ASAP Rocky's much anticipated third studio album Testing is right around the corner—May 25 to be exact—and this time around the Harlem rapper took a different approach in piecing the project together, partially by choice, as well as out of necessity.
In Complex's May 2018 cover story, Rocky opened up to Karizza Sanchez about making his first solo album without the help and guidance of the late ASAP Yams.
“It wasn’t the same without Yams,” Rocky explained. “But it’s with any legacy that loses a pioneer; you gotta keep going. Yams is a spirit. He’s an energy. He was always about discovering new talent and trying to put new people on. I think that’s what validated him in hip-hop. We miss him. R.I.P. to ASAP Yams. I had to do what Puff had to do when Biggie died, or anybody who loses somebody.”
A part of the album process included linking up with Kanye West in Berlin—alongside MGMT, Yasiin Bey, Dave Chappelle—which Rocky says resulted in "a lot of music" together. “Kanye turned the hotel we were staying at into a Yeezy compound,” he recalled. “He was designing sneakers in one suite, making music in one suite, and I was making music in my suite. It was crazy. We shut down the whole hotel.”
Fans won't have to wait too long for Testing, and if you count yourself as someone excited to hear the final results, know Rocky is just as excited for you to hear it, too. “It’s jiggy. It’s lit. I’m tryna go platinum first week," he says. "Let’s get it. On some Cardi B shit times 12, you heard?”
Check out the full video cover story above, where ASAP Rocky also talked about why it doesn't matter if people are stealing his style, his interest in becoming a creative director at a fashion house, and being heavily influenced by Kid Cudi, André 3000, and Nigo. Rocky's specific words on Kanye can be viewed below.
