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Review Summary: A$AP Rocky's trippy, bleak second LP is his most polished work to-date. The life of A$AP Rocky has changed pretty dramatically since the release of his major-label debut Long.Live.A$AP in January 2013. In that just over two-year period, Rocky watched his popularity blow up to the point where he was able to land a spot opening for Rihanna and co-headlining an amphitheater tour with Wiz Khalifa, got involved in an 18-month relationship with Victoria's Secret model Chanel Iman and had to endure the pain of losing his longtime best friend and business partner Steven "A$AP Yams" Rodriguez to a drug overdose at the age of 26. The impact all of these events had on Rocky are apparent when listening to his second LP, At. Long.Last.A$AP, which is easily the darkest and most hallucinatory record he's ever released.
Since day one, A$AP Rocky has dropped countless songs about drugs, sex and fashion over largely psychedelic (and pretty consistently excellent) beats, and that formula still runs the show here. There are a few songs that go against the grain such as the album's opening 1-2 punch of "Holy Ghost" and "Canal St.", which serve as surprisingly deep reflections on the perils of fame and losing focus on your core values and where you came from once you get consumed with the jet-setting celebrity lifestyle, but these are nothing but brief albeit welcome detours on Rocky's debauchery-filled journey.
Rocky may still be rapping about the same subjects, but the mood is much more melancholy than anything he's done in the past. Rocky is clearly reeling from Yams' death and the sadness he's feeling is stamped all over the production choices on this album. The production-which was handled by more than a dozen of the genre's heavy hitters including Mark Ronson, Kanye West and Danger Mouse-makes heavy use of eerie samples and lo-fi keys to establish a bleak yet trippy atmosphere that practically never lets up. Even the more upbeat songs like "Electric Body" and "Wavybone" have bursts of haunting psychedelia weaved into their otherwise sunny sound. The gloomy aura of At.Long.Last.A$AP adds a refreshing and welcome blast of darkness into Rocky's well-established sound.
The distinctly somber mood established with the production is nicely offset by the high-energy verses Rocky drops on a vast majority of the record. Whenever Rocky takes the mic, he's a ridiculously charismatic live wire, and that incendiary presence prevents this album from being a depressing listen. The swagger and simply incredible flow Rocky displays when he raps has been long been one of the strongest selling points of his music and on this record, those qualities have never shined brighter. The verses he drops on "Jukebox Joints", "Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2", "Better Things" and the aforementioned "Holy Ghost" are without question amongst, if not the most attention-grabbing and all-around impressive verses he's ever dropped. At. Long. Last. A$AP largely plays with Rocky's internal battle between light and darkness and the stark contrast between his rapping and the production perfectly exemplifies that.
At. Long. Last. A$AP succeeds on a number of different levels: It's a poignant tribute to the late A$AP Yams, it makes (mostly) great use of its abundance of guest artists and I'd imagine it's a great record for psychedelic drug enthusiasts to put on and vibe out to. But above all, it's a reflection of Rocky's growth as an artist. Rocky's lyrics are still pretty hollow on the whole and there are a fair number of tracks that fail miserably ("Pharsyde", "West Side Highway" and above all, "Fine Whine"-which relies way too heavily on Rocky's signature chopped-and-and screwed vocal effect and features a pair of embarrassing guest spots from Future and M.I.A.), but the production and rapping that have defined his musical identity continue to become more polished as time goes on, and that's more than enough to forgive his shortcomings in other areas. Rocky is getting closer and closer to perfecting his niche on each album he puts out and when the day arrives where he gets everything right, the world is going to be in for a serious treat.
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Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
I had a lot of feelings towards this album, so I hope this properly articulates them in a coherent manner. Comments/feedback would be greatly appreciated.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
pos good review, there's just a typo in the first sentence. yeah, there are a few really, really good songs on this, but the rest is forgettable for me, like the last Rocky album. I really do think he can come out with something special in the future though
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Great review, suggest changing the intro paragraph though with the whole background history on ASAP. If your gonna do that, for future reviews, make it minimal because it can bring the review down if you dig in too deep into. Otherwise, the majority of it retaining to the album was well written!
The hype train has already gotten a little overboard with this album tho, just like it did with Kendrick.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Really good review. In the second-to-last paragraph, you say "the swagger and simply incredibly flow". Assuming you mean "incredible".
I agree with most of your points, although I do like Pharsyde quite a bit.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Jukebox joints would be awesome if it wasn't for Kanye's verse.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah, agreed. It's definitely a highlight until Kanye's part starts.
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Rocky's rapping has gotten way better and his flow is smooth over these spacey beats.
kinda wish it was like 13 songs tho.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
his lyricism has improved and he pulls out some nice flows, but I think I prefer the rapping on his mixtape still. his mixtape is def my favorite project by him
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
Typos have been fixed, thanks guys.
I completely agree that Kanye's verse on Jukebox Joints (the hashtag FOMO line is particularly cringeworthy) is trash, but the rest of the song is so good that it's forgivable.
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Nice review man, a good read. Pos'.
'Dreariest' might be the wrong choice of word at the end of the first paragraph though.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
co-headlining an amphitheater tour with Wiz Khalifa
something to be so proud of
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who da fuk is joe fox
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When I heard the first two tracks i'm like "oh shit, this is about to be straight gold" but then the other 16 tracks happened
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah, the first two are among the best. I think it's fairly consistent in quality, but there is a drop-off towards the end. So many hip-hop albums just have too many tracks, and some of them are inevitably not that good.
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Yeah honestly I think Rocky is easily one of the worst offenders when it comes to bloated records. If he dropped 45 minute albums instead it would be so much easier to listen to him. I think the fact that his mixtape is around that length exemplifies the point.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah, he's good. The guests are mostly solid, with the unfortunate exception of Kanye.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah, that's one of my favorites. And to each their own, I didn't like Kanye's at all, and I thought Lil Wayne did pretty well, even though usually I despise him.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
canal st flows like a motherrfuckkerr
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Future really shat the bed on that track, would have liked it a lot otherwise
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This was pretty meh for me on first listen perhaps his worst
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