Here's a recent headline from the New York Post: "A$AP Rocky had three acid-fuelled orgies at SXSW." As you'd expect from a man promoting his new album by boasting of his sexual exploits under the influence, At.Long.Last.A$AP is a drug-fuelled trip. On the woozy love song L$D, Rocky lazily mumbles the hook, "Baby, I'm just rapping to this LSD" like he's stumbling through a particularly awesome David Lynch dream sequence.
It's a highlight on the Harlem rapper's second studio album that remains exotic, hazy and compelling throughout its 18 tracks. At times it's also downright weird: At.Long.Last.A$AP thinks nothing of throwing Mark Ronson, Miguel and Rod Stewart - yes, that Rod Stewart - together just to see what happens; of revealing Rocky's sexual exploits with ex Rita Ora on the dreamy grime of Better Things; of bringing Kanye West, MIA, Schoolboy Q, Lil Wayne, Juicy J and Mos Def together for an album that surely sets records for the number of guest appearances. And that's before the multiple production credits.
But unlike Rocky's debut, and despite ALLA's stylistic switch-ups being delivered through clouds of chemically-enhanced smoke, ALLA remains focused throughout. That's thanks to Rocky's tight-fisted vision - he rules over proceedings like Tony Soprano commandeering the mob. "I run the game even when they bend the rules," he boasts on Excuse Me's slow-mo grind. "I guess the new me is just going to take some getting used to," he concludes.
If you're Jay Z, Kanye, Eminem or Kendrick Lamar, they're words worth heeding.
The real reason for Rocky's attention to detail is revealed through ALLA's regular tributes to late A$AP Mob co-founder A$AP Yams, who died in January. His passing made Rocky more concerned about his own mortality - and a better rapper to boot: "When death calls, I pray the Lord accepts collect calls," he worries over the soul-laced lope of Jukebox Joints, in which he forces Kanye take a back seat. It's a trick Rocky repeats when MIA and Future show up on Fine Whine's nightmarish grind, and on excellent closing track Back Home, an old-school work out that features Rocky at his angriest. "Father, Lord forgive me as I load up the semi / Roll through the city, that chose to resent me," he rasps. The song ends with a final tribute to Yams.
