ASAP Rocky turned a leaked Harlem single into a rap and fashion empire
In August 2011 a track called Peso leaked online, and within weeks New York's Hot 97 was playing it. By October its creator, a Harlem rapper who had spent his teens moving between homeless shelters, had a two-year deal worth 3 million dollars. ASAP Rocky has since built a parallel career in fashion.
Rakim Mayers was born in Harlem on October 3, 1988, and named, like his sister Erika, after the duo Eric B. and Rakim. He began rapping at nine after a move to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, learning from his older brother Ricky, whose cornrows he copied. Ricky was shot dead in Harlem when Rakim was 13, and the loss made him treat music seriously. With his father jailed, he spent his teenage years in shelters with his mother and sister.
In 2007 he joined ASAP Mob, a Harlem crew of rappers, producers, video directors, designers and bikers founded by ASAP Yams and friends, and took his stage name from it. Purple Swag became a New York street anthem in July 2011, and the leak of Peso helped push the hazy style called cloud rap into the mainstream. His debut mixtape Live. Love. A$AP drew wide praise that autumn.
His first studio album, Long. Live. A$AP, arrived on January 15, 2013 and opened at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 139,000 copies in its first week. The follow-up in 2015 also topped the chart, with singles featuring guests as unexpected as Rod Stewart. He co-directs most of his own videos and produces for others under the alias Lord Flacko.
Fashion runs alongside the music. In 2014 he founded AWGE, a creative agency and label that has partnered with Moncler, Vans and Mercedes-Benz, and he co-launched the label VLONE. He co-chaired the 2025 Met Gala, became creative director for Puma F1 and Ray-Ban, and acted opposite Denzel Washington in Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest.
Source: ASAP Rocky
