A$AP ROCKY at SXSW Music Festival. March 17, 2012. Rating: NNNN
New York rapper A$AP Rocky was more than an hour late for what was supposed to be a 30 minute set. The A$AP in his name obviously doesn’t stand for “as soon as possible”.
But when he came on, he was immediately on. He whipped the crowd up into hysterics with the drop of the first beat of his southern-inflected, “swag”-centric, no gimmick (well, some gimmicks) rap.
Due to oppressive heat, the staff at Austin’s 1100 Warehouse had handed out hundreds of boxes of water (they serve water in cardboard cartons here). When the show started, predictably, water went flying, along with almost everything else.
At one point a full garbage can was thrown into the middle of the mosh pit. (On the scale of disgusting, getting hit with garbage in that grimey place has got to be up there.) A box of water also hit Rocky’s equipment in one of the early songs and broke a laptop.
It was all good, though. A$AP Rocky is a man of the people.
He came on stage looking like a young Eazy-E, but with a big smile and his arms constantly in the air.
It didn’t take long before he dove head first into crowd, accidentally kicking a young woman in the face. He apologized, and I saw her dancing on a speaker later in the show, blood still dripping from her lip.
Here’s some footage of the show, to give an idea of what he was like. Fair warning though, the sound is horrid when the beat comes in.
His music was a lot the same. Every song had some call-and-response part (usually “swag” or “ASAP!”) and was slowed down enough for the audience to participate.
He ventured out into the madness at least once every two songs. About halfway through, his crew started allowing people on stage, provided they immediately stage dove off. At least two members of the press went for it, including a camera man.
One of his guys grabbed me from the front and pulled me back stage too, where I met Rocky briefly. He was nicer to me than most of my friends are, and probably the nicest guy in Austin.
(Later in the night, a scuffle broke out at the third A$AP show of the day. This seemed inevitable, with all the throwing of the water. And it will predictably get most of the press coverage here too – violence at rap shows.)
When the show was over, A$AP Rocky simply walked out of the club onto the busy street, where he was noticed immediately. In about six seconds, he had a pack of at least 100 people around him.
He stopped, posed for photos and signed autographs with anyone who asked.
Then it all made sense. This why he’s so late to his shows.
