Over this master class in tension and release, Rocky summons childhood memories in calm, expansive strokes: "Everybody have roaches, but our roaches ain't respect us," he cracks, flashing a previously unseen storytelling flair: "We had cookouts and dirt bikes and dice games and fist fights/ And fish fries and shootouts like one Sig with two rounds/ In one clip, left two down, that's four kids/ But one lived, left three dead but one split/ That one missed, that one snitched." The song is a forceful reminder of his birthplace and heritage. The song is almost all intro: When the beat finally hits, it only lingers for a few bars before disappearing again.
In it, a drumless vocal sample fights its way to the surface through layers of aquatic muffling, teasing a titanic beat-drop that keeps not arriving. Late-album track "Suddenly" bears a co-producing credit from "Lord Flacko," aka Rocky himself. But besides the Girbaud jeans with hologram straps and reflectors, the Margielas with no laces, the Escada and Balenciaga and Audemars Piguet, there's a lot going on in Rocky's head. His lyrics, a riot of lifestyle brands and other desirables, can feel like standing in front of a closet of prohibitively expensive designer goods: There isn't much to feel unless you consider "like three million bucks" a feeling. That kind of malleability is crucial to pop stardom, and make no mistake, pop stardom is what Rocky's gunning for. Even when he stomps through a queasy Odd Future-style battlefield on “Jodye”, he fully owns the mold.
Whether he's showing off double- and triple-time bounce in the T-Minus-produced "PMW (All I Really Need)" or dodging RZA-styled string chops on "1 Train" alongside a collision of hot rappers including Action Bronson, Big K.R.I.T., and Kendrick Lamar, Rocky sounds utterly at home. Santigold handles the chorus hook on “Hell”, one of two Clams Casino beats on the album, and it feels just as unforced.Ī$AP Rocky sounds natural in every setting along with his command of rhythm and cadence, this is his greatest gift. It seems like it should be impossible to rap over, but Rocky’s sweat-free double-dutch is an easy fit. For example, A$AP Rocky's team-up with Skrillex, "Wild for the Night", bombs your cortex with screaming lasers, stadium-sized reverb, and a reggae-derived organ lope, and the beat feels like being on the receiving end of a perfectly executed Tekken chain combo. For someone often criticized for his lack of depth, A$AP Rocky keeps delivering in the face of skepticism.Įven the most dubious ideas succeed on LongLiveA$AP. More importantly, the French-braid gold-teeth kid named after Rakim never cedes the center. Plenty of rap-industry heavies appear on LongLiveA$AP, and they mix well with Rocky's younger comrades. A third of the record remains close in style to LiveLoveA$AP while most of the collaborations follow in the steps of last spring's "Goldie", which stamped producer Hit-Boy's signature Mini-Boss Musik with a screwed-up hook and gumball-spitting flow that marked it as unmistakably Rocky's. Like that mixtape, the album is a triumph of craft and curation, preserving Rocky's immaculate taste while smartly upgrading his sound. But LongLiveA$AP delivers on and even exceeds the promise of LiveLoveA$AP.
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