ASAP Rocky
Rakim Athelston Mayers, known professionally as ASAP Rocky, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, fashion designer and model. Born and raised in Harlem, he embarked on his musical career as a member of the hip hop collective ASAP Mob, from which he adopted his stage name. In August 2011, Mayers' single "Peso" was leaked online and began receiving radio airplay within weeks, propelling cloud rap into mainstream attention. He signed with Polo Grounds Music, an imprint of RCA Records, that October and released his debut mixtape, Live. Love. A$AP to widespread critical acclaim.
Mayers' 2012 single, "Fuckin' Problems", marked his first entry—at number eight—on the Billboard Hot 100, was nominated for Best Rap Song at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, and preceded his debut studio album, Long. Live. A$AP. A critical and commercial success, it debuted atop the Billboard 200 and received double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. His second album, At. Long. Last. A$AP, also debuted atop the chart and saw continued critical praise; its two lead singles, "Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2 " and "Everyday", both received double platinum certifications by the RIAA, while its third, "L$D", was nominated for Best Music Video at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. His third album, Testing, debuted within the Billboard 200's top five, while his fourth album, Don't Be Dumb, debuted atop the chart.
Aside from his musical career, Mayers founded the creative agency and record label AWGE in 2014. AWGE launched partnerships with Marine Serre, Amina Muaddi, Moncler, JW Anderson, Under Armour, PacSun, Vans, Mercedes-Benz, Selfridges, as well as conceptual collaborations with MTV and Needles. Mayers co-launched cult fashion label VLONE, co-chaired the Met Gala in 2025 and spearheaded campaigns for DKNY, Calvin Klein, Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Ferragamo, Beats by Dre, Dior Homme and more. As of 2025, he serves as the creative director for Puma F1 and Ray-Ban. As an actor, Mayers has had supporting roles in Dope, Monster, Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest alongside Denzel Washington, and If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.
Mayers has received accolades such as a BET Award, two BET Hip Hop Awards, an MTV Video Music Award Japan and an MTVU Woodie Award. His creative entrepreneurship has been rewarded with the Global Style Icon Award, the Virgil Abloh award, the Cultural Innovator Award, the Collaboration Of The Year Award, and the Fashion Icon Award. He has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, six World Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards and two MTV Europe Music Awards. Furthermore, Mayers has co-directed most of his own music videos, as well as worked in production or co-writing for other artists, often under the pseudonym Lord Flacko.
Early life
Rakim Athelston Mayers was born on October 3, 1988, in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, a borough of New York City. His father, Adrian "Duke" Athelston Mayers, was from Barbados and his mother, Rina "Renee" Black, is of African American and part Guyanese descent. The couple raised four children together; Ricky, Erika B., Rakim and Asia. Both Rakim and Erika's names are taken from the Eric B. & Rakim duo. Mayers has 10 other paternal siblings. His cousin is fellow ASAP Mob member ASAP Nast.Mayers started rapping at age nine, when he moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He learned how to rap from his older brother, who also wore the cornrows hairdo that Mayers later adopted. When Mayers was 13, his brother Ricky was killed by gun violence in Harlem. The death inspired Mayers to take rapping more seriously. Mayers grew up admiring Harlem-based rap group the Diplomats. He was also influenced by Mobb Deep, Three 6 Mafia, UGK, Run DMC, Wu-Tang Clan, and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.
When Mayers was 12 years old, his father went to jail and he spent his teenage years moving around homeless shelters with his mother and sister. After living for a period in a shelter with his mother in New York City, he moved to Midtown Manhattan. His father died in 2012.
Career
2007–2011: Career beginnings
In 2007, Mayers joined the A$AP Mob crew, a Harlem-based collective of rappers, producers, music video directors, fashion designers, and bikers who shared similar interests in music, fashion, style, and art. It had been formed by A$AP Yams, A$AP Bari and A$AP Illz. In July 2011, Mayers released his single "Purple Swag" which quickly became a street anthem in New York City.In August 2011, Mayers’ single "Peso", was leaked online and within weeks received airplay on the high-profile Hot 97 New York radio station. After he released a music video for his song "Purple Swag", he received attention from several record labels. In October, he released the mixtape Live. Love. A$AP to critical acclaim. Earlier that month, he signed a two-year, $3 million record deal with Bryan Leach's Polo Grounds Music, which at the time was distributed by Clive Davis' Sony Music division of J Records. Upon his record deal, Mayers started a label, A$AP Worldwide, with A$AP Yams. However, Mayers’ deal with J Records would be short-lived, when on October 7, RCA Music Group announced that it was merging J alongside Arista and Jive Records into RCA Records. With the shutdown, Mayers will release future material under the RCA brand. On December 5, he was nominated for BBC's Sound of 2012 poll.
2012–2014: Touring and ''Long. Live. A$AP''
In February 2012, Mayers joined Kendrick Lamar as the opening act for Drake's Club Paradise Tour. In June, SpaceGhostPurrp, founder of Miami-based collective Raider Klan and Mayers’ past collaborator, accused A$AP Twelvyy of jumping Raider Klan's Matt Stoops and subsequently disassociated himself from A$AP Mob and Mayers in a YouTube video. He and Raider Klan also accused ASAP Mob of copying their style, and Mayers of using lyrics from SpaceGhostPurrp's song "My Enemy" on "Goldie". Mayers responded in a July interview for MTV, saying that SpaceGhostPurrp is "try to build hype" and told him to "stick to makin' beats".In July 2012, Mayers performed at the Pitchfork Music Festival. He was scheduled to make his network television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on July 20, but he was then arrested the night before, after an alleged involvement in a brawl, with 21-year-old artist iRome. The scuffle took place in downtown Manhattan and the performance was canceled. After it was rescheduled for August 21, Mayers performed "Goldie" on the show. On September 6, he also performed a guest rap on Rihanna's "Cockiness " at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards.
