ASAP Rocky
In a public conversation with Ego Trip founder and Academy team member Chairman Mao at the 2015 Red Bull Music Academy Festival in New York, celebrated Harlem MC A$AP Rocky disclosed details on his At.Long.Last.A$AP album and premiered the “Everyday” single featuring Rod Stewart, Miguel and Mark Ronson. But Rocky went deeper, too, digging up stories about his childhood spent between Harlem and the Bronx, his affinity for Houston rap, the making of a new A$AP Mob album, and his methods of coping with the loss of his late mentor and friend, A$AP Yams.
Hosted by Jeff “Chairman” Mao Hey, how’s everybody doing? You good? Welcome to our public conversation with A$AP Rocky. My name is Jeff Mao, occasionally known as “Chairman” Mao. This is a part of the Red Bull Music Academy Festival New York, which is happening the entire month of May. You may be familiar with the Red Bull Music Academy. If you are not, the Red Bull Music Academy has been around before the term “pop-up” existed, but that might be the best way to describe it. It’s kind of a pop-up music school that happens in a different city somewhere in the world. It’s been happening since 1998. We’re going to be in Paris this coming fall. We were in New York City in 2013. We’ve been in Tokyo, London, Barcelona, Melbourne, Toronto, many other places, Rome. At the Academy we invite sixty different participants, kids from all over the world who make music — producers, artists, vocalists, musicians — and they have workshops, they have events, they do performances and we have, what we call, lectures. A lecture is not really a lecture, it’s an interview situation, kind of like what we’re doing today. Now for our public conversations in New York we’ve had folks like D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Brian Eno and next week George Clinton, actually at the Brooklyn Museum. This gentleman here we’re bringing out tonight hasn’t been making music as long as some of those folks maybe, but I think that’s probably a testament to the impact he’s made in a relatively short time, both as an artist and as a style icon. It’s really actually quite appropriate we’re doing this in Harlem. I think we might be ready to bring him out. Are we ready? No come on, are we really ready? Ladies and gentlemen, Harlem’s own, A$AP Rocky. A$AP Rocky What’s up y’all? What’s up? Harlem world, yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao How are you feeling today? A$AP Rocky I’m home. It’s different here, but I’m home. Jeff “Chairman” Mao When you do things, events, performances, anything, you come back to Harlem, what’s the feeling you get? A$AP Rocky Whenever I do a performance back in Harlem? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah. A$AP Rocky That’s not too often. I did one at the Apollo. It felt legendary because I used to watch the Apollo on Saturdays and stuff. It’s just that like it wasn’t no Kiki Shepard though, you know. I was a little upset about that. It was before my time. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Did you rub the stump tree and all that for good luck? A$AP Rocky Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao No Sandman Sims, none of that? A$AP Rocky No, thank god. What’s up people, what’s up? Jeff “Chairman” Mao How would you describe the energy of life in Harlem? I mean, this is where you grew up. A$AP Rocky It’s nothing like it is now. I think that’s a sad subject. You might want to switch it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Well, how was it for you growing up? Let’s talk about that. A$AP Rocky I would say like any urban city, inner city kind of childhood upbringing. It was cool. We had Dipset before that, digging in the crates and all that. The Children of the Corn and stuff like that, Big L, McGruff, Murder Mase. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Killa Cam? A$AP Rocky I said Dipset, but yeah, you’re right. Reiterating. Cool. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Whenever you’re in Harlem, one thing that is always around you is a sense of the history. Did you have that sense when you were growing up here? A$AP Rocky I guess so. You got like the Harlem Renaissance and stuff like that. Is that what you were referring to? Jeff “Chairman” Mao I guess so, I mean we’re here on 116th. Right down the street is the mosque that Malcolm X founded. There was the Harlem World. It was right here where the Conways is. A$AP Rocky Yeah, I was born on 116th and Morningside, right down the block. Jeff “Chairman” Mao 20 Morningside Ave. right? A$AP Rocky What? Oh 21, yeah, 21. Oh yeah, yeah. Very rare. I was like, “What?!” Jeff “Chairman” Mao I try to come prepared. You spent some time over there. You also spent some time up on 140th and Lenox, what was it like up there? A$AP Rocky They the wolves over there, man. It was dope, man, it was dope. Those kids, those guys, man, it was a crazy experience. What I will say is, I remember... This is crazy. This all had nothing to do with nothing, but I remember being like 13 and to challenge their strength, just to see how strong they was, they would just try to like knock out delivery dudes just going past on bikes. That was fun to them. To see a 14 year old knock a grown man out was just like, that’s how you test your strength. It’s a true story though, true story. Yeah. Ask ’em. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That was one block next to what Big L would call the Danger Zone then. A$AP Rocky Yeah, 39th? Yeah. You ask anybody from there, 39th and 40th is like the same block. It’s just basically a park that separates it. He’s referring to 40th/39th, you know, same thing. Tomato, tom-ah-ta. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Your grandma lived up there with sort of stuff that she instilled — A$AP Rocky My grandma lives up there. Jeff “Chairman” Mao She still lives there? A$AP Rocky My grandmother is a Harlem native. Well, she’s from Barbados but she been in Harlem so long, she still there. Yeah, I go visit her every Mother’s Day. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You better go this Sunday then. A$AP Rocky I won’t be here, unfortunately. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Sorry grandma. A$AP Rocky Word. [laughs] Jeff “Chairman” Mao What about the East Side? A$AP Rocky You gonna get me in trouble, man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao It’s okay. She’s not watching. A$AP Rocky Yes she is. We in Harlem. She’s watching right now. Jeff “Chairman” Mao What about the East Side? You spent some time over there. The AK houses. A$AP Rocky AK, 2-8th. Yeah, man it’s lit over there. Shout out to Jackie Rob, shout out to everybody over there, the Christ family, everybody over there. It’s love over there, you just bringing up all the places from 40th to AK. I remember summer time, we used to go to King Dome and go to all the cookouts over there, try to bag some chicks and all that. Pull your fresh Pradas and all that. Remember the Mauris? Yeah, I had the Mauris with the gator ’til I was jiggy. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Well, actually that brings up a good point, because Harlem style has always been one of these things A$AP Rocky I would say New York is the Mecca of fashion. It’s only right that Harlem, that kind of stuff was embedded in us. I mean, we make our own styles, that’s why they call it Harlem World. It’s a world within its own. It’s like a mentality, a look, a pizzazz, a character. You can only get that if you’re born and bred Harlem. Or you at least gotta hang around here long enough something man, grow up with somebody from here. But it’s hard to imitate. It’s a one of a kind thing. It’s kind of special. I feel special being from here, it’s just the feeling is gone, man. I come here, y’all asking me these questions, I’ll tell you the truth. I told you to switch the subject, it’s not the same. I don’t see nobody I know and stuff like that. Not only that, I came up for the 4th of July, wasn’t nobody, no firecrackers, none of that shit man. It’s just police on every corner, it’s no culture. Shit is sad, man. But I live in SoHo now so it’s cool. [laughter and applause] Jeff “Chairman” Mao How do you think... A$AP Rocky [people keep laughing] What? Jeff “Chairman” Mao I mean, you do. A$AP Rocky What? What’s the joke? It’s funny. