It’s 2013.
You’re hanging out with your homie afterschool, sitting on the steps as you clutch your jacket to defend yourself from the brisk winter wind. Your homie whips out his cracked, jailbroken iPhone 4, but he doesn’t say anything. He just plays “Goldie” off of A$AP Rocky’s debut album LONG.LIVE.A$AP and, instead of the cold winds, your ears are winded by whistles on top of drums kicks, which is all topped off by a lower-pitched-sounding Rocky.
After a hip-hop genre that’s been dictated by legends like Jay-Z and Kanye West -- and sprinkled with Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa and Chief Keef influence -- A$AP Rocky’s sound was almost like a throwback New York hard rap song, but something about it was different.
The A$AP Mob member followed up his unique style in 2015 with AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP. His insane beats that varied from jazzy-hip-hop tunes to old-school rap sounds reeled in fans who shamelessly imitated Pretty Boy Flacko’s -- a nickname of Rocky because of his good looks and skinny body-- swagger as they tried to buy $300 VLONE -- a clothing line founded by A$AP Mob -- shirts to changing their Twitter handle to include “asvp,” which is what most of the official Mob members have.
But now, Rocky’s used his third project, TESTING, to talk about things other than taking someone’s girlfriend on a New York beat. But some fans found it just a little too different.
Rocky, who’s real name is Rakim Mayers, intros his experimental project with “Distorted Records,” which stays true to its name. Thirty seconds into the track, listeners probably still don’t know what’s going on. It sounds like an alien is trying to phone the listener from outer-space, but as the call seems to drop, Rocky hops on the beat and gives an off-beat rundown of what’s happened in the last three years -- he’s one of the biggest influencers in hip-hop, he hates the president, head nods his role models and he’s still making more money than all of us.
These topics -- in one way, shape or form -- are weaved throughout the almost-hour-long album.
It wouldn’t be A$AP if Rocky didn’t acknowledge those who’ve came up with him in “A$AP Forever REMIX,” which follows the opening song. T.I. fools the listeners because he’s not rapping, but is instead telling people what A$AP actually means, which in this case, is “Always Strive and Prosper.” Rocky raps on the Harlem hip-hop group’s come up and how they’re still striving and prospering. T.I. had an impact on the genre in the early 2000s and had a 2004 album ASAP. The Atlanta rapper also pays homage to A$AP Yams who accidentally overdosed in 2015.
Kid Cudi comes in in the middle -- another major hip-hop influencer from the late 2000s --and talks about how he’s overcome depression and is ready to come back to the game. His unremarkable hums throughout the song is like a nostalgic punch to the gut from his Man on the Moon: End of the Day.
But the punches to the gut don’t stop there.
From the eerie adlibs breathed under an actual -- emotional -- prison call with Florida rapper Kodak Black in “CALLDROPS” to the artistic skill of fitting French Montana, Snoop Dogg and Frank Ocean onto “Brotha Man,” Lord Flacko is just picking up anyone and everyone in the wide spectrum of hip-hop and R&B and throwing them into this experiment -- and it’s working.
Rocky continues to flesh out his creative genius through “Hun43rd,” which sounds like a more mature version of “Canal St.” off of his 2015 album. Similarly, the joint recounts of his days growing up on 143rd Street near Lenox Avenue in Harlem; acknowledging Cam’ron’s pink clothes influence -- who’s part of Dipset, one of the the Mob’s biggest role models -- working in stores, selling drugs and stealing people’s girlfriends, but still getting money while they were at it.
But towards the end of the album, Rocky said forget the hard rap and gave his fans treasures called “Changes” and “Kids Turned Out Fine.” Every Rocky album has gems like “L$D” and “Phoenix,” and for this album, this was it. The constant transitional beats in “Changes” feels like Rocky is tugging your emotions left to right while “Kids Turned Out Fine” was heightened in experience through music video.
“Kids Turned Out Fine” turned the concept into a whole other meaning that can only be described as 9 a.m. on the first day of summer during your sophomore year of high school. “Gunz N Butter” is Flacko’s version of Childish Gambino’s “This Is America,” portraying children as test dummies because they’re most susceptible to being brainwashed.
It was these two videos -- that were released in January -- that made Rocky fans take a step back and re-listen to the album, only to realize that it has aged like fine wine.
Rocky ends the project with an angelic remedy of himself, Frank Ocean and Lauryn Hill. Over a distorted Lauryn Hill sample, listeners are soothed with a soft guitar and low-pitched Rocky, only to be greeted by Frank Ocean, who had been AWOL since 2016.
Frank tells the listeners that it’s OK to be overwhelmed. “Rewind Nas track 6, rewind dance crazes. Read my mind, freed my mind, feed my mind, makes sense.” Rocky talks of love and peace, and the dynamics of the two is just like the gates are opening up to heaven, which is the final experience of TESTING.
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