“I’m not going to lie, drugs have influenced my life; I do smoke a lot of marijuana,” slurs the guy who gave up dealing drugs two years ago. Even over the telephone, it’s inarguably clear in his smoke-soaked voice. At this point, the interview mimics those post-party dead-hour stoner chats where conversation falls somewhere between the profound and the prosaic: “Smoking together, bonging together, that’s where you meet some of your closest friends — it’s like a token of friendship.”
The combination of drug talk and toking has brought the hip-hop artist to his open-your-mind optimum, continuing: “It’s an international language of love. There’s no skin color barriers or no s— like that; everything is one color and that’s purple, baby —
everything is motherf—ing purple.”
Rocky is the ultimate hip-hop protagonist in a world where he’s “free to do whatever I want.” But like demigods before him, Rocky’s success is sewn in that murky mortal world where the rise and fall of celebrity is celebrated in equal measure — a place where Rocky’s not the master. Days before this interview, the 24-year-old (real name Rakim Mayers) was charged with assault after allegedly slapping a female fan at a festival in Philadelphia. His management was cagey: Rocky’s stoned. You’ll agree there’s a certain irony in his “F—in’ Problems” lyrics: “I love bad bitches, that’s my
f—in’ problem.” But as the Harlem-born rapper says, “You know, I’m not an
angel, we all know that, but I do love good people.”
“Love,” or rather lust, is another liberal endeavor for Rocky. He’s a boundless shagger of priapic proportions, with groupies genuflecting before the altar of the hip-hop collective A$AP Mob (Always Strive And Prosper.) He bagged a $3 million deal with Sony-RCA’s Polo Grounds Music (the dollar sign in the crews’ name now justified); and his debut album “Long.Live.A$AP” went straight to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. And “good” seems to refer to beautiful people: He’s had a string of real and rumored dalliances with rapper Iggy Azalea, model Chanel Iman, who was by his side at the VMAs, and apparently Rihanna. But he is in fact, referring to Raf Simons, creative director at Christian Dior. Rocky loves clothes (Alexander Wang cast him in the Spring 2013 promo of his own diffusion line T by Alexander Wang).
Amid the fog of weed, there is some sense in Rocky’s mellow world, but he’ll need to convert more fans in chanting “Long.Live.A$AP.”