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Well, what do you think your main influence was, as far as style? A$AP Rocky I can’t tell you, I don’t know man it changes. Growing up, definitely hip-hop and music videos. I think that helped everybody, because we were the first genre to kinda affiliate ourselves with actual name brands and stuff. Like certain brands just became hip-hop, like Adidas. That was just straight hip-hop. Tommy Hilfiger, at one point, was just like straight hip-hop. Guess, stuff like that. Remember like Guess jeans and stuff? That was just straight hip-hop. Gap. Old Navy too, don’t act like you forgot. Old Navy, man, that was the shit man. I used to be proud of my Old Navy back in the days man, some cool t-shirts in the summer. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Do you think your style developed as a reaction to what was around you or sort of a fusion of both things? A$AP Rocky People ask me this question all the time and I just give different answers because I really don’t know the answer to that question to be honest. I guess it’s just in me. I got good taste, I don’t know. I’m going to be honest. Because I know a lot of people that been through the same circumstances from the same places and they still tacky. It doesn’t matter. I love tacky people, by the way; I don’t discriminate. I have to apologize for the last talk that I had with the Tribeca Film Festival when I said that people corny, I’m sorry to the corny community for that. No, I’m so serious, because I take breaks sometimes and sometimes I’m sober. I just feel like it’s gonna be really hard for you guys to relate to a lot of my new shit. So just try to imagine, that’s all I can say. Or live vicariously through me, either way. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I think the corny community will show patience with you, though. I think they’ll be alright. There won’t be corny people picketing outside. A$AP Rocky All right, cool. I just don’t want no beef, you know? Peace. Jeff “Chairman” Mao No beef with corny people, man. You don’t want it with them. Well, you’re prone to describing yourself as, using the word “weirdo” and I wondered why did you start using that? A$AP Rocky That was four years ago, 2011. I think the weirdo thing is quite the norm now, these days. Everybody goes out of there way trying to be weird. So whatever man, you know. Jeff “Chairman” Mao At one time did you feel like you were awkward or an outcast? A$AP Rocky Yeah, yeah, yeah, I still feel like that but I’m just comfortable with me. It is what it is. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I mean, I could definitely see the change as far as the perception of that because as a counterargument, it’s like you make cool music, you’re well-dressed, you’re popular. We should all be such lucky weirdos, you know. A$AP Rocky Thank you. Thank you. That was the dopest compliment-slash-insult ever. Thank you. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You’re quite welcome. A$AP Rocky And fuck you. Naw I’m joking. Jeff “Chairman” Mao There’s actually a serious question behind that, in the respect that — do you feel like society has envisioned in its mind what young, African-American men can be? That they would say, “Well, I would have to think of myself as some kind of outcast for just being me.” A$AP Rocky Ah, man. That’s a deep question. I think it’s one of those things where society just knows that regardless to if you’re African-American, white or black or Asian, they all give different groups and different races different expectations, if you know what I’m saying. Basically, the same rules, I don’t think it applies to everybody across the board. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Turn your phone off please. A$AP Rocky It’s OK. It’s fine. It’s all right. It’s all good. They pay you to advertise. Yeah, man, I mean it’s one of those things man, I don’t want to start preaching and shit again, but you know, I think all I can really do is like, for me, is just be myself because if I worry about what anybody wants be to be or what black men should be, man, we’ll all be confused because what the fuck is a black man in 2015? What does he look like? What does he... Where does he work? Where does he not work? What does he eat? You can’t just answer that question. Everybody’s different. I don’t know what expectations are for all African American men, but I know that where I come from there aren’t any high expectations, I’ll tell you that much. If that answers your question. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Who was kind of your role model for being, living, you know, so to speak, letting your hair down and being yourself? Who inspired you? A$AP Rocky You don’t mind if I think about that. Jeff “Chairman” Mao No, not at all. A$AP Rocky I’m not sure, man. A bunch of people, I guess. Poets, writers, actors, rappers, you know? The drug dealer on the corner growing up, that guy. The cool guy. Be yourself, man. It’s like, I would have to put more work in being somebody else, like more of an effort. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You can close that door if you want. A$AP Rocky What song was that? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Somebody Shazam that. A$AP Rocky I like that song. What was I saying? Jeff “Chairman” Mao You were just talking about who looked to as a role model to be yourself. A$AP Rocky Yeah, just, I mean, man, I’m a free spirit now, man. I look to the world, man. Make me better. I ask people to make me better, because I’m not perfect. I keep telling people, man. I really, I’m not a role model. I ain’t perfect. I just do what I do, man, and I guess lead by example best way I can. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Do you think you’re an introspective person? A$AP Rocky Yeah, to an extent. I try not to just think too deep in the shit, because I get really deep, then it gets weird. It’s just not cool. Sorry, I think too much. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Well without bringing up any disturbing thoughts, what happens when you get too deep though? What is it? A$AP Rocky I don’t know, it’s like you know how like when you smoke really bad weed and then you start thinking about all the shit you need to get straight in your life and shit? That deep, you know? Like the green, you know? Jeff “Chairman” Mao I’ll ask you this too, because in more recent interviews you’ve kind of made a point of saying how the singles that everybody knows are sort of your least favorite songs, or become that at this point. A$AP Rocky It’s funny you say that. Yeah. I don’t know, man, I guess it’s just old music to me now. You’re referring to the songs from my last project? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah, I think so. Yeah. A$AP Rocky This one or the — Jeff “Chairman” Mao No, no. Yeah, from the last album. A$AP Rocky From the last one? Got you. I’m tired of it. It’s old, you know? It’s good songs, but they’re old. I mean, new songs, new content, what the fuck? You know? Jeff “Chairman” Mao At the same time, it’s like you have plenty of introspective material, thoughtful material. Songs where you think a little more deeply about things besides those singles. A$AP Rocky On that album? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah. I mean on all your material. A$AP Rocky A few? You got to listen to this new stuff, man. I think you’ll like it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Can you just play the whole thing for us right now? No? A$AP Rocky You know, I got to play something today. Yeah, play something. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You think they’re worth playing something for? A$AP Rocky Hell yeah. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah? That’s cool. A$AP Rocky Yeah. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao When should we do that? A$AP Rocky Let’s talk about, let’s talk — Jeff “Chairman” Mao Let’s wait a little while. A$AP Rocky Yeah, let’s wait a little while. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah. A$AP Rocky Let’s wait. Oh, Harry B. in the building! What’s good, brotha? Oh, Tavi! Oh, we lit. We lit. Ay, man. I got some cool people with me, man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah? A$AP Rocky Yeah. I got my bro, he’s in that film, Dope, that I’m doing in theaters June 19th. