Few people capture the true essence of being cool quite like A$AP Rocky.
His Midas touch when it comes to music and organic sense of style have helped the star maintain his status as one of hip-hop’s most influential figures since his debut 12 years ago. Now, he’s making his brand directorial debut in his first campaign for Beats, crafting a minute-long film titled Iconic Sound. Rocky describes the project as a “creative, mythical tale” soundtracked by his new single, “Riot (Rowdy Pipe’n),” which he produced alongside Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes.
“I wanted to create this world that feels familiar, but has yet to exist. Kind of like this ‘wonderful world of Wonka’ and this dystopian ghetto futuristic style,” Rocky tells Bazaar.com of the new short. “I took a lot of nods from Wes Anderson and Tim Burton. It was meant to be sometime in the future—maybe a hundred years from now—and thinking: What would that look like? How would technology be? What would the class systems be? What is poverty? What is wealth? I tried to encapsulate all of that into it.”
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Having “Riot” set the musical tone for the Beats campaign was an intentional decision on Rocky’s part. The track is meant to evoke a raw, chaotic energy that—according to the rapper—is missing from most music these days.
“The message of the song is just modern-day punk. Punk is an attitude, not just a genre, and we wanted to cause some excitement,” Rocky says. “We want to encourage people to rage at shows again. The purpose of music is that it’s another extension of emotions. When you hear it, it should make you sad. It should make you happy. It should be nostalgic and make you recollect and go down memory lane. This thing right here has that rebellious spirit, and that’s what I deliberately wanted to do—just create a song that embodied all of those things.”
The short film’s story line features A$AP Rocky on a very important mission: grabbing diapers for his one-year-old son, RZA. (The baby boy makes a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in the ad, as does mom Rihanna’s voice.) Rocky is decked out in a classically New York outfit for the occasion: white tee, baggy jeans, and tan Timberland boots—paired with a single-strand pearl necklace and silver Beats Studio Pro headphones, of course. When you’re A$AP Rocky, though, a white tee isn’t just a white tee and jeans aren’t just jeans. There’s meaning behind every detail.
A$AP Rocky in his self-directed campaign for Iconic Beats
Rocky and Rihanna’s son RZA makes an adorable appearance in the new Beats campaign.
“I was inspired by the Moors’ culture—the ones who traveled to Spain and Italy years back—with the white tees and the pearls. It’s meant to signal rebellion. Everything else is more so New York to the fullest—I’m Harlem, I’m uptown! The Timberlands, the baggy blue boot-cut jeans—it’s just paying homage to New York,” Rocky explains. “But really, [the fashion in the film] is really just connecting with different people with different backgrounds, ethnicities, nationalities, and how you start to realize that we’re all so similar in a way. It’s just like hip-hop—the genre has reached all these different countries and it has no true one identity. It identifies with so many different, vast beliefs, backgrounds, and cultures right now. I wanted to make a metaphor that connected to that seamlessly.”
Now, ahead of the release of his first album in five years, A$AP Rocky is embracing all that inspires him—including parenthood.
“Fatherhood is just an everyday hat that I wear now, so it was only right that I included it in this piece,” he says. “Everything that I create honestly derives from the inspiration and the energy I get from my family. I’ll be coming up with some dope ideas just kicking in with my son or just chatting with my girl.”
As for music on the horizon, Rocky says he’s used the last five years to “get deep,” which has resulted in new material that’s going to be well worth the wait.
“We on some next shit right now—you could call it new, but nah, it’s just next shit,” he says. “It’s the next level. We tearing up right now, and it’s just a butt load of fucking inspiration. I’m gonna give them what I give them. It will be some cool shit.”
Culture Editor
Bianca Betancourt is the culture editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, where she covers all things film, TV, music, and more. When she’s not writing, she loves impulsively baking a batch of cookies, re-listening to the same early-2000s pop playlist, and stalking Mariah Carey’s Twitter feed.
