you what got him that $3 million record deal in the first place.
Live. Love. ASAP is as entrancingly head-bobbing as it is tied to the early 2010s internet culture that sprouted A$AP to be a household name. Even if you aren’t here for the history, Rocky’s keenness for addictive flows and lyrical characterization on top of the forever legendary production will suffice. For fans of hip-hop, it’s sentimental and bittersweet to listen to, as that umbrella of influence that Yams held has exponentially trickled out of Rocky’s sound, with the Harlem rapper now leaning more towards experimental sounds over the quality of his rapping. Regardless, Live. Love. ASAP is the perfect reminder of just how A$AP Rocky got to where he is now, and also happens to be his most focused piece of work to date.
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