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Oh, OK. Yes. What was the experience like of making the film? A$AP Rocky That was pretty... I was sober. I was corny. It started out as a challenge, because I wanted to start up with a small role and work my way up. I didn’t expect for it to do all that Sundance stuff and Cannes, but it did. I think God is just good, man. That’s all I can really say, because none of us expected it. But we hoped that we would get the best outcome from it. I think we did, yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Now ,acting versus making music, what was different? What was similar in terms of your preparation and process? A$AP Rocky All right, well, I’m going to be honest. Sometimes with me, I take really long to record one song. I do it over and over and over and over, and that’s sort of like what acting is like. You do the same scene over and over and over and over. You might get it right every time, but they still want the shit, and I just don’t understand because they’re not going to use the whole... You know? It’s just like, you know, they tell you to show up to work at 5 AM and you don’t start shooting at 3 PM. I wasn’t smokin’ no weed, so it was just like, damn. It was boring, you know what I’m saying? I was fun, man. Me and Vince Staples, we was just listening to hella music and chilling and he would come in the trailers, smoke some... Well, I ain’t going to say who, but you know, people would come and smoke some weed, and yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah. A$AP Rocky Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Are there similarities in terms of you having to prepare lines? I mean, I don’t know. I’ve never been... A$AP Rocky No, it’s totally different. It’s totally different. You know when you do a live show, you’re reciting lyrics that you personally wrote, so it’s in your brain. I feel like with [acting], those lines are from someone else, like either the writer, the director, whoever. It’s in a script. Those aren’t your words, so it’s a little more difficult to memorize it as opposed to writing it yourself. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Did they give you some flexibility in terms of the dialogue, just to be able to interpret it yourself? A$AP Rocky They were very helpful. I think everybody was kind on set. It was dope, man. That’s the name of the movie too. Wait, let’s talk to the... I want to talk to the people, man. We keep talking about, like... What do y’all want from me? Naw, I’m serious. What do y’all want from me? Audience Member For your album to come out. ASAP. A$AP Rocky Yeah? I like your jersey, that’s cool. That’s nice. You want me to do me? Got you, man. All right, I’m going to continue to do that. Thank you. Audience Member A fashion collabo- A$AP Rocky With who? With you? Oh, you want me and Kanye to do a fashion... [gesturing at someone else in audience] She said naw. [laughter] Jeff “Chairman” Mao She’s not in to that at all. No, she was like nah un. All right, it’s a split decision on that one. A$AP Rocky We’ll get back to it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I mean, what is your future in fashion and style? Have you thought about it much? A$AP Rocky Naw, I don’t know. Wherever it takes me. I’ma just do what I like, that’s really it. Yeah, basically, for lack of better terms. Better words. Just do me. I don’t know. Just do me. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao What’s the feeling you get when you’re about to release a project like you are right now? Is it anxiety? Is it — A$AP Rocky Yeah, yeah it is. I’m not going to lie. It is. It is. I know there’s people probably laughing inside over there. [gesturing at audience] It takes a lot of hard work, man. You got to get focused. That’s it. You got to sacrifice certain things, like partyin’ and typical young people stuff. You got to sacrifice it. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Get disciplined. Creatively disciplined. A$AP Rocky Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao What are you most proud of as far as this next thing? A$AP Rocky The whole thing, as a whole, because this project is not single-driven, but each song is an individual that complements it as a whole. It’s so hard to describe it, like you just got to hear it. It’s new-age. I’m talking about the album and then it creeps right in the middle of the good part and shit. Can we have a monitor at the doors or something? What are we doing, you know? That one don’t even have music coming from it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao At least play a song that you like, you know. A$AP Rocky Yeah. Whatever. That’s that. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You’ve also talked a little bit about some of the classic rock influences that you’ve had recently. Are these influences that you’ve had for specifically this period of creativity or things that you’ve been listening to for a long time? A$AP Rocky A lot of — I’m sorry, I keep cutting you off. I’m excited. A lot of rock songs that I listen to, I knew prior, but around when Yams had died, my boy Joe Fox would just throw on like our favorite playlists. We’d just zone out to that and smoke some weed and cry and stuff. Alright, let’s switch the subject. Jeff “Chairman” Mao How do you consume new music? Is it through friends? Is it something where somebody has a playlist? Do you actually go searching on the web yourself? A$AP Rocky It’s just like everything you said. It’s 2015. All those ways. I’m fortunate enough to have people around me who actually still listen to up-and-coming music, old music, so I get the best of both worlds. My taste, it varies. It stretches from alternative sub-genres and to hip-hop and even, sometimes, I like to listen to classic music when I’m in my cars and stuff and Ubers and stuff, because it kind of makes you feel like you in a scene, like a gangsta roll or something like that, like you about to like do a mob hit or something like that. It’s really dope when the Uber driver lets you smoke because you really feel like you gangsta. You be like [imitates taking a drag off a blunt], you know, and it’s just nothing but violins. You don’t even call them sir, you just say “driver.” No, I’m playin’ wit you. I’m joking, guys. I’m just playin’. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I think mob hits through Uber might be the next organized crime wave. That would be interesting. When you were checking out music when you were younger, was it through YouTube or was it just through friends and stuff like that? A$AP Rocky There was no YouTube when I was younger, what are you talkin’ about? Jeff “Chairman” Mao You know, earlier this decade? A$AP Rocky I’m quite old. I just look young. I’m older. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah. You’re older than you were yesterday. A$AP Rocky No, I’m older than people think. People think I’m 22, 23, because I don’t have facial hair. I’m a grown man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yes. A$AP Rocky I’m a grown ass man. Without facial hairs. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I was asking because I was just wondering how you became so influenced on the sounds that you were influenced when you started making music? Yams you used to talk about how he turned you on to a lot of stuff, but were you there already? A$AP Rocky No, we radical, man. All of us is radical. There’s so much words to try to explain it. What you want? Eclectic? I don’t know, fucking creative? We just radical, man. We weren’t used to certain conditions. Things would just switch and change just like that. You just got to adjust to it. Not only that; different environments come with different music. If you hang with a certain crowd of people, you’re going to get certain music. I think when you switch environments so drastically like that, back and forth it just is like a melting pot. I don’t think anybody in this room just listens to one thing at this point. Well, not too many people in the room. Anybody that’s on the internet all the time, and for the people at home viewing it or wherever they are, those people an relate to what I’m saying. You can’t explain it. We got the internet. We got everything we need. Knowledge is just right there in a laptop. It’s to the point where these things, man, these are going to be necessities soon. They are necessities now. It’s going to be like a toothbrush or some shit. You need a laptop. It’s more important than a toothbrush. It is! Is a laptop not more important than a toothbrush? OK, then. Last I checked. Don’t make me seem I’m that crazy up here. I’m just saying it is. Because you can order a toothbrush from the laptop, if you want to get technical. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That’s a great point. A$AP Rocky Yeah. I try to make sense from it because I realized it didn’t make sense. I saved it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That’s a good recovery. A$AP Rocky Yeah. You know. