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Music

We Had Teens Review A$AP Rocky's New Album

It's unanimous! Nobody liked the Rita Ora line.

A$AP Rocky’s new album At.Long.Last.A$AP is an experimentally dark project leaked from the inside of Rocky’s drug-fueled mind. This release sees the Harlem rapper in a more confident light, seemingly unconcerned with proving himself anymore. Gone are the rap posse cuts and Skrillex cameos from his debut album, replaced instead by Rod Stewart collaborations, as well as guidance from a London busker named Joe Fox and one half of Gnarls Barkley. The result is an album highlighted by leftfield samples and collaborations, Rocky successfully harmonizing over slippery guitar, and raps that are fully self-realized, if not exactly well thought out. For someone who has a history of paying a lot of attention to his image, this purposefully insular direction may leave many of Rocky’s fans confused. To find out how confused, we spoke to two 18-year-olds.

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Pope and L.A are two youths from downtown Toronto who don’t like Rocky’s new direction on At.Long.Last.A$AP.__ When they meet me, they’re dressed in expensive clothing despite being only a few years removed from having an allowance. They were 14 years old when Rocky first put out music, so they’ve effectively grown up with the rapper as their main cultural icon. They liked “M’$” and “LPFJ2,” but they hate “L$D.” Since his core demographic doesn’t seem to be pleased by this attention to artistry, where does that leave Rocky’s biggest fans? “I think the album hit a lot of points that the youth need to understand,” says Pope. “But as a fan and someone who wants to hear A$AP Rocky rap, I think this is trash.”

Rocky’s sophomore commercial release is a project full of avant-garde sonics layered with lyrics that drip with the emotion that comes with having lost every mentor you’ve ever known. But according to Pope and L.A., only “30 to 40 percent of the songs on this album” are songs they’d actually play. “When I heard Rocky was dropping at project I thought I would like 100 percent of the album, minus one or two weak joints. I knew something was going wrong when I heard ‘L$D.’” To find out what cool, hip, fashionable teens think of their (potentially former) favourite rapper, we asked them about every song on the tape.

“Holy Ghost”

This doesn’t get me psyched up, I’m just sitting here waiting. He’s putting himself on a pedestal and I like his flow, but he’s not really snapping. I couldn’t and wouldn’t bump this in my earphones by myself. It’s boring, it’s like King Krule gave the artistic direction for this song.

“Canal St.”

This reminds me of “Purple Swag,” or like his early tracks. It’s just dark, real dark. He’s giving you the true dark reality of shit. There’s a lot of metaphors here. It sounds like Ab Soul, though. It’s nothing new. It’s old shit; people have been doing it before. He’s just trying to put his foot into that lane. He’s spitting actual facts in metaphorical way, but it’s not interesting to me. He’s literally talking about his every day now and how it’s so dark. I don’t care about that shit fam.

“Fine Whine”

For this to be the first three tracks of an album, I’d just turn it off if you weren’t making me listen to this. This sounds like some Yeezus shit. I don’t even listen to Future so I can’t even get psyched up for it. This is the best track so far though, and I don’t really fuck with MIA.

“L$D”

*deep breath* He sounds like my friend trying to sing too hard for a shawty, straight up. To actually understand the theme of this song, you have to let your mind wander. I want Rocky to be more direct. If this was put under the rap genre, I’d be confused. I’m already confused. I’m not sure if he’s trying to be a lyrical genius, or trying to be Kanye. I guess he’s looking at Kanye’s footsteps and trying to see where it can take him.

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“Excuse Me”

Okay this shit bangs, he’s back to rapping. He’s got flow, the melody isn’t too much, you’re not getting lost in it. He’s hitting points, it has a theme. He’s still trying to experiment, and he does a bit with the vocal effects, but it works. The experimenting worked on this song. Stay in the lane that you’re bodying, and unless you body another lane, stay in the first one.

