If 2012’s $AP was a fashion-rap album, A.L.L.A. And yet the moments of uncoolness are part of A.L.L.A.‘s charm. It’s easy to imagine Yams counseling Rocky not to make some of the cornier decisions he makes on A.L.L.A.: Bringing on Danger Mouse to produce a bunch of tracks, rapping over a Lucero sample, implying that he’s fucked Rihanna, directly claiming that he kicked Rita Ora out of his house immediately after hooking up with her. And though he’s credited as an executive producer on the album, it’s not quite clear how much he had to do with the finished product, which was surprise-released to the general public at midnight last night. Yams died early this year, the victim of a drug overdose. Yams taught Rocky to curb his cornier impulses, to radiate a certain form of tailored, manicured swagger. He pulled impeccably chosen bits and pieces from various local rap scenes throughout history and helped Rocky swirl them together into what have become, in the last few years, leading signifiers in rap cool. Instead, it’s a classic Dame Dash-style rant from Rocky’s aesthetic mentor A$AP Yams: “These tackass motherfuckers be all up in the pictures, wearin’ all types of red and green stripes, overaccessorizing out this motherfucker!” Yams wasn’t a rapper or a producer or any sort of musician, but he was instrumental in plotting Rocky’s rise and establishing his Tumblr-rap aesthetic. ![]() ![]() ![]() The last voice we hear on At.$AP, the new A$AP Rocky album, doesn’t belong to Rocky.
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