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Do you remember when you first heard records from Houston? A$AP Rocky Yeah. It was the ghetto boys in the ’90s and then I say around 2004, Mike Jones and them just they killed the game. You all remember that? They killed the game. I mean when Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Mike Jones make “Still Tippin’ on Four Fours.” That was just like, man, that was crazy, man. Yeah. You got me reminiscing right now. Jeff “Chairman” Mao It’s funny, because people who’ve talked about quote-unquote “New York hip-hop,” always say towards the end of the aughts, things were so dormant here that you had to take inspiration from other places. Did you feel that way? A$AP Rocky Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know man. I think people were making music the same kind of music to appeal — at the end of the day, you got people who want to make music and sell records, and you got people who just want to make money. It’s nothing wrong if you just want to make money, that’s your motive. That’s what you want to do, it’s cool. What was the initial question again? Jeff “Chairman” Mao You answered the question about Houston and stuff like that. My question was did you think the groups that were coming out of New York at the time — A$AP Rocky Yeah, that was the question, that was the question. I remember now. I don’t think even right now, I don’t know if there’s a sound that actually represents or defines New York right now. What sound is that? We don’t know. Is it Bobby Shmurda and them? Is it French Montana? Is it A$AP and us? Is it Joey Badass? Is it Action Bronson? What’s the sound? It’s not one sound. I think that’s the dope thing about it now, because if we going to be honest, some of the best music, some of the dopest music is coming out of Atlanta right now. But all them niggas sound the same. That’s my thing. Here it’s not as much dope shit. Well, it is, but a lot of people don’t see it the way I see it. They don’t sound alike. Everybody just got their own different thing going on. Them Atlanta dudes, there’s a few dudes that do their own thing and they’re killing it. I’m not saying all Atlanta rappers sound the same. But for the most part, majority, they all kinda have the similar cadences and flows and deliverers and even recycle the same lyrics from each other. I got to just say it. This ain’t dissing nobody, but I don’t know how Future could make a song like “Shit,” and then this nigga, I forgot his name, you make “OG Bobby Johnson.” I was about to say OG Bobby Shmurda. I can’t laugh when I breathe too hard. You make “OG Bobby Johnson,” and it’s like [raps a line from the song]. It’s the same thing Future’s saying and we allowed that. Not taking nothing away from Que is his name. I know his name. Not taking nothing away from him, but I just feel like, come on. I like the song, and if you ask me if I like the song, yes, this is a dope song, yes. But that’s probably why Future is where... And this sounds like I’m downplaying this guy. And I don’t even know him so I don’t got nothing against him, I’m just telling the situation. I feel like it’s okay to be inspired, but you can’t bite off contemporary artists that’s in your same league. You can’t get inspired by them, because then that’s technically biting. Somebody’s dead or not making the same kind of music that he was making and you got something that brings a lot of people to that, oh, cool. Fine. Even Action Bronson. I’m not justifying him, because a lot of people say he sound like Ghostface Killah and all this other stuff. Ghostface, for me, Ghostface is from my generation. Action Bronson, he’s for the generations after us, because these kids don’t have knowledge of none of these rappers like that. For real. [applause] Thank you. Thank you. Can some more people clap. Let’s go, bro. How you feeling over there? We go at lot of hip-hop lovers in the building tonight, and that’s the truth. I’m not saying everything I do is perfect. I hate that motherfucker that’s just judging what everybody else is doing wrong. I’m just saying what I seen in that situation and I just felt like I got it. It makes sense. Even with Trinidad James. Alright, let’s not talk about that. Naw, let’s not do that. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Influence is just an interesting thing. Your point is well taken. Things show up — A$AP Rocky No, let’s talk about the Trinidad James thing. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Go ahead. Go ahead. A$AP Rocky I feel with Trinidad, having that song that he had, and having it be so big, it was the biggest single of 2012, right you all? The biggest single. Mind you you got 2 Chainz who was the hottest artist at the moment, top of the charts. Drake, all them, Kendrick, everybody. This kid comes out, he has the biggest single. Where is he now? Trinidad James is a very good person and he’s a good dear friend of mine. I think he deserves a lot more. I think he works hard. To be quite honest, I can’t say he sounds like other niggas. I’m going to be honest with you. Where is he now? That single shit don’t mean nothing. You know what I’m saying? You can have a hit single today, it happens all the time, it’s history. You got these one hit wonders all the time. It goes on with the game, it’s the part of the game. You got to ask yourself, do you just want to make singles or do you want to make history? Y’all already know what I’m trying to make. [applause] With that being said, A.L.L.A., At Long Last A$AP. I don’t know why that billboard gave you all that date, but June 2. Jeff “Chairman” Mao June 2. OK. A$AP Rocky Beings that a lot of people was expecting that next week or whatever, because I don’t know why Billboard said that, I’ll play something. I’ll play something. Y’all don’t sound too happy about that. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Come on now. A$AP Rocky [audience claps louder] There we go. Can I ask something? How much time do we have? Do you know? Jeff “Chairman” Mao We got all the time in the world. A$AP Rocky Anybody live in Harlem? [mic suddenly begins to feedback as Mao adjusts the sound] Well, damn, man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That was the song. How’d you like it? Sorry about that. A$AP Rocky You know how we do. Anybody live in Harlem? Hands up, please, people? OK, OK. Is Harlem the same to you guys? How’s the culture? Audience Member Very different. A$AP Rocky Why you say that? Why would you say still culture? What makes you say that? Oh yeah? I could dig that. [inaudible comments from audience] Thank you, I’m glad to be a part of that equation. Thank you. That’s what’s up. Let’s go bro. Yeah, man. I disagree. I feel like when I come here, I don’t see people having fun no more. I mean, for me it’s not even about gentrification, because people can move into the neighborhood all they want. But as long as you have fun with yourself, that’s all that matters. I feel like there’s no one around to have fun and maybe that may be the problem. But for the most part, I still know people who live in Harlem, and they just like it’s washed up. We was having too much fun back in them days, and I guess the time is up. The cookouts is over for us. No more Harlem Bronx, nothing. I don’t know if any of you guys are familiar with any of the little gatherings. The festivities we had. Any of you guys? Yeah. Yeah. It was lit. Yeah. I could give you some stories about back in the days. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Go ahead. A$AP Rocky Anybody remember the key? The Skate Key? Yeah, that’s how you know who really from New York right now, because that’s not even a Harlem question. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That’s a Bronx question. A$AP Rocky I heard three people clap. Either people are really young in this room right now or they not from New York City, if you don’t know what the Skate Key is. Who don’t know what the Skate Key is? By a show of hands, please. Don’t be shy. Come on, it’s okay. It’s all right. It’s all right. Jeff “Chairman” Mao OK. All you guys leave the room right now. A$AP Rocky All right. The Skate Key, it’s a roller rink. It was. I don’t know if they still have them, but it was equivalent to, you guys ever heard of the Tunnel? That was the miniature Tunnel. That was for the kids. That was our Tunnel. That’s where I would say dances like Harlem Shake was real big at and stuff like that. That’s where people found the kids, Jo Jo and all of them; my cousin Jo Jo, for Puffy to do all that Harlem stuff. A little bit of history for y’all. Skate Key. That’s where a lot of people got killed over North Faces and bamboo earrings, Gore-Texes and Avirexes. It’s the truth. At least stabbed or some shit. That’s how it was in the ’90s. They were robbing women, men, all that shit. It was fucked up, man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao What other uptown landmarks still resonate with you? A$AP Rocky That was in the Bronx, though. Don’t blame that on Harlem. That was in the Bronx. It was right across the bridge. I use to live in the Bronx. Shout out to the BX, the Boogie Down Bronx. Shout out to the Bronx. Man, it’s really wild out there. I’m going to come clean. It’s still wild. That’s where everybody moved to. They either moved to Brooklyn, Bronx, Jersey or some shit, man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Any other uptown landmarks that — A$AP Rocky What? Somebody said SoHo? Jeff “Chairman” Mao SoHo. Yeah. A$AP Rocky Smart ass. They whispered it, too. It was so sarcastic. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Is there any other uptown landmarks that come to mind? Spark some memories? A$AP Rocky Rocko Park. Kingdome. Riverbank, Milbank parties and cookouts. Morris cookouts. Father’s Day Morningside cookouts, Morningside Park. It was so lit. Harlem. Alright, that’s a dumb question, but are the parades still fun? [addressing audience] What? Alright, who performed last year? Y’all ain’t go to the parade? [turns to Jeff Mao] See what I’m saying? Niggas don’t even go to the Harlem Day Parade. They’re from Harlem. I came for the Fourth of July and I almost cried, man. I came with firecrackers. For real. I had my nutcrackers, firecrackers. My good shoes on. I was looking nice. I’m like, “It’s about to be lit.” Real late night. Real cozy. I got uptown and I only saw police patrolling. I didn’t see not a firecracker. Not one. What we ended up doing is we pulled over on 125th and we went over there right by the West Side Highway by the little boardwalk, whatever you want to call it. We lit some firecrackers over there. And that was wack. Jeff “Chairman” Mao It sounds sad actually, yeah. A$AP Rocky It was wack. It was cool, but it was still trash. I’m going to come clean. Then, we went to what you call it? La Marina. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Uptown? A$AP Rocky Yeah. It was all right. It was all right. Jeff “Chairman” Mao They still do the Harlem week on 135th. People come out for that. A$AP Rocky No they don’t. He’s lying right now. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah. People come out for that, right? A$AP Rocky Nobody comes out for that. They don’t come out, man. Nah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You say it’s not gentrification, but at the same time it has a lot to do with that. A$AP Rocky It is. It is to an extent. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I say this as somebody who would probably be considered one of the gentrifiers. I’ve lived up here only for thirteen years, but — A$AP Rocky Nah. You’re good. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I’m alright? A$AP Rocky You straight. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You sure? A$AP Rocky I guess you’re right. Not only that, I told you I got people who still live in Harlem. Harlem is wack. I love it. Harlem made me. Raised me. Birthed me. But it ain’t the same. I’ll be all right, though. There’s other fun stuff to do. Jeff “Chairman” Mao How is SoHo treating you, then? A$AP Rocky Very good. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao It’s nice. It’s cool. Very nice. You know what? I thought we were going to play a song. Is that right? We got sidetracked from all these sad Harlem memories. A$AP Rocky Yeah. You want to talk about the song? Jeff “Chairman” Mao What do you want to tell us about this song? A$AP Rocky The name of the song is called “Everyday.” See, I’ll be surprised. Do you guys know who Rod Stewart is? Audience Member Of course! A$AP Rocky Well, pardon me. Jeff “Chairman” Mao They all have YouYube. A$AP Rocky Yeah. Featuring Miguel. Mark Ronson. We about to get jiggy. We’ about to get lit. Limbs very relaxed. Chilling right now. [applause] Thank you. (music: A$AP Rocky feat. Rod Stewart, Miguel, Mark Ronson — “Everyday”) Thank you. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Was that Rod Stewart singing? Were you there when he was doing that part? A$AP Rocky No. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You didn’t get to meet him? A$AP Rocky No. You ask too much questions. It’s Miguel produced by Mark Ronson, featuring Miguel and Rod Stewart. [applause] Thanks y’all. I didn’t deserve that applause, but I was just trying to make a point. Thank you, though. I’m talking about just real life shit. The world is crazy, but I’ll be fine just sipping my motherfucking wine. You heard the song. Be happy. Smoke weed. Sip wine. Or Red Bull. All right. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I mean, the world is crazy. A$AP Rocky Yeah it is, man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Do you address any other things that are going on? A$AP Rocky The Ferguson and Baltimore stuff? Yeah. I think that shit is fucked up. My album is done so it’s not much I can really say at this point on that album, but if I feel the need to and I’m making another song, I’ll say something. I feel like it’s one of those things where it’s just everybody’s got an opinion about it. It’s history repeating itself. This kind of behavior we’ve seen before from police. This is nothing new, though. It’s like when Miley Cyrus first started twerking everybody acted like they saw something new. It’s just like it’s twerking. Cops do this all the time. They punch you in the face. They say crazy shit. They kick you. They do it all the time. Teenagers, all that. Just being honest. I’m not trying to make cops out to be bad people. It’s good and bad people in every profession in the world. Don’t let anybody tell you different. At the end of the day I just hope the best. I hope people figure out a solution for everybody to stop beefing. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Now, everybody has their own approach to their art. Some people are more comfortable talking about topical things. When do you think it might happen that you get a little deeper into it? Obviously you’re opinionated. You don’t have a problem expressing yourself. Do you see a way, you feel compelled ever to merge your art with saying something topical with — A$AP Rocky Like what’s going on today? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah. A$AP Rocky I think my album does that. Especially for me. It’s just my point of view. The way I see things. Jeff “Chairman” Mao What else do you want to tell us about At. Long. Last.? You have FKA Twigs? A$AP Rocky No. No Twigs. Twigs isn’t on the album. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Okay. Scratch that. A$AP Rocky Yeah. Did I say we have Rod Stewart, Miguel and Mark Ronson? That’s pretty ill. Let me think. Y’all got to get the album. I feel like if I give too much away, it’s just going to spoil it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao There’s a suggestion. Yeah. A$AP Rocky He sounds like my self-conscious right now. [in response to inaudible comment from audience] It’s Friday? Shit. Jeff “Chairman” Mao In a few hours it’s Friday. A$AP Rocky That’s a good question. I’m touring in the fall, but I should be doing a couple of festivals and shit like that here and there. I’ll keep you guys posted as far as touring goes. I’m sorry. [responding to audience] Who said that? Oh. I’m always in Europe. I just left Europe. Huh? What? When am I going? Soon. ASAP. Jeff “Chairman” Mao We actually have a couple of questions that have been tweeted from the Twitterverse. A$AP Rocky Yeah. Let’s do that. They’re not too explicit are they? Jeff “Chairman” Mao They’re all explicit. Let’s see what we got here. Will there ever be a Beast Coast, A$AP Mob collab? A$AP Rocky Why not? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Since you’re listening to ’60s music... I should credit that first question to Duke C. Bastion. This is from @divone345. It’s from Twitter. A$AP Rocky Is he here right now? What kind of username is that? Jeff “Chairman” Mao I don’t know. I’m reading what’s on the paper. A$AP Rocky How do you expect anybody to @ him with that name? All right. Fine. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Since you are listening to ’60s music like the Stooges, what’s your favorite song by them? A$AP Rocky I think Iggy Pop, of course, is going to be “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” Come on, now. Very rare. Check out the tattoos on the rock star chick in the front. OK. All right. I see you. Uh oh. We got a lot of common. OK. I like her style. Jeff “Chairman” Mao “I Want to Be A Dog”? I’m not saying that. It’s the song title. The song title by the Stooges? “I Want to Be A Dog”? A$AP Rocky “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” Jeff “Chairman” Mao That’s your favorite? A$AP Rocky Yes sir. Jeff “Chairman” Mao “No Fun” is a good one, too. A$AP Rocky You’re right. Jeff “Chairman” Mao From @trustmedaddy. [laughter] A$AP Rocky They’re asking for it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Oh boy. A$AP Rocky I don’t trust them. I can’t. Not with that name. