to the show.
I always love having him.
He's a stud.
That's what I'm talking about right now.
Come on.
First of all, you killed it on Saturday Night Live this past week.
That's how you do it.
Come on.
That's how to do it.
Congrats on the album.
Congrats.
You have a new baby.
Come on.
Busy, busy, busy.
That's a beautiful family portrait right there.
So, a girl, a daughter.
-"Baby Rocky."
Names are right after me.
Come on.
How's Baby Rocky?
Has it changed you at all?
Yeah.
It's amazing, and it's, like, incomparable.
It's just unexplainable, you know?
I feel like a new man again and again and again.
Yeah.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Where did you first meet Rihanna?
It was crazy.
We met outside of a nightclub, ironically, here in New York.
I wasn't famous at the time.
She was obviously Rihanna.
And I couldn't get in.
The bouncers didn't want to let me in and I was with my friend, late great Virgil Abloh and Matthew Williams.
You know, we kind of was getting into it with the bouncers and she kind of came out and we locked eyes right away.
And I was just, like, in a daze.
And you know I was a little embarrassed that she caught me, like you know, bickering with the guard and stuff like that.
You're like, that's not me.
Hey, I'm cool.
I'm on the list.
Did she help you get in?
No.
Yeah, man, you got to work for it, man.
Come on.
You've been doing this for a long time.
You're always into fashion.
I know you for a while now, and you're great at everything you do.
I found some picture of you four years old.
Here's four-year-old A$AP Rocky.
Stylin'.
Stylish.
My fourth birthday.
Yeah.
Stylish baby.
Look at that handsome fella.
Oh, yeah, exactly.
I mean, that's pretty cool, right?
And now you get to do all this great stuff with fashion labels, and you're crushing it.
I mean, it's funny.
That photo is like it came full circle.
I mean, I modeled, and I was signed to Gucci for a while.
I had a Gucci link on. in that guest jean suit that I had on.
I was creative director for guests, you know, in 2014 and 2015, so everything came back full circle.
Yeah, exactly.
Are those Ray-Bans?
I like that.
Thank you, man.
Thank you.
By the way, also, what a great year for you.
You were in two giant movies Highest to Lowest, with Denzel, and also If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, with Rose Byrne nominated for all these awards going up to awards season.
You were fantastic.
I didn't even know you were in the Rose Byrne one.
I was like, That's Rocky, man.
It's unbelievable.
And we had Spike on the show, Spike Lee.
It was awesome.
He came on the show.
I go, what's he really like?
What's A$AP Rocky like as an actor?
He goes, he could hold his own against Denzel.
What?!
What?!
You got to just tell me, were you intimidated?
I mean, you worked with Denzel Washington.
Yo, it was crazy.
Not at all.
You know why?
Like, he was just so supportive of everybody, especially Denzel.
He was just giving me mad advice, you know, telling me the dos and the don'ts.
And, you know, I just took heed to everything.
I soaked it in like a sponge.
Yeah, but you held your own.
You were great.
I mean, rat-a-tat-tat.
It was, like, easy.
It was like watching a great tennis match.
Yo, you know, I don't think it's too hard for a rapper to portray a rapper.
Yeah, maybe if I acted as a rapper, that'd be more of a stretch.
That might be a little ironic.
More of a, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I want to talk about your new album.
By the way, it's called Don't Be Dumb.
Whoo!
Yes!
I love that.
Uh...
And here's what I really love.
Look at this.
Get the vinyl, too, if you can.
Get everything.
Stream it on Spotify, whatever you got, Apple Music, whatever you got, your music.
But also get the vinyl, because Tim Burton did the drawings.
Come on!
That's my dude.
Wait, how did you get Tim Burton to do this?
Yo, so I had to basically stalk and harass him for a few years.
You know?
I hit him up and I was just like yo man, I'd be delighted to like kick it with you, play you some vibes and stuff.
So I went out to Malibu to kick it with him when he had a break and he was just, you know, he was into it.
You played the album?
I played him the album, the early rendition of it, and he was rocking with it.
So I was just like, yo...
You think maybe you could do the illustration for it?
