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A$AP Rocky Claims Rap Hasn't Been As 'Mature' Since Soulja Boy

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2022 has been a life-changing year for A$AP Rocky. The Mob leader welcomed his first child with Rihanna and he’s readying an album set to arrive in the coming months.

Rocky caught up with comic Jerrod Carmichael for an Interview Magazine chat, where he voiced his frustrations with the immaturity of rap thanks to the internet’s prominence as he’s become a veteran with over a decade spent in the music industry.

“Rap is in its adolescence and it’s been stuck here since Soulja Boy,” he said. “Before, everybody looked 35 and up. When Lil Wayne and JAY-Z and T.I. and Jeezy and [Rick] Ross was on, rappers looked old. Like, we had Lil Bow Wow and that was it.

“That all changed with the internet and self-releasing. Now, rap is stuck in this braggadocious, adolescent space. It’s not as mature.”

In the past, Rocky has credited Soulja Boy for playing a role in his space to exist as an artist in the Hip Hop landscape in the early 2010s.

“If it wasn’t for Soulja Boy, A$AP Rocky probably wouldn’t be around,” Rocky told L.A.’s 92.3 radio station. “He kinda made a formula. He was the first to do it and it work for him and since then I think that kind of became a basis of a standard way to make it.”

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A$AP Rocky also revealed that he’s putting the finishing touches on his as-yet-untitled Testing follow-up. He’s locked in a couple of weeks to work exclusively with Tyler, The Creator on the solo LP.

“I’ve been working with [Tyler, The Creator] a lot, man,” he explained. “We blocked out the last two weeks and have been working on a lot of music, but I’m wrapping up this album right now, about to direct a few of these videos.

“And I can tell you, just from doing a couple of music videos, it’s so much energy and preparation and curation. And music videos are only three to four minutes long.”