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Esther:You could think about any Hispanic hot area, so like around here, Harlem, down to 109[th Street.] And definitely up in Washington Heights.How did you feel when he passed away?
It was surreal. There are so many important moves that A$AP was making. I'm Hispanic myself, so having him come from our community [was important.] I thought [his death] was a really bad hoax. I didn't think it was real. It was too soon. I felt they didn't make enough noise about it. It sucks as far as the hip-hop movement. It's usually the youngest that go first.What do you think this means to the Hispanic community in Harlem?
We still hold him in a high regard. There was a huge overflow of respect shown on social media. It is a loss, but a lot of people are now gaining insight into who he was. That's what happens whenever an artist goes too soon. Only afterwards do you get to hear their life story.How did you meet him?
It was just once, around the way, a couple of friends of mine were hanging out with him. It was just like, "Hey, what's up." He was pretty chill. It wasn't a big huff and puff. I guess a lot of my friends knew him. This is before A$AP Mob, when they were just starting it up. My friends told me about it afterwards—"Oh yeah, they're talking about doing all this stuff." And then they did it.
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Roman: A friend posted a little article on Facebook. I read that and I was like, That's crazy. I went to MTV news and it was number one on the page. So it was true. It definitely went down.How did you feel when it happened?
I was just like, Was it gang-related or something like that? Or was it drugs or something like that?Did you ever see him around in Harlem?
Back in the day when I used to work for this spot, Atmos. That was like '07, '08. He had a few 40-ounce bounces. I know he was a mogul in the music game, the mixtape game and whatnot. Apparently he was a good networking person, somebody to know.What do you think it means to Harlem?
I think it means that everyone needs to measure shit out right. Look behind the labels, read the fine print, know what you're doing to yourself. And I'm just assuming, that [drugs are] the cause of his death.For Harlem, though? I feel like it's a wake-up call.
I thought he was a cool dude. Just chill. He liked to party or whatever. I knew a couple of his friends. He went to school with my man, so I knew people through him. He was always fashionable. He spoke up a lot. He spoke for what he believed in. He pursued his dreams. He might not have been in the front street. But a lot of the underground dudes who made it out of this city did it because of Yams. He knew people before everyone else knew people. In high school, he was already wearing all the fly shit. Doing all the flyest shit, you feel me?
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Deb Downz: You talking about the white-looking dude, right? He had that shit on his face?Yeah.
I don't have much recollection of him, but he a Harlem native, he down with A$AP Mob, and they were doing pretty well in their movement.As a rapper, how do you feel about their influence about this area?
They made a good movement, it worked for them, I didn't really pay that much attention. But because of his death, I know about him now, which I guess is the only good that can come out of this.
Gregory: I actually found out about it when I was working. I was sitting at home and my Twitter was going off. I was thinking it's a new Nike story or something and everybody's retweeting and it was like, "Rest in Peace, Yams." I was like, this must be a joke or something?Then I saw Rocky confirm it. Then I saw Ferg and Twelvy do the same. I was like, Damn, it really must be serious. I just saw him a couple of weeks ago in SOHO, at Supreme rocking some Bapes. So I'm like, "What happened?" Definitely caught me off-guard. I like A$AP and them. I fuck with them heavy.
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I'm not sure if regular people on the street really understand what happened, but for us, we lost a tastemaker. He was 26. So we can relate to Yams, he put a lot of people on, a lot of the fashion stuff on, a lot of the music, a lot of the new artists that are breaking right now, like Bodega Bamz, Flatbush Zombies. He's put a lot of people onto their music. It's sad to see him go so young because he really was influential, despite him only being 26. He was a brilliant mind and he knew what he was doing. He believed in something and he went for it.And then me just meeting him a couple of times… He was a real humble dude, just real laid-back, real chilled, and just had fun.That's how I remember him. We definitely lost a young visionary. He was unique. There will never be anyone else like him. He was like the Dame Dash of our generation. Those people are rare, very rare. So when you come across them, and they actually leave a mark and make an impact, it's special. Like I said, you'll never see anybody else like Yams with his personality, his charisma, his vision, his ideas, his fashion sense… It's a huge loss for the culture. But yeah, it hurt me.What was his role in A$AP, to you?
He was the key person to putting A$AP together, which is dope, because they're so multifaceted. You can't look at them and be like, they're just one thing. They all bring something different to the table. And it's just cool that he saw everybody's potential before anyone else did.
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