From Harlem To The World
Fifteen years after his debut and on his first global tour since 2019, A$AP Rocky still holds the world’s attention. How has he managed to keep it for so long?
Read the full story in Justsmile Issue 9, Somewhere We Know.
Photography Nick Sethi
Styling Matthew Henson
Text Lawrence Burney
A$AP ROCKY wears sneakers PUMA. Coat, sweatshirt and pants GUCCI. Belt talent’s own.
“I always hoped I would be famous. I always imagined I would. But I never knew how it would feel,” says A$AP Rocky, 24 years old and already the subject of a five-part docuseries on his fast rise to fame.
At the time, in 2012, the Harlem-born artist was one of the hottest things smoking in hip-hop. Noisey, VICE’s music channel, followed Rocky and the rest of his ebullient crew while they toured North America as the buzzy openers for his now-partner Rihanna’s sold-out Diamonds Tour. Footage of them crowd-surfing, moshing, and bouncing up and down like their lives depended on it flashes across the screen. A$AP’s tour manager sanitizes their bus of heavy blunt smoke as they approach the US-Canada border. At the time, Rocky was new enough to fame that he was still hell-bent on remaining unchanged by it, but settled enough to know that he didn’t want to go back to whatever life was before. “Some people would already consider me to be a superstar,” he says. “But I feel so normal. I prefer to do normal shit because it keeps me sane. I know I’m here for a purpose.” The B-roll they run is a clip of him cramming a New York slice into his mouth.
Jacket and pants KIKO KOSTADINOV. Gloves EMMANUEL POPOTEUR. Jewelry talent’s own. Sneakers PUMA.
‘The “traditional A$AP Rocky shit” is, indeed, a legible concept: a vintage New York attitude, refined for worldly consumption, still rebellious enough to appeal to youth culture.’ – Lawrence Burney
Considering we’re 14 years beyond that documentary, and Rocky is just now wrapping up sold-out tours in the US, UK, and Europe for his fourth studio album Don’t Be Dumb, you could say his inclinations were spot-on. To some, these walks down memory lane bring up fuzzy feelings of a period they’ll never get back. But I see someone who captured and expressed youth culture so masterfully that much of hip-hop is still using his template.
Jacket and pants BURBERRY. Sneakers PUMA. Earring talent’s own.
Read the full story in Justsmile Issue 9, available to order and subscribe here.
STOP2SMILE limited-edition zine by Nick Sethi. A$AP Rocky wears Sneakers PUMA. Coat, sweatshirt and pants GUCCI. Gloves WING & WEFT. Belt talent’s own.
Order STOP2SMILE, ASAP Rocky Justsmile Zine here.
Justsmile Issue 9 cover featuring A$AP Rocky. Coat, pants, belt and shoes PRADA. Crash skeleton watch CARTIER. Tank top and earrings talent’s own.
