S. Samuel
Rap newcomer A$AP Rocky recently revealed his Top 5 favorite emcees, ranging from members of his own crew to West Coast hip-hop veteran Snoop Dogg.
Asked to name his Top 5, Rocky jokingly named former Bad Boy Records reggae rapper Dylan.
“Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, and Dylan [“Chappelle’s Show” reference]. Nah seriously though, I’m into a lot of them. Those A$AP guys are crazy though. They got next. I would like to work with Kid Cudi, Kanye, Pharrell, maybe Snoop Dogg. I wish I could have worked with Michael Jackson.” (Rap-Up)
Last month, the Harlem, New York rapper named his SOHH Top 5 Dead or Alive.
OutKast. Those two guys together were funkadelic. UGK lived up to their name. Wu set the standard format for 90’s Hip-Hop. Bone Thugs N Harmony was the first type of rap music I was exposed to. N.W.A. were the first ruthless motherf*ckas.” (SOHH Top 5 Dead or Alive)
Recently, Rocky killed the perception of being a tough, gangster rapper.
“The biggest misconception is that I’m a gangster,” Rocky said in an interview. “I’m not. At all. I don’t want people thinking [I am]. Honestly. I really am [a nice guy]. I’m a good, down to earth dude. … [My album,] Live. Love. A$AP. … I got Schoolboy Q, Bun B.” (This Is 50)
In November, he hit up SOHH to discuss signing a record deal worth $3 million to Polo Grounds/RCA Records.
“People tend to make a big deal out of everything. I’m gonna be perfectly honest: I been ‘hearing’ that I’m pretty big. I can go on Twitter and stuff and see that I’m pretty big, but truthfully, I don’t know how big I really am yet. You know? Because it’s happening to me, I can’t really see it like everyone else does. But [being big] is not the most important thing to me at this moment, so I don’t stress that. I’d a dope feeling, but I don’t know if I’m bigger than I was a week ago.” (SOHH)
Following his signing, Polo Grounds President Bryan Leach talked about inking Rocky to his team.
“What he was saying was, when you look at his deal, between the marketing, the promotion, the A&R budget, the advance, the life of the deal–this is what it comes up to,” Leach told XXL. “It’s no different than an NBA contract if you factor in bonuses. It was definitely a competitive deal, and it was worth every penny, but it wasn’t 3 million dollars in his pocket.” Though he denied that the deal put three million dollars in Rocky’s bank account, Leach wouldn’t confirm what the exact number was. “That’s putting out his personal business,” he said. “It was a competitive deal. I will say that every single label out there was trying to sign the kid, and he took one or two meetings and went with his gut and his heart. It wasn’t because of money. It wasn’t a big a** bidding war. But it was a competitive deal. It also factors in his A$AP Crew.” (XXL Mag)
Check out a recent A$AP Rocky interview below:
