A$AP Rocky has had a big year, not only in hip-hop but in fashion. The rapper has appeared in countless fashion magazines, including the covers of some big ones, to talk about his fashion-taking risks just as much as his Southern-influenced hip-hop sound. Although those two subjects are broached the most with Rocky, he has also been outspoken on matters such as gay rights, and the fact that there is homophobia within hip-hop.
Rocky appears in the April issue of Interview magazine where he once again discusses his taste for eccentric fashion, as well as this other highly debated topic within the hip-hop sphere this year-- homosexuality. With Frank Ocean's open letter and tons of rappers supporting him, the "gay thing," as Rocky puts it, has definitely been in the limelight this year.
Rocky was interviewed by fashion designer Alexander Wang for Interview, and told him how his fashion choices helped him garner the public's attention, "Fashion was a natural thing to me. It was just one of those things that helped me be an individual ... and it helped me get the attention that most people try to get with publicity stunts or by doing other crazy things."
"I came up in a world that was just crazy — and it was hectic and kind of radical at the same time. For me, growing up in Harlem and then migrating down to SoHo and the lower East Side and chillin’ down there and making that my stomping ground . . . That was a big thing, because I’m from Harlem, and downtown is more artsy and also more open-minded. So I got the best of both worlds. It was like being on the streets and then being in school at the same time, and I tried to keep my hands in everything just so I wasn’t missing out on any fun. I just always wanted to be knowledgeable of my whereabouts, my surroundings, and what was going on with our generation," the A$AP Mob leader explained.
Rocky continued to discuss homophobia in hip-hop, "So now that I’m here and I’ve got a microphone in my hand and about 6,000 people watching me, I need to tell them how I feel."
"For instance, one big issue in hip-hop is the gay thing. It’s 2013, and it’s a shame that, to this day, that topic still gets people all excited. It’s crazy. And it makes me upset that this topic even matters when it comes to hip-hop, because it makes it seem like everybody in hip-hop is small-minded or stupid — and that’s not the case," A$AP Rocky said of his hip-hop peers.
He continued to cite Jay-Z and Kanye West as like-minded to himself, "We’ve got people like Jay-Z. We’ve got people like Kanye. We’ve got people like me. We’re all prime examples of people who don’t think like that. I treat everybody equal, and so I want to be sure that my listeners and my followers do the same if they’re gonna represent me. And if I’m gonna represent them, then I also want to do it in a good way."
Peep the magazine cover along with photos from the shoot in the gallery above.