“JD”

This could bang. I could tell that he’s going for something here that could work. To be honest, this 1 minute and 45 seconds shits on the rest of this album so. I don’t even know what he’s trying to do. Maybe he’s trying to start slow and finish strong?

“LPFJ2”

I love this song. The beat is amazing, the way he attacks the beat is amazing. This reminds me more of the original album. It matches up to what I’d expect from Rocky. This song makes me want to get up at 1 AM, put on fresh gear, hit the strip, and swindle every shorty I see.

“Electric Body”

This reminds me of “Hands On The Wheel,” but the next step. He had a freshman mentality on “Hand on the Wheel,” this is the sophomore version. Even Schoolboy Q’s verse is more toned down and grown up, not just “yakwk yawk yawk” shit. It’s a gradual growth here. I think you see a lot of artists who put their best songs at the front of the album, and they flipped it on its head. The second half of this album may be trash though, so I’m not sure.

“Jukebox Joints”

He’s rapping. He’s finally rapping here. He’s not doing the same formula he was doing in the first few songs. He just needs to spit through a whole track like this. This is fire. I can’t deal with this switch-up shit, though. I don’t like when the BPM changes when you’re vibing. Kanye West singing sounds like ass, but everyone said it sounds good, so I think that’s where Rocky got inspired from. I don’t know why he feels the need to switch up. I like Kanye’s last line, but is Kanye saying black people don’t have confidence? Like everything in Baltimore wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have confidence. What Kanye says is retarded, but he makes it sound good on the track.

“Max B”

This is a deep track. He’s talking about a lot of shit that I can’t relate to, but you can take all of this stuff and apply it to other aspects of my life. I’d bump this, you can hear the Harlem in it. Those jingles in the background? Those make me want to Harlem Shake, this gives me some hope that he’s not totally gone to art.

“Pharsyde”

This is trash again. It also feels like these songs are too long, like the ending can be cut in a lot of these. I guess he wants you to just take in the beats and shit, but I’m not listening to A$AP Rocky for that. I wanna hear bars, son. Do we have to finish the whole song?

“Wavybone”

If this was on a different beat this track would be hard. Juicy J produced this? He doesn’t know what he’s doing producing anything, fam. A$AP Rocky revamped the Southern sound and made it global, bringing it back to the roots doesn’t make sense. Rocky already took that shit and made fruit. Why would someone want to eat the roots when they’ve had fruit?

“West Side Highway”

This sounds like a Frank Ocean song featuring A$AP Rocky. It’s just not memorable, I will forget this song the second this is over. Seventy-five percent of this album is forgettable, and this song is trash.

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“Better Things”

This version of him singing, where he just sounds softer but he’s still rapping, that could fly. He’s not really making an effort into singing; he just sounds like angelic. This is way better than him singing though.

“M’$”

Wayne is on this!?! This makes up for the rest of the album, deadass. I’m gonna download this right now. Wayne went off. Rocky needs to get some advice from Wayne or something about how to rap. This is the shit where you listen to it and bob your head and make a face like someone farted, then you look at your man’s like “what?!” I need this. I’m gonna run home and memorize this.

“Dreams (Interlude)”

I like the theme and direction and what he’s talking about, but he’s switched up the delivery method. Maybe I just have to get used to it, but I don’t really like it right now.

“Everyday”

[Ed. note: We show a picture of Rod Stewart to the teens for the first time] I mean, I like the barriers he’s breaking. He’s working with this 70 year old caucasian man to make a song that the new generation could vibe to. That part is a big thumbs up. I’m listening to this song right now, and I approve. Whatever formula he used for this song, he should’ve applied it to the rest of the album. He’s not singing on this, but it’s a vocal track. I fuck with this.

“Back Home”

This song is lit. I like the tribute to Yams. The beat selection could’ve been better, but I fucks with this. The theme direction of the album was pretty good overall, it’s just the way he went about it wasn’t great.

Slava Pastuk is a teen whisperer - @SlavaP