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I think he heard the pedophile conversation from before. Can you show us the At. Long. Last. A$AP. artwork? A$AP Rocky See, he got to chill. His name blew minds first. Nah, I’m joking. You know what? No. I can’t. Sorry. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That’s cool. From @vswifters. What’s your favorite track that you’ve made and why? A$AP Rocky I don’t have one, because I like too many of them. Jeff “Chairman” Mao All right. Fair enough. A$AP Rocky I’m just being honest. Jeff “Chairman” Mao From @evelyntaughtyou. A$AP Rocky Whoa. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Are these real Twitter handles or is somebody just making these? A$AP Rocky These names are interesting, man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao What’s your favorite memory from filming Dope? A$AP Rocky Being with this kid, man. Let me think. All right, so what I was saying, no names. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Cool. A$AP Rocky Yeah. I remember the little bro. He was the main character in the movie Dope. He had a little... [addressing him in audience] I’m not going to embarrass you, don’t worry. Don’t worry. He had a little crush on a girl, right? So I gave him some brotherly advice, you know? And I told him what to do. I don’t know if he quite did it the way I told him to do it, but when he came back, man, he was just wigging out. He was tripping, man. He was just like, “Oh man. Your advice didn’t work, bro. I shouldn’t have took your advice, bro. I’m not you, I’m not the pretty motherfucker, like, it just doesn’t work for —” [laughs] I said, “Man, it’s going to be all right. Man, it’s going to be cool. It’s going to be okay, man.” I was just playing though. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Good thing you didn’t embarrass him though, so. A$AP Rocky No, but he ended up, you know, you’ve got to. It was cool, you know? I don’t know if I can give away the game, because the game is to be sold, not told, baby. You feel me? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Okay, from @papaanthony. A$AP Rocky Woah. What’s with all these daddies and pas, man. Pops and pas and dads. Jeez, man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Is there an A$AP Mob album coming that we should know about? A$AP Rocky It is. It is. It is. And I don’t want to make the same mistakes as before, just getting too excited and telling y’all stuff about it. Let’s get this A.L.L.A. album out the way, and, you know, we’re going to get to that ASAP, no pun intended. Jeff “Chairman” Mao What happened previously that didn’t work out? A$AP Rocky No, because you know, we would put out dates and stuff like that. And you know, when the dates come and they don’t... It’s just, you’re talking to a bunch of perfectionists. So it’s me and Yams, it’s different. If I’m doing something by myself I could just be like, you know, well, I like it like this, I like it like that. It’s two opinions, and, you know, I’m more alternative and weirdo-y, and he likes like straight rap shit. He got the aspects of it, you know? I think me and Yams were clashing with just, like, certain songs. I just was like, “Nah, man, this ain’t right. This ain’t going on.” He just was like, “Nah. It’ll make sense now.” He started working on a tape, and he had a few songs recorded. He has a list, the complete track list of what he wanted and stuff like that. We spoke about what he wanted before he passed, and I’m just going, you know, follow up and execute and all that and finish everything for him. Jeff “Chairman” Mao So is that the blueprint album? A$AP Rocky Basically, yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Because there is a question here from Flaco Julio. A$AP Rocky Oh, I like that name. Jeff “Chairman” Mao @flacojulio. A$AP Rocky That’s fine. That’s normal. Jeff “Chairman” Mao More details on this blueprint Yams album. A$AP Rocky Yeah, that’s the only detail that I can give you right now are the ones that I... The shit that I just told you. You’re asking me to do what I said I can’t do again, so that’s no lie. I gave you the details, you know. I do got them on my side, man. You’re wrong. Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That merits applause I think, yes. From @itsseamud, who is your favorite novelist? What is your favorite book of all time? A$AP Rocky Man, you know, this is something that I’m quite sure I made clear and apparent in other interviews, but for me, I barely read these days. Which, I know that that’s really, you know, it’s not good. But at the end of the day, I have the capability of reading, you know? I have a good vernacular and vocabulary. I’m really eloquent. So I’m good, but I’m just saying like, I prefer to get my... When I want stories told to me, I like to see it visually. So for me, I would prefer to watch a movie over [reading a book]. And I guess that has to do with my era, because I came up in the era of TV and radio, you know? Before me, it was all about, you know, fucking, I don’t know what it was about. But it was, for me, when I’m coming up, we had television. We had movies and shit like that. There wasn’t no internet. All we used to do was watch movies. That was the biggest platform. Now it’s the internet, you know what I’m saying? I don’t know what was before television. That was that, you know, fucking awesome. But the radio, right? Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah, radio. Radio before television. A$AP Rocky Before the radio, what was it? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Newspapers. A$AP Rocky True that. Well, I mean... Y’all, all right. Y’all got deep as fuck... I mean, like, but was kids actually like, running to see the newspaper? They probably were, who knows. I’m just saying. I’m not talking about what the every day people were doing. I’m talking about what were kids doing to get entertainment. Y’all said the newspaper? Trying to make me look stupid up here. I’m, you know... Jeff “Chairman” Mao Comic books. [laughter] Telegrams? A$AP Rocky Telegrams, yo. This is like ... You know what... Jeff “Chairman” Mao I think we’re confusing the question a little bit, guys. A$AP Rocky Kids flew kites before radio, OK? They flew kites. That was the best fun they had, all right? Then it was the telegram, then the radio. It’s all right. We got it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I’m glad we cleared that up. A$AP Rocky Played with rocks. Jeff “Chairman” Mao From Ash Muzee. Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? A$AP Rocky I hope successful. You know, nobody here can see themselves in 10 years. I’m almost afraid to see me in 10 years, man. I’m going to be all out of shape and shit. I might be crazy in 10 years. I don’t know. I hope I’m successful and I hope I’m okay, I’m alive and breathing and I’m happy. Why not, you know? I don’t know, 10 years ago when I was 16, I hoped my life would be like this. All joking aside. That’s crazy. Come to think of it. You want to know something? Like, the questions you ask me, I’ve got to like, just think about what I’m going to say. I don’t even get to think about what I’m going to say, I’ve just got to say it quick because we didn’t prep for these. So these are just like honest answers and responses and shit. So yeah, you know. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I mean, do you see yourself rapping, making music for a finite amount of time? Have you thought about it ever? Like, I don’t want to be doing this past X number of years, you know? Or this age. I can’t see myself being on stage doing this after a certain time. A$AP Rocky All right, when you put it that way, all right, being like 40, 50? Yeah, I can’t see myself doing it. But then again, I mean, Jay Z do it. You know? Slick Rick did it. You know? How it is, man, Juicy J do it, you know? What you mean? Jeff “Chairman” Mao I mean, we’re in different times. It’s like, you see the rock bands doing their thing well into their later years. You’ve got Rod Stewart on your album. A$AP Rocky Very rare. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You know? Why not? A$AP Rocky Why not what? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Why not keep going, you know? A$AP Rocky Yeah, why not? Yeah. I didn’t know you was agreeing with me, yeah. Yeah. Why not, man? I’m stoned. I’m not going to lie to you, bro. I don’t know if y’all noticed, this whole interview, like. