Harlem’s buzziest rapper opens up in an interview with Complex.
LongLiveA$AP might be delayed until 2013, but that hasn’t muted Rocky’s excitement about his debut album. “I’m most excited about finally unleashing this album that I’ve imprisoned for the past year. It’s begging to be free and rejoiced by the world,” he tells Complex. “It’s some trill shit. It’s some real smoking weed, struggling, some real motherfuckers-is-coming-for-my-head, some real this-is-how-I-feel, this-is-how-you-feel shit.”
While he says he would love to work with indie act MGMT, reconciliation with former collaborator Spaceghostpurrp seems unlikely, especially after their respective crews brawled outside a Miami concert. “People are starting to see he’s a racist and crazy and bipolar. I look on the Internet and every time we put something out he gets his Raider Klan people to be like, “You’re biting,” and it’s like, “You’re just mad I’m bigger than you.” His life revolves around hating on me, and this is a guy who used to live in my house. My mom took care of him. Before I had a record deal we were sharing dinner plates and shit.”
Rocky seems to have moved beyond it, but offers this vague rejoinder about the origin of the conflict: “It happened. It’s like it was meant to happen. It is what it is. When the heat came down, he was the only scared one. He was going to have to serve three days in jail like everybody else. Long story short, Purrp went down South, started talking shit about niggas. It was a cowardly move.”
As for his compatriots in the Raider Klan, Rocky says success is not up to him. “It’s not based off of talent—none of that. It’s just based off of God, whoever He wants to be next.” Meanwhile, his critics confound him. “Why is it so fucking hard to accept the fact that we’re heterosexual men who love fashion? We get along with gay people, we accept gay people. We get along with white people, we get along with Asian people. We love everybody.”
The interview is part of Rocky’s Complex cover story. The rapper has been added to Rihanna’s upcoming world tour.
