Rakim Mayers was born on the 3rd of October 1988 in New York, USA. He started rapping when he was eight years old and after years of intense personal hardship became A$AP Rocky, one of the true renaissance men of modern Hip-Hop.
I’m going to assume that most musicians would kill for the career that Rocky has had. At a mere 26 years of age he’s already one of the hottest rappers in the world, a prolific producer, an experienced director, head of his own record label (ASAP Worldwide) and not to mention his own clothing line.
The term “he has the world at his feet” was seemingly coined for him and his collective, the A$AP Mob, and fewer artists have earned the right to success quite like he has. Every rapper needs to have a “rags to riches” story to be taken seriously these days and Rocky’s is a doozy.
Born in Harlem, New York City, Hip Hop was a part of Rocky’s DNA from the start; he was named after Rakim from East Coast legends Eric B. and Rakim, after all. However, when he was twelve his father was sent to jail on drugs charges, a year later his older brother, who taught him how to rap, was murdered.
This led to a long period of homelessness, where he and his mother would move from shelter to shelter and by 15, Rocky was selling Crack Cocaine to get by. One he and his mother moved to New Jersey, he joined the nascent A$AP Mob, and the rest, they say, is history.
Working with the Mob gave him all the exposure he needed to achieve the astonishing feats he’s reached in his seven year music career. The most exciting part is that’s it’s still beginning, and the best has very much yet to come with this once in a generation talent.
Gregory Porter
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