A$AP Rocky: Father in a Lost Generation

After becoming the voice of a lost rap generation, A$AP Rocky finds himself with bigger shoes to fill, as the world’s flyest father.

It all began back in 2013. A$AP Rocky, who was just 24 at the time, had been making monumental moves across the underground hip-hop and rap world. Proving his left-field approach to the genre to be the fundamental missing link, the regressing genres lacked.

Forming what was an immediate connection, the weeks that followed the ‘Fashion Killa’ shoot, laid the foundations of what was to come. 

Once the video was finished, the two parted ways. Rocky continued to write and produce music and Rihanna, well, as the Barbadian superstar at this moment in time, was at the peak of her fame — or at least it seemed to be).

In the midst of the Diamond world tour, Rihanna decided to reach out and contact her old foe, A$AP Rocky, asking him to join her in the North American leg as the support act. Intrigued by the moves Rocky was making in the hip hop scene and by his charismatic yet unparalleled driven nature, Rihanna felt the 20-something-year-old deserved more recognition. Rightly so. 

Beneath the friendship, there was something bigger at work, magnetic and cosmic. The two collectively whether that be through their partnership in the ‘Fashion Killa’ video, or how they both vibed in person. From day 1, the two had a surreal connection, knowing one another for just a short time, yet feeling as though they had been friends for decades. 

“I like to feel as though the stars were aligned”, Rocky told Dazed Magazine. 

Following Rihanna’s Diamond world tour, the Barbadian singer purchased a penthouse apartment in the Big Apple’s SoHo neighbourhood. A stone’s throw away from Rocky. The two, however, were reunited by the unintentional cupid-Esque moves of the late Virgil Abloh. 

Abloh had developed creative partnerships with Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, individually, but following Rihanna’s resettlement in New York, with Abloh being inspired by their presence as a duo. The fashion designer made some moves of his own which would lead to paparazzi sightings of the two, strolling down New York’s high street, sporting luminary designer brands that gave the likes of Versace and Gucci a run for their money. The two immediately became the couple everyone wanted. 

‘Versace, got a lot, but she never wears it but she saves it so our babies will be flyer than their parents’, these lyrics from the 2013 single Fashion Killa, now seem like visualisation.

With the two spending the next decade together. It feels as though Rocky was able to predict the future, or at least cast magic through his songwriting. 

With the two essentially being bound at the hip in recent years. Rocky revealed in an interview with Dazed Digital, that the relationship for him, felt like a dream and the realness of it didn’t hit him until Rihanna asked Rocky to visit Barbados with her, with the pop superstar wanting to introduce A$AP Rocky to her family. 

Whether you’re a rap superstar, millionaire, or just an everyday person, it’s refreshing to hear that meeting the parents will always be a monumental occasion in everyone’s relationship. 

Even for the bravado New York native. 

“It was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever encountered in my life.” 

This comes as no surprise seeing that Rocky grew up in Harlem. From a working-class and humble background. Similar to that of the Barbadian native. In his teen years, Rihanna was already a superstar in the making. Rocky, on the other hand, plotting and scheming. Finding his voice in the music world and most of all, the stories he would tell. To fast forward only a decade and be sitting in Barbados with Rihanna and her family, would have always been a thought so alien and unrealistic. But in 2020, that’s where we found himself. 

Multi-million record deal after record deal, countless Number 1 Billboard spots and a handful of world tours. Since 2013, Rocky went from zero to hero, in a minute. Creating a high profile for himself, on his own merit. Rocky’s story, unequivocally, echoed infinite similarities to that of RiRi’s success. Two small children, growing up, poor, with large visual dreams. To finally make it one day. Not as individuals, but collectively as Modern day soul mate superstars. 

Since the rapper’s last 2018 release, Testing — which featured collaborative entries from Moby, FKA Twigs, Frank Ocean and Skepta. Rocky has been busy making big moves outside of the music world. 

Now father to the world’s most fly baby, once cited in his high Fashion Killa, Rocky has been keeping busy with a very different kind of work. 

Once the father of a lost generation in hip hop and rap, Rocky now found himself a father for real. 

‘It’s beautiful that we can [ influence generations through their music] do that. Things like diversity and versatility are important, and they’ll be embedded in the household.‘

Talking about fatherhood with Dazed Digital, Rocky admitted:

“I will always remind my children to never lose their imagination, even as adults, no matter what.“

It’s no surprise that becoming a father has offered a monumental reflective and perspective change in both Rocky and RiRi’s life but Rocky insists, no matter what, he just wants two things in life. 

‘I hope to raise open-minded children. Not people who discriminate. And I’m not trying to describe a saint, but realistically, I just want a cool child with cool parents.’ 

Now, back to work on his latest album, A$AP Rocky leaves up with a teaser as to what fans can expect from the highly anticipated 2018 follow-up. 

“I don’t want to be cliche or sound like a salesman, but I’ve pushed myself to the limit on everything. Going from that industrial, subversive sound from Testing and then graduating it with a more polished sound. I just like where it is.”

At the moment, there is no confirmed title for the 2018 follow-up or release date but we can only hope, both come sooner, rather than later.