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I would have never guessed it. A$AP Rocky I did well though, because y’all wouldn’t have known if I wouldn’t have said shit about it. But I just needed to tall y’all. Y’all knew? Audience Yeah! A$AP Rocky I probably came out smelling like it and shit, right? Oh man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao This is a sharp crowd we’ve got here. A$AP Rocky I’m glad. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Can’t put nothing on them. A$AP Rocky [responding to inaudible comment from audience] Uh, yesterday. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That’s your conscience speaking to you, by the way. A$AP Rocky Yeah. Yo. I’m on point. 12 is good. A$AP 12, you do that. Did I see you? I see you ganging this bitch. Jeff “Chairman” Mao All right, I’m going to ask you a serious question. A$AP Rocky All right, cool. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Actually. A$AP Rocky Serious face. I’m going to put a serious face on. Come on. Let’s do it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao How do you cope with loss? How do you heal? A$AP Rocky I think time. Time heals. I don’t know, man. I’m just staying busy. Man, when you leave somebody on good terms, you can rest and sleep well. You know, like God forbid if me and him had had a fight right before that happened, or just disagreed on something, I would just feel like shit. But the fact that I knew he was proud of me, you know. Blood couldn’t make us thicker. I knew he was happy for me. I knew he had my back, 100%. That’s how he died, and that’s how he had everybody back who he called a brother or a family member. He had all of us. That’s how I cope with that. You know what I’m saying? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Is it intimidating to think about moving forward creatively? He was such a... A$AP Rocky Nah. See, you know, this is the thing. Yams... Y’all niggas, I’m creative! Like, y’all forgetting this? You know what I’m saying? What the fuck are you talking about? Jeff “Chairman” Mao But I mean, you know, you have this bond. You have a bond with somebody who is there with you, too. A$AP Rocky Yeah. Jeff “Chairman” Mao And that’s something special. It’s not necessarily the way it was. A$AP Rocky Yeah. That’s what I lost, if I lost anything. If you’re referring to the niche or my juice, you tell me if you think I lost it, you know? I’m good. I think it’s one of those things, I lost my brother and time is going to heal it and we’ll be all right. You know, that’s like saying, that’s like asking Puff like, hey man, so what are you going to do now that B.I.G. died, he dead? You go to the top and try to take over. That’s what the fuck I’m going to try to do, you know what I’m saying? I’m going to try to live out his legacy the way he wanted it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao What do you want people to remember and know most about Yams? A$AP Rocky He was crazy, man. Like, in a good way, man. His personality. Everybody. You see, man, it’s people who have personal encounters with Yams. It’s people who have their own perception and experiences through Yams. Yams wasn’t piggybacking off of me like, you barely even see Yams with me. After “Goldie,” you didn’t see him in the video with me until three years later, and that was “Multiply.” You know what I’m saying? Two, three years later. He barely was in videos. Like, he wasn’t piggybacking my career and he wasn’t trying to be in my spotlight. That wasn’t his thing. He was his own character. He was funny, he held his own, he had his own ideas. He had fresh-ass ideas. That’s what made us so dope, because we both was young with fresh ideas. That was my nigga. Can we switch the subject? I feel like we’re just talking about Yams for the past 20 minutes and shit. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Do you want to take any actual questions from the audience? Are we okay to do that? A$AP Rocky Yeah, sure. Please. Anybody ask me... What’s up, bro? What’s good, bro? Yeah. He reppin’ the hood. You from the hood. Audience Member If someone wrote you a blank check and they let you do whatever with it, and now you’ve got [inaudible]? A$AP Rocky Are we referring to the check, the price? Audience Member If someone gave you ... A$AP Rocky With a blank check? Probably what I’m doing now, on a more advanced level. Because if it was blank, I could put any number I need. Is that what you’re telling me? C’mon, dude. What kind of question... That’s a genie question. Just give me a lamp. Yeah, I’m going to work on the Yams Mob album. We’re working on that right now as we speak. You know, A$AP Mob members have they solo albums coming out, you know? They solo projects. A$AP Nast, A$AP Ferg, A$AP Twelvyy, A$AP Ant. So you know. Not only that, we’ve got the Cozy Tape. Did I say that already? Yeah, I said that. [gesturing at his shoes] Oh, these old things? Alexander Wang. I was hoping you’d ask. Nah, I’m just playing. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I think we’ve got time for two more questions. A$AP Rocky It’s more than two people. Come on, we’ve got to at least do six. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Did I say two? I meant six. A$AP Rocky We did one right here, right? We do one more from this section. Two from that section and two from that section. Make it even. All right. One more. All right dude. You’re pointing at yourself. Mob to SoHo. Crashing parties. We use to crash parties and shit. They use to have this party called the Whorehouse. Any of y’all remember that? The Whorehouse was so lit. I know it’s a crazy name, but it was so lit, right? I’m talking about, like, crazy. You’ve got your hipsters. You’ve got your taste makers. You got your high-end fashion motherfuckers. You got your druggies. You got your hippies. You got your music lovers all in one place. Everybody wildin’ out. Just kids. I had only been about twenty-one at the time and I’m just talking about warehouses full of kids just bugging the fuck out. I remember one year Ninjasonik was like the biggest thing at the time, right? I got love for them. I was hating. “Why are these whack niggas on stage? Yenz let’s just go up there. Let’s just take their...” Twelvyy, you remember that day? Where’d Twelvyy go? This is no lie. This is all facts, right. I’m like, “Man, fuck them. These niggas is wack, man.” Yams was like, “All right. Hold on. When they cut this song off, we’re going to get J. Scott and he’s going to hook up his computer and we’re going to just start rapping. We’re going to take over this shit.” Man, I promise y’all I was out on the mic at probably like 12:30. It was a room full of people by the time I got off the mic. I was just rapping drunk. They just started putting on regular songs and I’m rapping over the songs. They put on the “Touch it. Bring it. Shake it.” I’m just rapping the whole time. You know I’m pretty... “If niggas want it harder.” I’m wildin’ right? When the turn up part came on, wildin’ out and shit. I look and it was five people just dancing drunk when it’s all said and done and shit. But I was like, “At least they know our name, though. They know our name, though.” We held it down. POP. All right so that’s two. Can we get two from over here? We got her way in the back. Dead or alive? Damn, yo. Damn. You can’t ask that question. It’s not an answer. I can’t. Top who? That’s even harder. