“To roll it out for Halloween weekend, all of that was Yams, the whole idea.” “Bryan stayed out of the way and wanted things to be them,” Sims said. From there, the ball was passed to A$AP Yams to tie up the loose ends and direct the rollout. Located on 57th Street, Leach rolled over to the A$AP casa with a horde of hockey masks and revered photographer Brock Fetch.

While the sonics were shaped in the studio, the cover art came together at housing that Polo Grounds and RCA had provided for Rocky and the Mob.

“We just didn’t announce it.”įinishing the mixtape at Wyclef Jean’s Platinum Sounds Studio, Sims, Leach, and A$AP Yams worked with an engineer to mix and master the final project. “When we dropped the mixtape, Rocky was already signed,” Sims said. Most people believe the breakthrough project is what convinced Polo Grounds and RCA to give Rocky and his crew the $3 million deal. 31, 2011, A$AP Rocky released his debut mixtape, Live. After that, everybody wanted an A$AP Rocky deal.” The Mixtape “The way it was structured favored Rocky creatively. “The great thing was Bryan wanted Rocky and Yams to do them,” Sims said.

L to R: A$AP Rocky, A$AP Twelvyy, and A$AP Ferg backstage at the BET “106 & Party” New Years Eve celebration (Johnny Nunez/WireImage) Also known as the A$AP Mob, Rocky and Yams now possessed the power to build and break artists such as A$AP Ferg, A$AP Twelvyy, A$AP Nast and more. Much like how Interscope allowed 50 Cent to build G-Unit Records back in 2003, Polo Grounds and RCA had given Rocky the funding for A$AP Worldwide. Nobody’s gotten a deal like that since 50 Cent.” I mean, five months ago I had about $3,000 in my bank account. “I’m going to have creative control there’s no bullshit,” Rocky told Pitchfork back in 2011. RCA gave Rocky not just money to back his projects but space for Rocky and his righthand man, the late A$AP Yams, to do it their way. “RCA was hands on and hands off at the same time.”Īs history tells it, Leach, Rocky and his attorney were able to secure a deal for a whopping $3 million. “Bryan, Rocky and his attorney stepped up, did the deal and RCA backed them,” Sims said. When it was all said and done, Leach’s Polo Grounds Music and its distributors, RCA Records, proved the perfect pairing. On the streets and behind the scenes, the buzz was building around A$AP Rocky and his crew. Even when I first got with Rocky, I played it with Pharrell just to share it with him.” “I know Puff wanted to sign Rocky, Def Jam at some point wanted to sign him but they jumped on late. “A lot of people were trying to sign Rocky,” Sims said. With Columbia out, the label who had put out everything from Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue to Nas’s Illmatic, suitors off all sorts proved interested in representing Rocky. I didn’t learn until later that he had health issues and he passed from cancer.” “We were supposed to have a third and final meeting about me getting hired there, but Stephen went quiet. “I had sat with Stephen Ferrara at Columbia Records,” Sims said. So, who else was interested in Rocky and who was willing to help? Through Polo Grounds, Rocky could have legitimate backing in his own backyard of Harlem while working with someone who had helped stars that grew international fan bases. Having known Bryan for years thanks to his work with Bad Boy Records and many players in the music space, the two Harlemites saw something in the local star Rocky that the world was yet to catch onto.īryan was a certified star-maker, heading up Polo Grounds and giving the world acts ranging from Pitbull and Lil Jon to the Ying Yang Twins and Yo Gotti. Guests on the album include Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Miguel and Rod Stewart.At the FADER Fort by FIAT at the Drive-In Studio in New York City, 2011 (Roger Kisby/Getty Images) “At.” (ASAP Worldwide/Polo Grounds/RCA) is Rocky’s second official album and the first since the death of his creative partner, ASAP Yams, from an accidental drug overdose earlier More than two months before its scheduled release date and was then rushed to digital retailers. The sudden drop after a leak follows similar plays in recent months for albums by Kendrick Lamar, whose “To Pimp a Butterfly” was also moved up a week, and Björk, whose “Vulnicura” leaked We asked the stores to place the product on the shelves and we expedited all assets to the digital music providers to get the album up by midnight in support of the new release date.” In a statement on Tuesday, RCA said, “Due to the Memorial Day holiday, we shipped physical product early to the stores to ensure we were prepared for the June 2 release date. OFFICIAL ALBUM RELASE IN STORES AND ONLINE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT, THANX FOR LISTENING, HOPE YALH ENJOYED.

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