Sounds Like the Next ASAP Rocky Album Will Be Even More Experimental

ASAP Rocky's Testing, featuring highlights such as "Distorted Records," opened at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 last week. In the days since, Rocky's dropped the official Skepta-featuring video for "Praise the Lord" and appeared in a smattering of new interviews. Speaking with Beats 1' Julie Adenuga Thursday, Rocky reaffirmed what he sees as the widespread influence of his sound and teased what fans should expect from him next.

"I kinda put myself in an avant-garde art space with just eclectic, artful music-making," Rocky said. "Especially in this day and age, none of my contemporaries or peers are making that kind of music. Nobody's fucking sounds like mine. I'm quite proud of that. I think it's a sound that I've been developing for the past couple of years. Moving forward, I just want to kinda, you know, perfect that sound more."

With future releases, Rocky added, he's hoping to craft music that can bridge the perceived gaps between a variety of genres. "Like I said, just merging gaps between trip-hop, American grime rap, road rap, trap music and shit like that," he said. "Even French rap and whatnot. You know, Portishead being a very big inspiration. Working with people like Kid Cudi and Moby. I wanna be able to just show people that once you come out and you're titled as a rapper, you're not, you know, marginalized or limited to that name alone or just that title."

The influence topic has been coming up frequently throughout the Testing promo run. Speaking with Desus Nice and the Kid Mero back in April, Rocky detailed how his fashion moves and production style have had an effect on the new generation. "I feel like a lot of kids that come up now inherited that," he said.