Asap Rocky First Black Male Fashion Owner

ASAP (or A$AP) Rocky is an American rapper who burst on the music scene in 2011 and presently afterwards released his nautical chart-topping albums 'Long.Live.A$AP' and 'At.Long.Terminal.A$AP.'

Who Is ASAP Rocky?

One of hip hop's true mavericks, ASAP Rocky is renowned for his experimental arroyo to music, his flair for style, his penchant for psychedelic drugs and his prolific dearest life (old girlfriends include Kendall Jenner and Iggy Azalea). The about successful fellow member of Harlem'southward A$AP Mob commonage of MCs, producers, video directors and designers, Rocky outburst onto the scene in 2011, earning an eye-communicable $3 million dollar deal with Sony/RCA. He fast became the toast of East Declension hip hop and has never looked back.

A old street hustler whose father was jailed for drug dealing and whose older brother was murdered, Rocky has increasingly revealed an artistic, eccentric, dandified side of his grapheme equally he has gravitated abroad from Harlem towards downtown Manhattan'southward artistic milieu. Now a front end-row fixture in the fashion earth, he has collaborated with the designers Raf Simons and Jonathan Anderson, and in 2016 became the face of Dior Homme — the first person of color to stand for the luxury menswear brand.

In that location is more than a whiff of debauched 1970s rock star most him — which may explicate his surprise collaboration in 2015 with Rod Stewart, whom he described as "like seeing yourself forty years older and white". "You got two types of rappers," Rocky told Billboard in 2015. "The celebrity and the artist. I'k famous, I'm popular — I'thou just not a glory. I'm an creative person. In my sixties, I don't want to exist simply remembered every bit that kid from back in the day that had absurd sh*t."

A$AP Rocky from the film 'Monster' poses for a portrait in the YouTube x Getty Images Portrait Studio at 2018 Sundance Flick Festival on January 22, 2018 in Park City, Utah.

(Photo: Robby Klein_Getty Images)

What Does ASAP Rocky Hateful?

The A$AP moniker stands for unlike things: Always Strive And Prosper; Assassinating Snitches and Police; and even Acronym Symbolizing Any Purpose.

How Much Is ASAP Rocky'southward Net Worth?

As of 2019, ASAP Rocky's net worth is estimated at $6 million.

Songs & Albums

At the age of 19 in 2007, Rocky hooked upwards with the A$AP Mob, a sprawling collective of rappers, producers and video directors co-founded by the impresario A$AP Yams, Harlem's reply to Malcolm McLaren. That's when Rakim Mayers acquired the proper name A$AP Rocky.

Mixtape 'Live.Dearest.A$AP'

Rocky worked with three of A$AP Mob's producers in particular to develop the spacey soundscapes underpinning his raps: Clams Casino, A$AP Ty Beats and SpaceGhostPurpp. He self-released two singles, "Peso" (on which he dropped the names of fashion designers like Rick Owens and Raf Simons, a future collaborator) and "Purple Swag," in 2011, sparking a major-label bidding war that began fifty-fifty before he had released his starting time mixtape, Live.Dear.A$AP. That same twelvemonth, he signed to the Sony/RCA subdivision of Polo Grounds Music for $3 million. It was a combined deal incorporating his solo projects and those of his collective, on their record characterization A$AP Worldwide. The split was reportedly $i.7 million for Rocky, $1.iii million for A$AP Worldwide.

'Long.Live.A$AP' Debut Album

Rocky's debut solo anthology, Long.Live.A$AP, came out on January 13, 2013. Its many guests included Kendrick Lamar, Florence Welch, 2 Chainz, Joey Bada$$, Santigold and A$AP Ferg. The anthology topped the Billboard 200 chart, and generated four singles: "Goldie," "Wild for the Nighttime," "Fashion Killa" and "F****due north' Problems" — that last track being the anthology'due south biggest hit, featuring guest appearances from Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar. Information technology reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, selling iii million copies in the U.S. lonely.

Although 2013 was a vintage year for Rocky, his successes were bloodshot because his father had passed away in December 2012 ("See my Daddy in heaven, he exist da realist G," he tweeted). Rocky told Vice that his father had been a large influence on him fashion-wise. "He was a clean-cutting kind of guy… He told me to ever be yourself and e'er feel comfortable with whatever decision you make considering y'all chose to do it. Just considering something doesn't fit doesn't mean it's not right."

'At.Long.Last.A$AP' Sophomore Anthology

Rocky'southward second anthology saw a change of direction. At.Long.Concluding.A$AP was released on May 26, 2015. Co-produced by the eclectic Grammy-winning super-producer Danger Mouse, who has worked with everyone from Norah Jones to the Black Keys, it featured invitee appearances from Kanye West, Future, MIA, Marking Ronson and — unexpectedly, triumphantly — the veteran rocker Rod Stewart on the unmarried "Everyday." The album likewise featured a vocalizer, Joe Fox, who was homeless when he approached Rocky on the streets of London and tried to sell him a CD. Instead, Rocky asked Play a joke on to sing for him and was so impressed he immediately invited him into a studio to record (Fox ended upwardly featuring on v songs).

Musically, At.Long.Last.A$AP sounds much trippier than Rocky's previous outing; its psychedelic influence made manifest on the single "LSD." In interviews Rocky spoke candidly about his use of the hallucinogenic drug: "It helps me cope with life," he told Billboard. "I've been doing this stuff since I got into the industry. People are scared to talk virtually information technology."

