It’s told in a cadence that resembles a nursery rhyme, but unlike, say, Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story,” which uses its cautionary kiddie-tale conceit to lay out stakes and consequences for its ill-fated stickup kid protagonist, “Beeper” is relieved to get through the bad parts so it can lounge around in the fact the guy’s rich now. Elsewhere, “OG Beeper,” offers a rags-to-riches story where a young Rocky craves cash and notoriety, then present-day Rocky relishes the fact that he finally found it. “Tony Tone” opens up saluting Rocky’s parents and wondering why other people go to the trouble of siring children they appear to have no intention of raising. There are moments when the new A$AP Rocky album, Testing, gestures at this desire to be understood and appreciated, to look back at the young entrepreneur’s road to riches in amused disbelief at how a young man makes it out of homeless shelters and onto magazine covers and movie screens. If you’re a dreamer, that puts a chip on your shoulder, and you live to show the world what you’re capable of. Everyone means well, but what they’re really doing is socializing us into a sense of creative scope that’s smaller than our actual sphere of possibilities. You can see it in certain folks’ pleasant surprise to see kids grow up with different plans than city work or career college, in their tendency to size up muscular boys and telegraph what kind of sporting career they’re angling at, and in the nagging habit of genteel older white folks to adopt a light, outdated AAVE and say things like “my man” to you because they learned some jive in the ’70s. People don’t expect boys from Harlem to have that range. He raps, produces, models, designs, directs, acts, fronts a rap crew, and steers whatever AWGE is. On “Buck Shots,” alongside A$AP affiliates Playboi Carti and Smooky Margiela, Rocky moves nimbly, letting the beat breathe.What does A$AP Rocky really want? Sometimes I think it’s just for everyone to know he’s well-rounded. Rocky’s instincts aren’t always unreliable. In these moments, the nation of A$AP is alive and well – but Testing still suggests that Rocky’s heyday is in therearview. Under the watch of Puff Daddy, Rocky mirrors the cadences of the Notorious BIG, alchemising two generations of New York street rap. And he has rarely rapped as well as he does on Tony Tone. OG Beeper is a shot of pure swagger – the best song Lil Wayne never made. There are moments, though, when the dimension Rocky created for himself comes back to life. French Montana, Frank Ocean, Snoop Dogg) The album includes guest appearances from Frank Ocean, Kid Cudi, Skepta, French Montana, Kodak Black, Dev Hynes and FKA Twigs, among others, and was produced primarily by Hector Delgado and ASAP Rocky himself, alongside a variety of high-profile record producers.Ģ.
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