A$AP Rocky slams homophobia, makes $3 million
A$AP Rocky, a man from Harlem who, has released one of the best two hip hop songs of the year, Pesos and Purple Swag has given an interview to Pitchfork. Three interesting things are mentioned – his record deal, his crew and his views on homophobia. Having signed a by-today’s-standards astronomical advance of $3 million (by way of context, Drake’s deal was for $2 million), $1.7m for him, $1.3m for his A$AP crew, he now has the back-pocket clout to both invite P4K writers for pedicures and challenge homophobia.
Pitchfork: You have a place on blogs and in more underground circles, but you’re getting mainstream love and being played on Hot 97, too. Where do you see yourself fitting in?
A$AP: The only thing mainstream about me are my investors. That’s it. I can adapt to the radio because I’m a street motherfucker. I can adapt to the underground because I was independent for a while. Up in Harlem and the Bronx, they didn’t accept us up until now, until we got Jim Jones, Drake, and Lil Wayne cosigning the weirdo. Now people are like, “Oh, shit. He’s really making moves. How much money he got?” And it’s like, “Suck a dick.”
Really though, I was dating this chick from Czechoslovakia— is that how you pronounce it? Her dad used to be around the house like, [sings] “Everything is purple.” Mind you, this is a rich-ass nigga with a Bentley, all that shit. I’ve had fucking corporate white niggas come up to me and say, “What’s up? I love that shit.” I live for that, because the black motherfuckers from Harlem and the Bronx didn’t accept us. They thought we were gay.
I’m going to be honest with you— I used to be homophobic, but that’s fucked up. I had to look in the mirror and say, “All the designers I’m wearing are gay.” I hear stories about all these industry motherfuckers who are gay, and I don’t know if it’s true or not, but that shit don’t matter. It’s so immature.
Pitchfork: You represent A$AP as a crew pretty hard, but you’ve become the de facto leader of the group. Why is that?
A$AP: I’m not the leader [laughs]. People try and focus on me, but Clams is an impeccable producer, and so is Ty Beats, so is Spaceghost. We all became vegetarians about a month ago— that means these guys are really dedicated. They’re on this dark shit with the all-black [clothes], they want to be rebels. I respect it. It’s a cult— they even have codes. They recruited A$AP people from Vancouver, Arizona, Utah. It’s a secret society.
But don’t get scared— it’s not no Illuminati shit. But it is a brotherhood because the days of racial barriers are over. The days of sexual preference are over— if you’re gay, that’s your business. That doesn’t stop you from being my brother. If you yellow, you’re still my brother. Let’s smoke some weed.
