#Dimaonds asap rocky youtube full#

The internet is a friendly place for A$AP it’s where he became famous. We’re too old to just be chillin’ in the street drinking 40 ounces and shit, watching friends skateboard and crashing parties.” It was just one melting pot of people chillin’. One of his favourite films is Larry Clark’s 1995 Kids: “It reminded me of growing up in Harlem, going downtown to chill with that mixed crowd. Portishead influenced the slowed-down sound of Beauty & The Beast. He gets inspired by relics like Jonas Åkerlund’s notoriously hedonistic 1997 video for Prodigy’s ' Smack My Bitch Up'. It almost makes you feel like you’re the best creator next to God.” Which might explain his off-the-grid creativity, in projects like an upcoming 3D film starring Michele Lamy, Rick Owens’ gothic muse and wife.Ī 90s baby with a deep nostalgia for the pop culture of his youth, Rocky searches the internet obsessively. “My inspiration now is from psychedelics and shit. So where does his inspiration come from? He’s moved on from the purple drank (cough syrup) immortalised in songs like 'Purple Swag' to the mind-opening world of hallucinogenics. I reside in Soho and LA right now, and my mind is universal. All the hood motherfuckers said, ‘Do us a favour, and don’t come back.’ All the memories are gone. “Two years ago, when I had my record deal, I went back to Harlem.

Although A$AP grew up on Cam’ron’s block in Harlem, with the Diplomats cranked up high, he feels more international these days. A$AP sees himself as a Pied Piper to a freer existence: “I want kids to lose themselves and forget about society’s rules and shit.” Lawless and free, he’s also borderless. But I abide by my own laws, fuck it.” Having been warned by his manager not to bring up any lawsuits in progress, I don’t press the topic. I just try to be careful that I don’t break laws that man created. In Rocky’s world, music and art are gateways to anarchic freedom. I was born in the dark, I create in the dark, I work in the dark, I make love in the dark. I’m capable of making a happy song here and there, not quite Pharrell’s 'Happy', but I prefer dark fashion and dark music. Despite being young, celebrated, and flush with “PMW” (pussy, money, weed, his staples), A$AP is feeling blue: “My music, like my passion for fashion, is really dark at times. As we talk into the night, his small entourage patiently check their phones in the background. It’s nearly 11pm, but after our interview he’ll head to the studio to work on his much-anticipated sophomore album, not to be confused with Beauty & the Beast: Slowed-Down Sessions Chapter 1, a hazily sexy instrumental record that is slowly being released online. I’m changing every day”), he sips pineapple juice and vodka. Dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans, with a diamond and marble ring of his own design (“I used to hate diamonds, but I love them now. When I meet A$AP he is zen, contemplative, a million miles from the swag prince who grabbed Rihanna’s ass on television and sits front row at fashion shows with girlfriend Chanel Iman. You know the bio: ambitious kid overcomes a Harlem childhood spent slinging yeyo and rolling dice on the corner to become a pop-culture phenomenon living up to his crew’s acronym: Always Strive and Prosper. and peaked – so far - with last year’s Billboard #1 album $AP. You know the music: wavy, eclectic, Southern-inflected rap that began with cult 2011 mixtape $AP.

#Dimaonds asap rocky youtube full#

You know the look: full gold grill, French braids, conceptual designer duds. Because there’s a lot that you already know about A$AP Rocky, née Rakim Mayers, aka Lord Flacko. 'You already know,” is a constant refrain of the A$AP Mob, the multimedia collective that launched A$AP Rocky.

We hang out with Rocky stateside to kick off the youth revolution. With a # 1 album under his belt and two more on the way, the 25 year-old rapper is fast cementing his position as one of the musical voices of his generation. Music and fashion icon A$AP Rocky is killing the game on his own terms. This story originally appeared in i-D's The Girls + Boys Issue, no.