Album Review: A$AP Rocky- At Long Last A$AP
Up until pretty recently, I was actively avoiding the rapper
known as A$AP Rocky. Why? You may ask. I’m not even sure why, at this point.
Perhaps it has something to do with his whole affect—draped in the American
flag, or standing in front of an upside down American flag, big cloud of smoke
coming out of his mouth, French braids tightly wound on his head. Perhaps it
had something to do with the fact that he has a dollar sign in his name, and he
is the defacto leader of a group called the A$AP Mob.
Maybe it’s because all of his albums have some kind of
cloying stylized, similar title (Live.Love.A$AP;
Long.Live.A$AP.)
Or maybe there was no real reason. Maybe I just can’t keep
up with every trendy rapper that Pitchfork touts as “the next big thing.”
Rocky started to make a lot of headlines with information
about his long gestating recently released effort, At Long Last A$AP—notably one about how the album was influenced by
Thom Yorke, Portishead, and “old 60s shit.” Based on that statement, I guess I
thought I should give At Long Last a
listen to see if I have been sleeping on some kind of tremendous talent for the
last few years.
Taken as a whole, At
Long Last is not some kind of great rap album savoir, nor does it fall
completely on its face. Coming in at a self-indulgent 18 tracks (66 minutes)
the album walks back and forth between interesting “art” rap and more
accessible trap-inspired tracks that don’t necessarily dumb the album down, but
it doesn’t exactly help the larger picture I feel that Rocky was going for with
some of the material on the album.
It also boasts some impressive and surprising features—Kanye
West arrives on “Jukebox Joints,” delivering an erratic verse that includes the
line “I only got one child but I’m
fuckin’ fuckin’ fuckin’ like I’m tryna make four more”; on “Wavybone,” Pimp
C questionably waxes about getting head from Sheryl Crow; and one of the final
tracks, “Everyday,” heavily features a sample of Rod Stewart, of all people,
who receives a guest billing because of this.
The thing with At Long
Last is that it starts out strong—with the moody, religiously inspired
“Holy Ghost,” featuring samples from O
Brother, Where Are Thou? and strong production from Danger Mouse. It almost
starts too strong, because it can’t
keep this momentum going before it dips into the minimalistic, spooky trap of
“Canal St.”
It doesn’t really pick back up until the album’s fifth
track, “Excuse Me,” which is probably At
Long Last’s strongest, most impressive song. Built around a sample of The
Platters’ “Come Home For Christmas,” Rocky breathlessly raps through the
verses, punctuating lines with “bruh,” hitting clever references about high
fashion and Q-Tip before arriving at the gigantic, dreamy, synth heavy hook.
It’s beautiful, actually, this song—a welcome reminder to just how moving rap
music can be when it wants to.
Even with its arty leanings and “one foot in the streets”
mentality, at this point in his relatively young career, Rocky can’t really
help the fact that this is, at the core, a pop record and that two of the
album’s singles are, at their heart, pop songs.
I’m talking about “Everyday”—not only does it sample Rod
Stewart, but with a hook crooned by Miguel and production from Mark Ronson, it
kind of sticks out just slightly when compared to the more inaccessible tracks
on At Long Last.
Then there’s the plodding “L$D,” which apparently stands for
“love, sex, dreams,” but also for the drug that Rocky is fond of taking (his
recreational drug use and forays into orgies has been internet fodder as of
late.) It’s not a bad song, and even with its slow building structure, it’s
based around a catchy hook that, even as insipid and turgid as the song is,
gets stuck in your head.
One of the real flaws with At Long Last A$AP is that the back half of the album is somewhat uninteresting.
There’s nothing that really makes one song stand out from the other as it heads
toward relentless “Back Home.”
At Long Last A$AP
shows that as an artist, A$AP Rocky has a larger vision than most of his peers.
It’s uneven, yet meticulous in its sonic values; it’s misogynistic at times, yet
can be rather clever and thought provoking; and throughout, it can be a little
boring—but it’s never unlistenable or unpalatable. And for a major label, mainstream rap record
in 2015, that is saying a lot.
Comments
Post a Comment