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That’s even tougher. A$AP Rocky Wow. Top two? I can’t do that. Give me another one. What’s up? Yo I’m going to come clean, my beats is all right. What’s so funny? They are. I like that. You know what? Listen, because it lets you make your own sound sonically. It allows you to really make a sound opposed to just making a song. You know how certain people, when they get on, that presence is like... That’s that Pharrell sound. That’s that Drake sound. Huh? Yeah. Wow that’s really dope you asked that. It actually did. When you work with them, you got the proper terminology and shit, it’s like usually you just, I’m like, “You know the thing thing with the thing and the thing? Rewind it back. Aw. You done fucked it up.” It’s a disaster after that. Now you can name it by the proper term. And I finished that, also. I did the instrumental thing about a year ago. Jeff “Chairman” Mao When’s that going to drop? A$AP Rocky The thing is, I couldn’t give people and instrumental project without giving them an album in two years and stuff. It was just like people would have been like, “I don’t want to hear this shit.” I wouldn’t have wanted to hear it. Maybe after. It’s dope, though. It’s just some art shit. It’s cool. It’s something I did on my time, so it’s cool. It wasn’t pressure to do it. That’s what I like about it. All of these things were no pressure and people keep asking, “Do you feel pressure? Do you feel pressure?” It’s not like somebody was like, “You’re obligated to do this. You’ve got to do it this way.” It’s no pressure. It’s free. Free as a bird to express art. It’s a good time for music, 2015, man. I’m telling you, man. Not just because I’m making an album. I’m just blessed to put out an album this year amongst all the other great artists that put their album out this year because I called it. I said 2014 was so whack, but 2015 is going to be better and everybody was like laughing at me and shit, but I was right. One more? Jeff “Chairman” Mao One more. A$AP Rocky All right, so I’m going to be 100% with you. I skimmed through the Kendrick shit and I like, “I was running through the 6 with my woes.” That’s it. It sounds like Big Sean? Oh, what about his album? You know what? Like I said, I’m making my music so I didn’t want to listen to other people, if that’s okay. But I do know that they have songs that I like. It’s certain people that you can’t deny, but listen to because I did listen to the whole Earl album. I checked out Tyler’s album. It was pretty dope. I think Kendrick’s album was very jazzy. It was a little overwhelming, but I think it was amazing. I do think the musical content was on another level. That’s just me being honest. I skimmed through it so I can’t judge it because I didn’t listen to it. Please, if you can, if you listen to music, set the environment. Sit down, get you a snack or get you some weed or something like that or a drink. What? What’s so funny? These are what you need. This is what you need. Get you a drink and listen to it. Dim the lights. Do what makes you feel cozy. Get cozy. Throw your robe on and just listen to the music, then judge it. Because you can’t be in a function and trying to listen to something. You got people around you and it’s just not the same experience. I’ve never had time to be alone and listen to Drake’s or... I heard it’s good. Drake sold how much first week? And fucking Kendrick did. I heard they did well. Certain things you don’t have to listen to right away. I’m going to listen to it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Are we taking one last one or is that it? One more? A$AP Rocky We got two. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Two more on this side? A$AP Rocky I answered the question for... All right. Damn. I’m going to let you pick. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I’m not understanding what’s going on. Over here. A$AP Rocky I think this question is about to get me in trouble right now. What’s my least favorite in music right now? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Fad. A$AP Rocky OK. I don’t even know if it matters. Why does it matter? Honestly. Not to be rude, but who cares what I like? I just tried to get out of that question. The whole thing is I’m trying to avoid it because it’s a ten minute conversation because I talk about this stuff every day. A lot of trends get on my fucking nerves, you know what I’m saying? But let’s not get into all that. It doesn’t even matter. A.L.L.A., June 2nd. I’m going to come clean. Shout outs to you. That was a cute question and you’re pretty so we good. All right. I’m going to let you pick the next one. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You got it. This is the last one. You got to pick. A$AP Rocky Nah because I’m going to come clean. You’re not going to believe this story. Michèle Lamy, Rick Owens’ wife, for some reason out of nowhere — because I’m working with her in Europe — she wanted me to come to Paris, but really quick and I couldn’t understand why it was so urgent. She told all of us, “It’s important for him to be there.” I’m doing a museum thing so she made us come to some museum and when I got there I’m looking at a painting and I turn around because she’s like, “Oh. Look who it is. The big surprise.” I turn around and it’s Mos Def and she surprised both of us because I kept telling her how much I think, “Damn I think he’s so busy. He’s not going to be able to do this album.” I just would randomly talk about him. He’s a different type of person. If anybody knows Mos Def, knows that he’s a different type of guy. First off, I had to be in the studio with Mark Ronson and Danger Mouse, but I’m in Paris and they’re in London. We was going to take the last train to London. We missed that because Mos, this motherfucker, we go to Colette. He meets some new friends. I’m like, “Yo, bro. I understand that they cool. I know they own the hotels out there, but we got a train to catch. We got first class seats for the ticket. I’m not sure how much we paid, but I know it’s not cheap.” I’m trying to tell him these things and it wasn’t registering. He made us miss the fucking train, so we get there and one of the custodian dudes, he’s all like, “Oh man. Oh man!” He’s just overwhelmed by both of us and he’s just like, “Hey, man. My uncle does limo driving stuff. He’s a driver. He could drive y’all to London.” “Alright. Cool. Cool. How much is he going to charge? Is he going to let us smoke in the car?” He’s like, “Yeah. Yeah. It’s all good. It’s all good.” We drove six hours to London and made it in the studio 2 AM and made history. Also, he stayed with me in London for about three weeks. We just were chilling every day. Randomly just chilling in London-town walking down the street, chilling. Just chilling. Word. It was lit. Yeah. Thanks for that. All right. Is that the last question, or we got one more? We good? That was the last one? Jeff “Chairman” Mao That was the last question. A$AP Rocky Oh man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You want to say anything to these folks? A$AP Rocky It’s hard to say goodbye to people. I feel like I’ve been up here just talking the whole time. I don’t really know shit about y’all. How y’all feeling? Y’all happy today? Everybody good? Beautiful people. For real. For real. I want to thank all of y’all for coming and watching this and being interested and supporting. I appreciate that shit, man. Bro. How am I not going to pick you, bro? Come on. You know I’ve got to pick you bro. Come on. I told you you couldn’t leave without... I see my homeboy from the crowd. Jeff “Chairman” Mao All right. This is it. This is really it. This is it. Nobody else raise your hands. A$AP Rocky That’s a good one. It’s going to sound real cliché. I say the same thing every time somebody asks me this, so bear with me. I feel like you’ve got to do your own thing. I just had a really good interview earlier and they asked me the same question. I feel like you just really got to do your own thing. Stick to what you think is true. I feel like, make the music. We referring just anything in general, right? Make the material. Make the art. You put it out there. Everybody has access to the biggest platform in the world right now, which is called the internet. You all have access to it. Put it on there and I feel like it’ll come to you if it’s good. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know, like I said. I say this all the time man. I’m not Sway. I don’t have all the answers. I know what worked for me, but that’s the best advice that I could give because everybody got different situations. Everybody says the same shit, man. “Just keep trying. Keep trying.” Yes. That’s the biggest part because even with me it was times that I was like. man, I was getting frustrated because I’m like, “It’s all these wack motherfuckers.” You remember the Ninjasonik thing? Shout out to the homies. Shout out to the homies, shout outs to Telli and them, but I’m just saying I thought it was wack. I’m keeping it a hundred. Even before I got into the music business and the music game, I felt that about certain artists. As soon as I stopped worrying about what everybody else was doing, I just was focused on — I have a good time listening to me being me and all that kind of shit. I think a lot of other people will, too. I feel like you should feel that way about whatever you’re doing. Just put your all into it and please don’t do nothing just for the... Alright, if you’re going to do something for the sake of money, don’t be mad with the end result when your integrity is questioned. That’s all. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I think that’s a good note to — A$AP Rocky That’s it for the questions. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That’s a good note to end on. Let’s say thanks once again to A$AP Rocky. A$AP Rocky Thank you. Thanks guys. I love you all.