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But above all, it's a reflection of Rocky's growth as an artist. 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. 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.Īt. 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. 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.

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 distinctly somber mood established with the production is nicely offset by the high-energy verses Rocky drops on a vast majority of the record. The gloomy aura of At.$AP adds a refreshing and welcome blast of darkness into Rocky's well-established sound. Even the more upbeat songs like "Electric Body" and "Wavybone" have bursts of haunting psychedelia weaved into their otherwise sunny sound. The production-which was handled by more than a dozen of the genre's heavy hitters including Mark Ronson, Kanye West and Danger Mouse-makes heavy use of eerie samples and lo-fi keys to establish a bleak yet trippy atmosphere that practically never lets up. Rocky is clearly reeling from Yams' death and the sadness he's feeling is stamped all over the production choices on this album. Rocky may still be rapping about the same subjects, but the mood is much more melancholy than anything he's done in the past. There are a few songs that go against the grain such as the album's opening 1-2 punch of "Holy Ghost" and "Canal St.", which serve as surprisingly deep reflections on the perils of fame and losing focus on your core values and where you came from once you get consumed with the jet-setting celebrity lifestyle, but these are nothing but brief albeit welcome detours on Rocky's debauchery-filled journey. Since day one, A$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. $AP, which is easily the darkest and most hallucinatory record he's ever released.

The impact all of these events had on Rocky are apparent when listening to his second LP, At. 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$AP Yams" Rodriguez to a drug overdose at the age of 26. The life of A$AP Rocky has changed pretty dramatically since the release of his major-label debut $AP in January 2013. Review Summary: A$AP Rocky's trippy, bleak second LP is his most polished work to-date.