A$AP Rocky – Long.Live.A$AP

By Noah Temple | Top Tracks: “Wassup”, “Keep it G”, “Houston Old Head”

Long.Live.A$AP; A$AP Rocky

A$AP Rocky has 34 million monthly listeners and people will look at you with a straight face and say he’s overrated—one of the most insane things you’ll hear in your life. The worst part is you’ll listen to any album he’s put out and believe them.  

LIVE.LOVE.A$AP is Rocky’s first album and was released in 2013. This album existed as a solid project from someone who hadn’t released one prior. Rocky speaks about his place in Harlem often and even though this album deviates from the traditional Harlem sounds of the time, it serves as a statement of intent and, like many great inaugural rap albums, cemented his own sound of slightly distorted vocals and lots of sampled vocals in the backing tracks.  

This album has aged really well with “Demons” getting re-released recently with “I Smoked Away My Brain” in 2023 after being remixed by Imogen Heap; although it still retains a lot of the sounds of the original song.  

This album’s production in particular was done mostly by Clams Casino and it’s distinctly clear with the remixed vocals in the backing track as well as the calm more ethereal sounding beats.  

The album shows a lot of strong tracks and it’s due to Rocky’s vocals and strong lyrical ability. When listening to the album, no lyric makes you pause and re-evaluate as it’s really just consistently good all the way through.  

Ultimately the album is a wonderful listen and has aged tremendously and in my relistening of Rocky’s discography in anticipation of new music I was just compelled to write about this album as a reminder.