A$AP Rocky moves away from the Mob

By Geoffrey Rowlands It is 10 years, almost to the day, since A$AP Rocky’s elder brother was shot dead by a drug dealer. This memory clearly still haunts the man born Rakim Mayers who has now become the hottest new artist on America’s hip-hop scene.“Ricky was my big brother, my hero,” Rocky remarked. “He’d introduced me to hip-hop and taught me how to rap. Our childhood had been happy but everything changed when our father was jailed for drug dealing. That was 12 years ago, half my lifetime.“Ricky tried to take care of the family by stepping into our father’s shoes. We didn’t know any different. That’s how life was around our neighbourhood in Harlem. I joined him selling drugs when I was 13. But Ricky took more than his cut. Someone didn’t like that and he was killed.”His brother’s death propelled Rocky into the world of hip-hop.“With Ricky gone and my father in jail, I started looking up to rappers. I’d been named after one half of Eric B and Rakim so there was a rap influence from birth. I began rhyming when I was eight but hadn’t taken things seriously. I still didn’t expect to become a rapper after Ricky died. It was a gradual process of realising I had a genuine talent.”At 17, Rocky joined a group of friends to form the A$AP Mob. Originally meaning Always Strive and Prosper, their acronym has progressed through numerous interpretations.“We’re individuals and a collective. We’re not even all performers. A$AP Yams is my manager and a kind of executive producer for everything involving the A$AP Mob. I’m the only one who has made it big so far but I will hopefully be the pathfinder for the other guys.”After initially posting songs on social media websites, Deep Purple, Rocky’s debut mixtape, was released in July, 2011. Three months later, another mixtape, Live.Love.A$AP, established him as a significant player on the music scene.“The songs on those mixtapes got me my deal with RCA/Polo Grounds Music. The advance money allowed me to invest wisely and develop the entire A$AP project. My chart success now allows me to push back the boundaries of what we can achieve.” His top 10 single pales in comparison to Rocky’s debut album, Long.Live.A$AP, which has topped the Billboard 200 and reached No.7 in Britain.“I hoped to release the album on October 31 last year, exactly one year after Live.Love.A$AP. We couldn’t get the samples cleared in time for that but I’ll settle for making the first big impression in 2013.”A surprisingly wide range of guest artists include A$AP Ferg, Kendrick Lamar and Florence Welch.“I’ve never just listened to hip-hop. I’ve actually namechecked The Beatles, Michael Jackson and Nirvana in the songs on my album. My influences have been artists such as Red Hot Chili Peppers and Coldplay just as much as Mobb Deep and Snoop Dogg.”Rocky is already working on his next releases.“I want to make another solo album pretty quickly but I particularly want to do an A$AP Mob album. “I’ve featured some of the crew as guest artists on my own stuff. But I want them all on one record so that every member of A$AP Mob can get the recognition he deserves.”inbriefMuse’s Madness runs longest Muse have established a new record for the longest-running No.1 single on Billboard’s Alternative Songs Airplay chart.Madness set the mark by spending 19 straight weeks in top spot. This surpassed the previous record held by Foo Fighters with their 2007 single, The Pretender. Taken from Muse’s sixth studio album, The 2nd Law, Madness followed the same path as the band’s 2009 single, Uprising. This song just failed to match the Foo Fighters’ mark when it remained in top spot for 17 successive weeks.Videos for both Muse songs are posted on YouTube. The band’s recent Warchild charity concert performance can be seen at www.youtube.com/warchildmuse. Links to many more live songs or full concerts by a variety of artists can also be found on this webpage. Performances by Florence and The Machine, Ellie Goulding and Madonna are just a few of those currently available. Ensemble Pearl takes shape American experimental metal band Sunn O))) joined forces with Japanese counterparts Boris to create their collaborative album, Altar, in 2006. Seven years later, Sunn O))) guitarist Stephen O’Malley and Boris drummer/vocalist Atsuo are key members of a new quartet, Ensemble Pearl.Ghost guitarist Michio Kurihara, who tours with Boris, and Sunn O))) multi-instrumentalist collaborator William Herzog, who also performed on Altar, complete the line-up.Ensemble Pearl’s six-track self-titled debut album will be released on March 18. Available to hear now is lead single, Painting On A Corpse. It can be found at (no www.) soundcloud.com/drag-city. Also posted here are 20 more songs by artists signed to the Drag City label. Scottish trio release debut album Golden Grrrls have just released their self-titled debut album.The lo-fi Scottish trio of Eilidh Rodgers, Ruari MacLean and Rachel Aggs have been making their name on the UK indie circuit for the last few years. Songs such as New Pop, Date It and Beaches have earned them a solid following.Numerous songs are available to hear online while a digital version of their 2011 eight-track tour cassette can be downloaded for free. This is posted at (no www.) goldengrrrls.bandcamp.com/album/2011-tour-cassette. Links to more of their Bandcamp postings are also on this webpage.Audio of album track, Past Tense, is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwp1Ilj0tTg. A link to the video for New Pop can also be found here.Cascada to represent Germany in EurovisionAs was largely expected, Cascada emerged triumphant in the contest to choose Germany’s entry for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. Their song, Glorious, was the clear winner with only the Bavarian folk punk outfit LaBrassBanda coming anywhere near Cascada’s points total.Yet the success of DJ Manian, Yann Peifer and singer / frontwoman Natalie Horler was not without controversy. An article in Germany’s Bild newspaper claims Glorious plagiarises Euphoria, Loreen’s 2012 Eurovision-winning song for Sweden. Ironically, Loreen opened the German selection show by performing Euphoria so any similarities should have been immediately apparent. Phoenix quartet rises again French alternative rock quartet Phoenix will release their fifth studio album, Bankrupt, on April 22.Lead single, Entertainment, is available to hear now. A lyric video can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=86_TqlVQscQ.