The Complex Staff Reacts to A$AP Rocky's New Album, 'A.L.L.A.'

Image via Complex Original

Favorite Song: "Holy Ghost"

For years I’ve been waiting for A$AP Rocky to just say something. He was always good at rapping, but never really saw more to life than just reckless hedonism. After his close friend A$AP Yams died from drugs, I expected a different outlook from Rocky. But as lines like, “Swear this life is just a whole bunch of vices,” prove, A$AP isn’t exactly a brand new guy. Still, Rocky shows considerable growth on At. Long. Last. A$AP; his rapping better than ever, the album is more melodic than I expected (that clacking sound is the sound of everyone typing “Who is Joe Fox?” at once), and he fleshes out an aesthetic beyond the contours of trill. Credit to Rocky for making great use of his extended guest list, coaxing performances out of Future and a vintage Lil Wayne (who makes exceptional use of Rocky’s own flow). Rocky offers a much greater variety of sounds and styles than his previous efforts, so even if he isn’t always saying all that much, this is still one pretty motherfucker.

Favorite Song: "Electric Body"

You’ll hear it more than once, but at 18 tracks, A.L.L.A. is a bit lengthy. Still, there’s a reason why A$AP Rocky is capable of going two and a half years in between releases without fans losing hope or the Harlem rapper losing hype, and that’s evident on his new album. Alongside Danger Mouse, Juicy J, and the late A$AP Yams, Rocky curated an experience that’s unapologetic in approach, and likewise captivating. One moment you’re floating through the trippy vibes of “L$D”; the next you’re back on the streets “Max B” style. Because A.L.L.A. changes pace in this manner, it forces the listener to brush past any preconceived notion of what an A$AP Rocky record should sound like in 2015. It’s not as left field as say Kendrick Lamar on To Pimp a Butterfly, but it’s certainly effective.

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Favorite Song: "Everyday"

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the production. We’ve read a lot about Rocky unfastening himself from the rap world, and the world at large, and holing up in Europe to create this album. A quick listen of A.L.L.A. shows the fruit of that detachment. Unlike Long. Live. A$AP, nothing here, save, perhaps, for the Kanye beat, sounds like it came off the shelf. The production, spearheaded by Danger Mouse, all fits into this trippy, foggy medley of sounds. Rocky this go around clearly isn't concerned with who or what is poppin' right now. There isn't an [insert rapper of the moment here] feature; no blatant shot at the Hot 100 like "Fuckin' Problems," a song that could have wound up on any number of albums back in 2013. The rapping, too, is great. I'd like to find another word to describe Rocky's rapping here, but jiggy, a term he says a lot on the album and in interviews, seems most apt. His life is full of models, runways, and money, and the rhymes and songs perfectly reflect how a guy, who three years ago had none of that, copes with it all. A.L.L.A., to me, shows assured growth. 

Favorite Song: "Excuse Me"

Rocky floats through most of the extended trip that is A.L.L.A. with eyes half open. So when he snaps to attention, like on "Excuse Me," "Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2," "Max B," and "Everyday," that's when you listen up. You're welcome to fade back out though when things get murky like on "West Side Highway," or when he takes the cleverness of the sublime "L$D" and gets all literal and drug preacher with it on "Pharsyde": "It's the irony how LSD inspired me to reach the higher me." Rocky celebrates the drugs that led him to this album just the right amount in the psychedelia that envelopes A.L.L.A; it's cooler when you don't spell it out like that. Underneath the dreamy production from Danger Mouse, Rocky, Yams, Emile Haynie, Mark Ronson, Juicy J, and others, death, love, and self-discovery are the central themes. There are mentions of gentrification and police brutality, but Rocky does little more than tap them before disappearing back into the haze. And that's the purpose that A.L.L.A. serves: It's an album of escapism, like the other side of the trap door.

Favorite Song: "L$D"

Rocky tripped balls and got weird on us. There are no obvious radio records nor chart toppers here, and I have no fuckin problems about it. Like many of his contemporaries, Flacko zigzagged around the sophomore (major label) slump, instead producing a project largely devoid of debut compromises. Though 10 or so minutes too long, the hazy, drug-addled atmosphere in which A.L.L.A. was made ultimately doesn't result in a slog of a sober listen. I wish there were one or two more turn-up moments like "LPFJ2," but I'll happily accept experiments like "L$D" or the inexplicably successful risky gamble of the Mark Ronson-Miguel-Rod fucking Stewart collab "Everyday." London-ready rock rap, rowdy turn-up jams, and a true-blue UGK song? Rocky went from missing in action over bitches and fashion to returning at long last with one of the game's most audacious genre-bending, refreshingly different listens in a while. Psychedelic trap, anyone? (Five guest features later, I'm still not sure what the hell a Joe Fox is, but that's besides the point.)