But every bit with his debut album, Rocky's year was scarred past loss. His creative partner, friend and mentor, A$AP Yams (Steven Rodriguez) died at age 26 from an overdose in Jan 2015. Yams had described Rocky as the Luke Skywalker to his Yoda. His passing made Rocky take stock of his life and career, according to an interview he gave to the Uk'south Guardian newspaper in July 2015. "It was always good to have that second opinion," Rocky said. "To have my all-time friend there agreeing with me, let me know I wasn't crazy." Ii months after Yams died, Rocky acknowledged to The New York Times that his friend had "e'er had a struggle with drugs," but also that his death may take been caused by sleep apnea: "At that place would exist times that I would catch Yams choking on his own natural language," he said.

'Testing'

Three years after the release of his previous studio anthology, ASAP Rocky followed in May 2018 with the long-awaitedTesting. Featuring such collaborators as Child Cudi, French Montana, Kodak Blackness and Frank Ocean, the album drew mixed reviews, with some critics questioning the cohesiveness of the music and ideas put forth, though nearly credited the rapper for his attempts at experimentation.

When Was ASAP Rocky Born?

ASAP Rocky's birthday is October 3, 1988.

Early Life

Born in Harlem to Barbadian parents, Rakim Mayers was named afterwards his mom's hip-hop hero, from Eric B & Rakim. One of his two sisters is named Erika B. He started rapping at viii years old, just only became serious about his arts and crafts a decade later. Although a native New Yorker, Rocky was a fan of Southern hip hop when he was growing upward, which explains the pronounced drawl in his rapping mode. When Rocky was 12, his father was jailed for drug dealing. A year after, his 20-yr-old blood brother, Ricky, was shot expressionless by a rival dealer. Rocky was 13 at the time, and on his way to school when his mum rushed over to tell him the tragic news.

Despite his brother's fate, the lure of the streets proved too powerful to resist for teenage Rocky, who started selling weed before gravitating to crack. Merely he was "never no big-time hustler", he told the announcer Dorian Lynskey in 2015, making just enough to "back up my studio fourth dimension" just quitting dealing before getting sucked besides far in. "That lifestyle's wack," Rocky said. "I don't trouble the law no more."

With his male parent in jail and his brother passed away, Rocky, his mom and 2 sisters spent time living in shelters. They moved around oftentimes: Harlem, the Bronx, Philadelphia and North Carolina. He saw "a lot of crazy shit" growing upwards, he told the Red Balderdash Academy in 2015. When he was 13 and living in east Harlem, older boys would knock passing commitment men off their bikes to "test their force." "I was a kid, so I'm like, 'That's how a man tests his force?'" he said. "Truthful story."

Acting & Fashion Projects

Past 2015, Rocky was riding high on his success, with an apartment in Manhattan's swanky Soho neighborhood and a house in Hollywood. Past June, he had fabricated his acting debut in director Rick Famuyiwa'south coming-of-historic period movie Dope — playing a small-time drug dealer, a office he had long since outgrown in existent life. "I think all of united states of america are that kind of guy — all of us rappers, to a sure extent" he told Billboard. "I never desire to be that guy. That dude'southward corny. He can't even dress!"

This is not a criticism that could be easily leveled at Rocky. Although he has insisted he does not want to become a way designer, he has nonetheless embarked on a number of loftier-profile collaborations. "Rocky has a very specific artful," the designer Jonathan Anderson, with whom the rapper collaborated on a menswear capsule collection in 2016, told Complex mag. "Ultimately, his style is more than simply what he wears. Information technology'southward the way he carries himself, information technology's his interests… Information technology's all about how you put your ain personal twist on things."

Rocky's passion for fashion was there for all to hear on At.Long.Last.A$AP, over the form of which he name-checked more 20 brand names, including Hermès, Prada and Saint Laurent. This is something he has done from the kickoff, and it has paid dividends. Having dropped the names of designers Rick Owens and Raf Simons into the lyrics of his breakthrough unmarried, "Peso," back in 2011, he went on to become friends with both. The post-obit year A$AP Mob teamed upwards with the W Declension label Blackness Scale on a capsule collection of T-shirts and sweaters; while Rocky partnered with the designer Jeremy Scott on an all-blackness pair of Adidas Wings trainers. In 2016 he was appear every bit the face of Dior Homme; in 2017 he collaborated with Judge Jeans.

By 2017 he was a front-row regular at fashion shows by Calvin Klein (New York), Gucci (London, Milan), Saint Laurent, and Dior (Paris). His year-long relationship with Kendall Jenner was made public on the night of fashion's biggest fixture, the Met Gala, on May one. The couple were pictured together on the social-media feeds of Jenner'due south sis Kylie, and half-sister Kim Kardashian, flouting the result's selfie ban.

Arrest in Sweden

ASAP Rocky was arrested in Stockholm, Sweden, in early July 2019, later a video clip surfaced of the rapper and his entourage fighting two men in the street. Rocky posted additional footage to Instagram, which showed his crew repeatedly asking the two men to terminate following them. Despite his claims of self-defense — and an attempted intervention by President Donald Trump — Rocky was deemed a flying run a risk and confined to a detention eye until he could stand trial for attack.

In Baronial, Rocky was establish guilty of assault and ordered to pay amercement to one of the victims. He was as well given a suspended sentence that capped his jail time at the month already spent behind bars.

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