It’s after middle of the night in a collection on the W resort, overlooking New York City’s Union Square, and I’m sitting throughout from A$AP Rocky as he toys with a half-smoked blunt. There’s a fresh one inside the ashtray beside it that one among his assistants lately rolled for him. The armchair I’m perched on is made of filled Mickey Mouse toys, a “Tom and Jerry” cool animated film is playing on mute within the history and Jefferson Airplane’s psychedelic tune is blaring from the stereo.
“Can you men carry that chair closer?” Rocky says to one in every of his group about my seat, then turns to me. “It’s heavier than it appears.”
It’s a gentlemanly gesture from the candy, Grammy-nominated hip-hop megastar, who is now as well known for his evolution into subversive fashion icon as he is for his A-list coupling with Rihanna.
Tonight, he’s rocking a crimson-and-black tartan kilt with Ray-Bans from his new innovative partnership with the sunglasses logo and a camo bomber jacket designed by way of his AWGE collective. The jacket has a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, license plate emblazoned at the front; that’s where the Harlem-born Rakim Mayers lived for a stint as a child, starting proper across the time he commenced rapping at age eight.
As an artist, Rocky dabbles in a little of the whole thing: In addition to the fashion collaborations and his today’s gig as co-chair of this year’s Met Gala, his long-awaited fourth album, “Don’t Be Dumb,” is predicted to drop someday this yr.
But we’re right here to speak about Rocky’s Cannes-bound movie “Highest 2 Lowest,” Spike Lee’s remake of the Akira Kurosawa crime drama “High and Low” in order to see him face off against Denzel Washington. (It might be released via A24 in pick theaters Aug. 22 before streaming on Apple TV+ weeks later.) First, but, Rocky needs to tell me approximately that point while he turned into five years vintage and his favorite film became the 1973 Blaxploitation movie “The Mack.”
“At an assembly on Halloween, I advised my teacher that I wanted to be a pimp,” he remembers, diamonds gleaming from the corners of his extensive grin. “She took back the microphone and stated, ‘Pick any other one.’ I stated, ‘Uhhh — a ninja?’”
In “Highest 2 Lowest,” Rocky isn’t a pimp or a ninja, but rather performs Yung Felon, an aspiring rapper who will prevent at nothing to be observed by way of Washington’s music rich person. And Rocky’s large moment on the Cannes pink carpet will come after he’s fought and won a prison conflict that almost derailed his career and that could have left him in jail for 1 / 4 century.
The situation stemmed from a 2021 incident wherein Rocky became accused of firing a gun at and grazing the knuckle of his former pal and collaborator Terell Ephron, called A$AP Relli. Rocky worked on the movie as the trial loomed, locating a welcome distraction in performing. “That’s my simplest escape. That’s why I do it,” he says.
But there had been moments whilst artwork and lifestyles intersected. In one scene, Yung Felon faces his very own courtroom reckoning, which became “surreal” for Rocky, who knew he’d be in a comparable scenario in a few months. “That’s why I became able to embody the person so nicely,” he says, his voice gravelly from weed. “I changed into capable of act like a bit of shit who changed into going away for a long term however didn’t comprehend the results, because in real life, I knew exactly what the consequences felt like.”
Rocky’s especially publicized trial lasted 3 weeks earlier than a jury discovered him now not responsible in February. The world watched as a completely satisfied Rocky leapt over a barrier to hug Rihanna and then enfolded his mom and sister in his fingers.
Rocky and Rihanna started making music together in 2012, when she turned into already a mega-big name and he became the recent new rapper on the scene. A decade later, they welcomed their first toddler, RZA Athelston Mayers. His little brother, Riot Rose Mayers, observed in August 2023. Rihanna revealed their 0.33 child is at the manner just earlier than arriving at the Met Gala.
Professionally, the 36-year-old is living out his formative years dream. He’d been a fan of Lee and Washington for the reason that watching “Malcolm X” as a child, so whilst the director reached out after recognizing him in 2018’s “Monster” (which changed into produced by way of Lee’s spouse, Tonya), Rocky jumped on the possibility to work with of his idols. “I changed into caught between greatness and greatness.”
Spike has said that a whole lot of humans get queasy when they’re going up towards Denzel. Were you nervous?
Nah, I turned into born for this. I’m not gonna waste nobody’s time. This is what I do — that is the same method you will take to creating an album or to directing or designing anything: You’ve were given to offer it your all. People choose you with the aid of integrity; that’s how you can degree someone’s principles and morals. If somebody don’t were given integrity, and that they’re just doing it for the check or the appearance or the following opportunity, it in no way works out for them. I promise you. That’s where the phrase “Cheaters in no way win” comes from. When you cheat yourself in existence, you never win in the long run.
Did you study the script earlier than announcing sure to Spike?
I read it. Spike changed into open to me developing my person. I’m a Method actor — I’ve gotta encompass this person. So sporting different hats — like fatherhood and all that different stuff — there’s best so much time you’ve were given, right? So I needed this man to be realistic. His call was MC Microphone Checka — like microphone check, 1, 2, 1, 2 — and I stated, “No, he’s Yung Felon.”
Spike is OK with permitting collective ideas. It changed into a blessing for him to be so receptive and open-minded to my ideas. He close down loads, and he fucked with plenty.
What does Method acting imply to you? What does your coaching appear to be?
It’s being on my own for your trailer, looking within the mirror, embodying that individual. When you’re no longer on the set, or while you clock out, you’re still embodying that character. Around the beginning of shooting, my family became still in California, so I got to absolutely be this man and pass home [as him]. When my family finally came to New York in overdue May, we were nearly wrapped, and I needed to be in daddy mode. I needed to shift back and forth.
What’s it like when Denzel’s performing contrary you?
It was like a fucking dream come true. But trust me, it turned into tough to not fan the fuck out each millisecond of the fucking period. It changed into crazy — it’s fucking Denzel, man. I don’t deliver a fuck how a hit [I am]: I’m continually gonna be a pupil and keen on certain humans, and I’m constantly going to present them their plants. I’m by no means going to be too huge to be able to say that I had to maintain my composure from no longer fanning out.
The first films I genuinely cherished were “Juice,” “Malcolm X” and “Michael Jackson: Moonwalker.” The first time I saw him, I changed into looking “Malcolm X.”
You went to Cannes 10 years ago together with your first film, “Dope.” What do you recollect?
I didn’t know what to expect. I recollect displaying up and them telling us, like, “Yo, you understand how hard it’s miles to get your shit submitted out right here?” And I’m like, “How the fuck do we know if we gained or no longer?” [Laughs] Now I’m greater excited because I realize the significance. I look ahead to seeing the film for the first time with all and sundry else. I don’t want to see it until then.