Like, you know what I mean?
And he was, like, keen to it.
And next thing I knew, he had, like, Wednesday and shout-outs to that, Beetlejuice 2 and stuff.
And I was just like...
Now that means this thing is prolonged.
Hey, come on.
Remember you said you're going to get through that?
Just give me a little sketch.
Give me a little taste of what you're going to do.
The interesting part is, when I went there, I saw a sketch laying on the table and I was just like yo, you did this.
He was like yeah, but you know, every morning, me and my daughter, what I do is I do half of a sketch and then she comes and she revises it or just completes it.
So every day, that's what they practice, and they looked at it as a bond.
I looked at it as like, oh, nah, this is valuable.
We need to...
I'll take that right now.
Right now, give me that, and that's my album cover.
Yeah, exactly.
Yo, dude.
What's the connection with Tim Burton?
You just like him as a director?
Well, I'm heavily inspired by German Expressionism, right?
And I just feel like there's never been any kind of connection or correlation between, like just urban sci-fi and German Expressionism.
I wanted to establish my own kind of, like, subgenre or, you know, style.
And we call it ghetto futurism and ghetto expressionism, you know?
And that's what you get when you go get, you know, Pretty Flaco and Tim Burton together a little bit.
You know?
That's right.
I will say, We waited for this for a long time.
As a fan, I mean, I know how much work goes into it.
I couldn't, I mean, it's just a crazy amount of work.
But do fans come up to you and go, Rocky, what's up?
Where's the album?
Let's go, bud.
You don't know the half.
I mean, between me and my lady, I mean, oh, man.
I could imagine.
They're like, yo.
Yeah, I was scared for a while, scared for my life, but...
Yeah, but you finally did it, and you're happy with it?
Man, I'm so pleased that it's finally out.
You know what I mean?
It's out.
Come on.
Everyone pick it up.
It's good.
I also want to say another cool thing that you did, and I don't know how much press it got or anything, but you did a thing with Bill.
Bill.
You partnered.
Can you tell everyone what you did?
Because this is the coolest thing.
I was like, I love this dude, man, but this is good.
You give him back.
Well, some people might not know much about, like, my early days, my past and my background.
So I grew up in, you know, the homeless shelter system, right?
Me and my family.
And for me, you know, when I look online and stuff and I see like TikToks of people doing things like donating to, you know, homeless people, it's usually with a camera there.
And for me that's a little pretentious or, like you know, it's a little embarrassing for the recipient, right?
Yeah, of course.
And so I wanted to do something that felt like, you know, giving back, but without like, trying to be too much flashy about it.
So I found about it somewhere, and I wanted to bring it up because I thought it was cool.
Yeah, so we paid the rent for everybody, all the tenants in my grandmother's building that I grew up with in Harlem on the 148th and Lenox.
That's got to feel great.
Yeah, it feels amazing.
Feels amazing.
I also read that.
Somewhere in that little article I read that someone did this to you or they gave you something, or they got you a movie ticket or something.
Yeah, so I was in a shelter called Volunteers of America, VOA, right?
And basically they would let like different volunteers come and, you know, do things with the kids or donate anything.
This particular weekend, Harry Potter had came out.
I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, right?
And so I couldn't afford to go see the movie, obviously, you know, due to circumstances at the time.
And this lady whom I never met.
She just you know, came through and they took about like 10 of us kids and each person had an adult to.
You know, pay for their way.
So when it was over, we were walking back to the shelter and I'm just like, Lady, you must be rich.
Like, how could you afford to do this?
She was like, honey, no.
I'm a substitute teacher.
I can't even make ends meet right now.
And I'm like so why would you take your little bit of money to take me to the movie theater and stuff like that?
She was like, because it just feels great to do something like that, you know?
And I was just like, people do that?
Right?
And did you ever see her again?
I don't even know the lady's name, but God bless you.
Thank you so much.
You know?
And it sticks in your head, right?
It's stuck in my head.
I love you, bud.
Congrats on the new record, ASAP Rocky.
His new album, Don't Be Dumb, is available right now.
We're doing something fun after the break.
Stick around, everybody.
Come on back.
