Long.Live.A$AP

Another Harlem-native

If you were born in Harlem, New York’s notorious part, you face a limited choice: either you enter a criminal world, or you try yourself in hip-hop. Rakim Mayers knows it better than anybody else. The future rap star’s father was imprisoned for drug trafficking, and his brother was killed not far from their home. Rakim chose music, and hit it. He began rapping soon after he began going to school, and by the time he was twenty years old, he had turned into a respected and promising performer working under the stage name A$AP Rocky. The rookie’s career soared up high after he signed a major label contract, which soon made it possible to release a very dramatic mixtape LiveLoveA$AP(20011), short-listed for a lot of various award. Internet was flooded with praiseful commentaries from hop-hop followers who waited impatiently for the release of a full-length studio album. Having intrigued the audience tightly, A$AP Rocky dragged time out a little, released a couple of singles and only then did he issue his first official long player called LongLiveA$AP (2013).

Versatility of Long.Live.A$AP

Long.Live.A$AP, basically, reflects the most mature, the most suitable approach to a record which is aimed at a massive public and commercial success, yet having something special. With serious funds at his disposal, A$AP Rocky was able to unite original ideas and impressive arrangements into an irresistible combination to deliver most desired results. The Harlem-born magician opens his album with a massive and dramatic thunder-stricken title track sounding like a remake of a theme to a grandiose historical action movie. However, the deadliest weapon in this guy’s arsenal is his ability to adjust to various surroundings created by a group of talented producers. The agitated feel of Long Live A$AP gives way to bravado in Goldie, and PMW, with their straightforward verses describing colorfully street life rules and views of those living there. A while later, the album will convince us that it also has gorgeous choruses, like the one in Hell, a beautiful piece decorated with a female voice. As should be expected, the most probable hits await us in the heart of the record. These are Fuckin Problems, and Wild For The Night, the tracks molded by standards and requirements of popular radio stations.

The album lives up to your expectations

The second half of Long.Live.A$AP is just as big as the first, and the only difference is that instead of outright future hits it offers more personal or experimental material not to be liked by everyone and immediately. Posse cut, so much loved by many performers, sounds in Train 1, featuring as many as seven rappers of various scale. In the closing segment of the album, A$AP Rocky, on the contrary, prefers to do everything on his own as he trades his audacious manner for a more brooding one. Thus, in Phoenix he confesses being a product of his mean environment, which must free him of guilt, and the final track, Suddenly gives a picture of the grey reality where his family exists. It is worth mentioning that the rapper produced this one himself. And that is what Long.Live.A$AP like: at times dance-igniting and at times groovy; sometimes serious and sometimes youthfully direct and honest. Collaboration with a lot of producers enabled A$AP Rocky deliver a many-layered record, energetic and lively, bringing something new with each track. No doubt, it is going to live up to your expectations.