Everyone reading this likely remembers ASAP Rocky’s performance with Rihanna at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2012, but not everyone knows that, in the Don’t Be Dumb artist’s own words, he “grabbed her ass for Harlem.”
The two, now a couple sharing three children together, performed “Cockiness (Love It)” at that year’s ceremony, leading to Rocky making a move that’s been discussed among fans ever since. Rihanna herself reflected on it back in 2024.
Now, Rocky has looked back on the moment as part of a wide-ranging conversation with Jason Lee, arguing that it was on par with a Knicks victory in terms of how it charged up Harlem.
“I was like, damn, this bitch, she remind me of like a Harlem bitch or something like that, right?” Rocky said, as seen below. “She was just fly. And that night, we did the MTV shit and I ain't gon’ hold you. I don't know, like, I did that for Harlem.”
Lee interjected to clarify whether Rocky meant he “grabbed her ass for Harlem,” which he promptly confirmed.
“I grabbed her ass for Harlem,” he asserted. “You would have thought the Knicks won.”
Elaborating further, Rocky said “everybody in Harlem was proud of me when I did that,” reiterating its status as a victory he shared with all of Harlem.
“I did that for Harlem,” he said. “You gotta realize, people was banging on they walls and tables like, ‘Yeah, let's go!’ [and] clapping like the Knicks won. I did that for Harlem. I had to. You know what time it is.”
While RiRi has appeared in Rocky’s videos in the past, including the self-directed “D.M.B.” in 2022 and the Virgil Abloh-helmed “Fashion Killa” in 2013, “Cockiness” remains the real-life couple’s sole official collaboration.