Mayers recorded his debut studio album Long. Live. A$AP, along with several producers, such as Clams Casino, Hit-Boy, Friendzone, A$AP Ty Beats, Soufien3000 and Joey Fat Beats. "Goldie" was released as the album's first single on April 27. On August 27, his crew A$AP Mob released the mixtape Lords Never Worry as a free download. During September through November, Mayers promoted the album with the 40-date national concert tour, the Long Live ASAP Tour, with opening acts ScHoolboy Q, Danny Brown, and A$AP Mob. Long. Live. A$AP was released on January 15, 2013, to mostly positive reviews from critics. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 139,000 copies in the United States., it has sold 284,000 copies. On March 16, 2015, Long. Live. A$AP was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, for the shipment of 500,000 copies in the United States.
On April 12, 2013, in an interview at Wild 94.9 radio station, Mayers revealed that he was working on an instrumental album, which he plans on releasing without notice. He also discussed his favorite music videos and talked about his desire to collaborate with veteran rapper André 3000. On June 21, Mayers told MTV News that he had completed his debut instrumental album, which mostly consists of ambient oriented instrumental tracks, titled Beauty & The Beast: Slowed Down Sessions and was originally set to be released during the summer for free download. However, that album was delayed with no release date announced. Mayers previewed two snippets that would have made the Beauty & The Beast: Slowed Down Sessions compilation, titled "Riot Rave" and "Unicorn". The project has not been released as of 2025.
2015–2017: ''At. Long. Last. A$AP''
On March 16, 2014, Mayers announced that he was working on his second studio album, entitled A.L.L.A. which was a follow-up to his debut album, Long. Live. A$AP. Upon the wake of a delay of the ASAP Mob album, L.O.R.D., Mayers subsequently collaborated with cohorts A$AP Ferg, Nast and Twelvyy on the album's third single, "Hella Hoes", which was released on June 6, 2014. Nonetheless, A$AP Mob leader A$AP Yams announced on his Tumblr account that the album had been shelved. On October 3, 2014, his 26th birthday, Mayers launched a short-lived music giveaway called Flacko Jodye Season, which first premiered with "Multiply", which featured additional vocals from Juicy J; later released on iTunes one week after its premiere.On New Year's Day 2015, Mayers released his second album's lead single, "Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2 ", a sequel to "Pretty Flacko". Then, on January 18, seventeen days after the single's release, Mayers’ mentor and partner, Steven "A$AP Yams" Rodriguez, died at the age of 26. However, some reports later stated that Yams' cause was ruled acute mixed drug intoxication while Mayers and several A$AP Mob members and affiliates said that the late leader of the collective died due to his sleep apnea, which caused asphyxiation and pulmonary aspiration. Weeks after Yams' death, Mayers revealed that At. Long. Last. A$AP was executive-produced by rapper Juicy J, producer Danger Mouse, Mayers and Yams themselves.
In 2015, Mayers appeared in a cameo role in the indie comedy-drama, Dope. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2015. It opened in all movie theaters on June 12. There at the event, Mayers explained his expressions and grief over the death of his own friend and partner; performed "Multiply" on-stage as a dedication to his loving memory, minutes before running backstage to calm down. In March 2015, Mayers said in an interview with MTV News that he made songs such as "Wild For The Night" and "Fuckin' Problems" for mainstream commercial success, and that he now hated those songs.
On April 8, 2015, the rapper released a song, titled "M'$", debuted during an interview with the Red Bull Music Academy, and was released on the iTunes Store two days later, however, it was announced that the song was not an official single from the album. The album, however, did include a remixed version of the track that replaced Mayers’ second verse with a guest verse from Lil Wayne. On May 9, Mayers unveiled the album's cover art on his official Instagram page, with the caption "AT LONG LAST...." On the same day, he then released the album's alternative artwork and released the album's second single, titled "Everyday" featuring Rod Stewart, Miguel and Mark Ronson. Mayers also announced that the release date for A.L.L.A. was updated to June 2, 2015; however, on May 25, 2015, around 6:00 PM EDT, the album leaked online, approximately one week before its expected release. Subsequently, Mayers tweeted to announce that the album will be released at midnight, changing the date a week early.
Upon its release, At. Long. Last. A$AP received generally positive to mixed reviews from music critics. Overall, the album was supported by the release of three singles: "Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2 ", "Everyday" and "L$D". At. Long. Last. A$AP debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 116,000 copies in the United States. In conclusion to this, it also gave Mayers his second consecutive number one album on the charts to date. In Canada, the album debuted at number one, with 11,000 copies sold. The album has spent two more weeks beyond the top ten of the Billboard 200., the album has sold 215,000 copies in the United States. It has sold 60,662 copies in the United Kingdom, as of 2015.
On June 11, 2015, Mayers was featured on The Tonight Show, where he performed the song "L$D" with The Roots. In June, it was confirmed that he was featured on the single "Good for You" by Selena Gomez. In June 2015, he appeared on the "Carpool Karaoke" segment of The Late Late Show, riding with Rod Stewart and host James Corden. Mayers is featured on "Blended Family ", a track written with Alicia Keys for her sixth studio album Here in 2016. He is also featured on two tracks from the 2017 album Lust for Life by Lana Del Rey. The tracks are called "Summer Bummer", which also features Playboi Carti, and "Groupie Love". He is featured along with rapper Cardi B on "No Limit" by G-Eazy, released in September 2017. He also featured in "Pick It Up" by Famous Dex, released in October 2017.