Rakim Mayers, best known as ASAP Rocky, was born and raised in the struggling neighbor of Harlem in New York. He has brought a new kind of rap hip-hop into the music industry, which has been categorized as a “new religion” amongst hip-hop rap fanatics. He has brought to underground rap a new type of “swerve.” He has up lifted a kind of music that all types of youth could relate to, from hustlers to rich suburban kids. ASAP Rocky has created a new kind of laid-back rap, which includes “Southern regional hip-hop styles such as the slowed-down, doped-out beats of the Houston subgenre of screw music.” In the span of six months after dropping his demo, he rapidly spread through the under ground hip-hop community. He eventually formed a group of “brothers” currently known as ASAP mob. He then started referring to himself as a “Lord.” He wants youth to look up to him. Once he had gained enough fame, he went on tour with ASAP mob. Long Live A$AP Tour. His tickets sold out four months before the tour started, within a few days of release; I was fortunate enough to buy one just on time.
In the heart of down town San Diego, a line of fans dressed in “swag” clothing stretched four blocks from the doors of the house of blues. People had started lining up at 2pm. Doors opened at 8pm. During the wait, fans were singing different songs that had brought them all here. They were all here for one purpose. To praise Rocky. The tour bus pulled up around 6pm. As Rocky descended from his bus with one hand over his mouth and his other hand up in the air, people started chanting, “Long live ASAP, long live ASAP rah rah!” The night had begun. The small venue had been overly packed with hundreds of fans. The stage was plain, a single DJ set and a microphone. There were no overwhelming lights. In an interview he explained that he does not believe in “overly accessorized shows with lights and glitter and shit. My stage is my home, Harlem ain’t got no pretty lights and shit, we be mob’n on the streets you know what I’m say’n? We be turning the crowd from a bunch of hip hop heads in to trill motherfuckers.” Which is exactly the way it had been set up. “We came to turn the motherfuck’n world upside down!” ASAP Rocky’s voice lingered behind the curtains. His stage was decorated like a minimalist guerilla jungle fort. The walls were covered in nets, the stage was dim, two men in gas masks stood on either side of the stage. The crowd had expected Rocky to make an appearance, however Rocky has a surprise. Schoolboy Q, a fellow under ground hip-hop artist, opened the show. The crowed was going wild. As Schoolboy Q was about to finish the opening, one of the group members handed him a blunt. I was really shocked when he started puffing on his blunt, I looked around to see if security was going to do anything. As he finished his last few sentences, he blew smoke into the crowd. He asked everyone to pull out their purple haze. Most of the crowd at this point had already started pulling out joints and blunts, passing them around, the small venue had started fogging. People started elevating. The atmosphere changed. I looked around again to see if the security would do anything, but yet again they did nothing. Instead more people had gotten into the venue and now the crowd had tripled. Skin to skin, people were jumping. Sweat was starting to drip in all directions. Smoke was being blown everywhere, filling up the little venue making it completely hot boxed, I could barely see the people in front of me.
Once Schoolboy Q had finished, Rocky rushed the stage after the epic intro, face covered like a train robber, shoulders draped with a flag. "We only have one mission… conquer!" He met with an already won-over crowd, uniformly chanting "ASAP"
His clothing resembled a mix of low and high class standard. His shoes, worth about
