Posted by A$AP Rocky is a dreamer. Growing up in Harlem, the greatest authors couldn’t even script the storybook to his life as the 33-year-old welcomed a baby with Rihanna earlier in May. The Mob leader sat down for his first fatherhood interview with Dazed on Monday (May 30) where he laid out some of his hopes for his kid.
Even with the generational wealth advantages their child will enjoy, Rocky hopes the baby boy never loses his imagination. He opened up about still watching some of his favorite cartoons like Teletubbies and Nickelodeon classic Blue’s Clues.
“I will always remind my children to never lose their imagination, even as adults, no matter what,” he emphatically relayed. “I actually love to watch cartoons – I’ve watched like, Teletubbies, Blue’s Clues, Yo Gabba Gabba, Peppa Pig and Baby Shark.”
“I hope to raise open-minded children. Not people who discriminate. And I’m not trying to describe a saint, but realistically, I just want a cool child with cool parents.”
Sticking on the creativity and design theme, Rocky paid homage to late Louis Vuitton artistic director Virgil Abloh and saluted him for all of the inspiration he gave Black creatives. Virgil designed the artwork for his 2013 album Long.Live.A$AP.
“Virgil was an oracle for a lot of us Black kids and young creatives,” he added. “Even if you take ethnicity or nationality out of it, he influenced so much culture, whether hip hop, fashion or Louis Vuitton. You can’t really distinguish streetwear from high fashion at this point.”
"FOREVER" @virgilabloh #asaprocky pic.twitter.com/0wMaXdtgHq
— mrsawge (@mrsawge11) April 12, 2022
As far as his new album, the “Fashion Killa” rapper confirmed that his Testing follow-up is indeed not titled All Smiles.
Rihanna & A$AP Rocky Welcome Baby Boy
“One thing I can tell you is that the name isn’t gonna be All Smiles – you know, I never publicly said that my album was called All Smiles,” Rocky debunked. “That one is more of a concept project, it’s music and more. I’m wrapping up the new album now; I’ve been shooting so many visuals for it.”
“I don’t want to be cliche or sound like a salesman, but I’ve pushed myself to the limit on everything. Going from that industrial, subversive sound from Testing and then graduating with a more polished sound… I just like where it is.”