A$AP Rocky

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About

A$AP Rocky is an American rapper from Harlem, New York. Rising to nation fame in 2011 with the album Live. Love. A$AP, some credit the artist's YouTube presence as partly resonsibile for his success. He is a member of the popular collective, A$AP Mob.

History

A$AP Rocky was born Rakim Mayers on October 3, 1988 in Harlem, New York City. In 2011, Rocky released his debut mixtape Deep Purple, which had not received much publication and included his viral song, "Purple Swag". A music video for the song was uploaded to YouTube on June 5th, 2011. Within eight years, the video received more than 53 million views (shown below, left).

The following month, on August 10th, he uploaded the music video for "Peso" on YouTube, where it received more than 54 million views in eight years (shown below, right).

On October 31st, Rocky released his second mixtape, Live. Love. ASAP. The mixtape received critical acclaim, including 6 million views on the popular mixtape site DatPiff.^[1] The review aggregator Metacritic^[2] gave the album an average score of 83.

Fuckin' Problems

Fuckin' Problems is a track by A$AP Rocky, featuring Drake, 2 Chainz, and Kendrick Lamar, from his debut album, Long. Live. A$AP.. The track gained 85 million views on YouTube. The song has been criticized for its poor lyrics, specifically the feature by Kendrick Lamar.

Personal Life

Arrest in Sweden

On July 2nd, 2019, A$AP Rocky posted a series of videos from an incident in Sweden on Instagram. The videos show Rocky's entourage in an altercation with two men. In the second video, the altercation gets physical as A$Ap Rocky appears to try and calm the situation. Both videos received more than 6 million views (shown below).

On July 3rd, 2019, CBS^[3] reported that A$AP Rocky had been arrested for suspected assault in Stockholm, Sweden.

Two weeks later, on July 19th, President Donald Trump tweeted,^[4] "Just spoke to
@KanyeWest about his friend A$AP Rocky’s incarceration. I will be calling the very talented Prime Minister of Sweden to see what we can do about helping A$AP Rocky. So many people would like to see this quickly resolved!" The post received more than 97,000 likes and 36,000 retweets (shown below).

Later that day, Kim Kardashian West tweeted,^[5] "Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @SecPompeo, Jared Kushner & everyone involved with the efforts to Free ASAP Rocky & his two friends. Your commitment to justice reform is so appreciated." The tweet received more than 32,000 likes and 6,700 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

Purple Drank / Codeine

Purple Drank, also known as "codeine", "lean", "syrup", or "sizzurp," is a slang term for a recreational beverage that is most popularly used in the southern hip hop community of the United States. The drink consists of prescription-strength cough syrup containing codeine and promethazine, which is typically mixed with a soft drink prior to ingestion. The name "Purple Drank" is derived from the purple color dyes used in codeine-based cough syrups.

Purple Drank gained a revival in hip-hop culture due to A$AP Rocky's tracks, and the fore coming influence of trap music.