If there's one MC to pluck from the phalanx of talent to represent hip-hop's current D.I.Y. renaissance (sustained by the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Tyler the Creator and Danny Brown, among many others) and anoint crown prince of rap's new world order, it's that self-proclaimed "pretty motherfucker" named A$AP Rocky. Since last July, the 23-year-old Harlem native's meteoric rise from Internet obscurity to hip-hop royalty has been well documented, and frankly, Rocky doesn't plan to shirk the spotlight.
"Pressure doesn't do anything to me, all it does is motivate me," he explains. "I'm just getting more ambitious, there's nothing I can't handle."
The past six months have included the Hot 97 saturation of his shimmering, infectious summer jam "Peso," a subsequent $3 million recording contract with RCA's Polo Grounds Music and the smash success of his debut mix tape Live Love A$AP, which will be getting the commercial re-release treatment this Spring. ("My mix tape is a classic," he told Billboard magazine last November. "It's only right to put it out at retail.") Now, under the tutelage of Polo Grounds head Bryan Leach, Rocky (real name Rakim Mayers) is preparing to launch his own label A$AP Worldwide with a compilation from the whole A$AP crew (Twelvy, Ferg, Nast and Ty) to be released in the summer.
"Bryan's got the experience and the game and he's been turning me into a young businessman, because the pace I'm going at is a little quicker than other artists," Rocky says, "If you haven't noticed."
But even between the major-label sheen, mini-mogul status and ambitious tastes in style (Rocky and his crew idolize fashion designers Rick Owens, Raf Simons and Jeremy Scott), Rocky still believes in the virtue of hungry, independent determination that seems so pervasive among the current crop of rising MCs.
"I mean honestly, they could put me anywhere, on any label on the planet, and I would still have the same energy, same kind of vibe," he says. "Because that's who I am."
Live Love A$AP is out this Spring.
"Pressure doesn't do anything to me, all it does is motivate me," he explains. "I'm just getting more ambitious, there's nothing I can't handle."
The past six months have included the Hot 97 saturation of his shimmering, infectious summer jam "Peso," a subsequent $3 million recording contract with RCA's Polo Grounds Music and the smash success of his debut mix tape Live Love A$AP, which will be getting the commercial re-release treatment this Spring. ("My mix tape is a classic," he told Billboard magazine last November. "It's only right to put it out at retail.") Now, under the tutelage of Polo Grounds head Bryan Leach, Rocky (real name Rakim Mayers) is preparing to launch his own label A$AP Worldwide with a compilation from the whole A$AP crew (Twelvy, Ferg, Nast and Ty) to be released in the summer.
"Bryan's got the experience and the game and he's been turning me into a young businessman, because the pace I'm going at is a little quicker than other artists," Rocky says, "If you haven't noticed."
But even between the major-label sheen, mini-mogul status and ambitious tastes in style (Rocky and his crew idolize fashion designers Rick Owens, Raf Simons and Jeremy Scott), Rocky still believes in the virtue of hungry, independent determination that seems so pervasive among the current crop of rising MCs.
"I mean honestly, they could put me anywhere, on any label on the planet, and I would still have the same energy, same kind of vibe," he says. "Because that's who I am."
Live Love A$AP is out this Spring.