Director: Yohan YoonDirector of Photography: Brandon YoonEditor: Michael SuyedaProducers: Rahel Gebreyes, Bety DerejeAssociate Producer: Lea DonenbergAssistant Camera: Kirsten PottsGaffer: Devan DaviesAudio: Lily Van LeeuwenProduction Assistants: Quinton Johnson, Maya LayneSet Designer: Elaine WinterSet Design Assistant: Jacob KanderProduction Coordinator: Ava KasharProduction Manager: David Alvarez PazLine Producer: Natasha Soto-AlborsSenior Director, Production Management: Jessica SchierAssistant Editor: Billy WardPost Production Coordinator: Holly FrewSupervising Editor: Kameron KeyPost Production Supervisor: Alexa DeutschEntertainment Director: Sergio KletnoyDirector, Content Production: Rahel GebreyesSenior Director, Video: Romy van den BroekeSenior Director, Programming: Linda GittlesonVP, Video Programming: Thespena GuatieriImages Courtesy of:Tyler MitchellWilly Vanderperre, Art + CommerceSteven Klein
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PeopleTranscript
00:00Hey, A$AP Rocky here, and this is Vogue, Life and Looks, take one.
00:10Ah, that's a classic right there.
00:12I see somebody that's just concerned with marijuana, man.
00:16Well, when I first got my first record deal, we rented out this apartment.
00:20We called it the A$AP stash house, right?
00:23And we would just do freestyles there all day.
00:25And Brock, he was an aspiring photographer.
00:30He was always shooting thrasher and skater stuff.
00:32We always had an American flag upside down, hanging on the wall for distress and stuff.
00:37He just was like, bro, just stand in front of it.
00:39It was a couch.
00:40I was just smoking, like, fuck it.
00:42And now you got what I'm inhaling.
00:44So Yams and myself decided we was going to do this and pay homage to outcast different people with the American flag.
00:51In 2011, everybody used to wear, like, pyramid rings, and there was a lot of, like, Egyptian iconic symbolism.
00:59Black scale was no different.
01:01What I really loved was, like, the flat signature bars, and it just said black and scale.
01:05Here we are about, like, 14 years later.
01:07And this is the new version of that idea right here.
01:11Now we got the don't be dumb.
01:13When it came to Pesos, we actually hired Apteen.
01:19He's a phenomenal director.
01:21We just couldn't afford anybody to actually shoot a video for us because we was up and coming and unknown.
01:26He agreed to fly out to do it for cheap.
01:29Granted, it was about 14, 15 years ago, but I hated the idea that he came with.
01:32I was like, bro, listen, you're going to just basically capture what feels like a day in the life.
01:38You know, just follow us.
01:39Watch us when we chilling on this block, that block.
01:41So he chilled with us for a few days, just captured what we do on a regular.
01:45And in between that, I would just do performance scenes, so it just felt real organic.
01:51This picture is a screenshot from the Fashion Killer that Virgil Abloh directed along with myself back in 2013.
01:58I just liked rawness and just anything that felt like authenticity.
02:02I just hit up the flyest shit.
02:04I knew I was like, yo, Riri, what's good?
02:05You going to do this video with me?
02:07I got the perfect song.
02:08It's called Fashion Killer.
02:09I'm basically talking about you.
02:10I dropped your name and then I didn't even have to say your last year.
02:13She's like, gang, I got you.
02:14She knew she was my boo back then, too.
02:16I'm going to come clean.
02:17Working with Virgil was easy.
02:20We were kindred spirits.
02:21I think that him being in the position he was in, it was inevitable for him to do great things.
02:27This is one of those things.
02:28And I feel blessed that I can actually say that and I got to work with him.
02:33LSD 2014.
02:35We shot this video in Japan, Tokyo.
02:37We was in Shibuya.
02:38I was just walking through Tokyo and all the colors were vibrant and coming at me and stuff.
02:44And it was heavily inspired by Into The Void.
02:47And we just try to recreate our version of that.
02:50I'm rocking the Dries Zip Bomber.
02:53I also got on an undercover t-shirt tucked in to a pair of Raf Simmons denims, a chrome hearts
03:01belt, one of one Alexander Wang boots that I wore too much back then because I used to love them boots.
03:07This is 2017.
03:09This is at the Dior show.
03:11While Chris Van Asch was still the creative director for men's, he invited us out there.
03:15From there on, we developed a relationship.
03:18We supported his shows, his collections and showed up and he supported us as well.
03:24And it was just very organic.
03:26Rihanna and myself, we were the first black people to be the face of Dior.
03:31I'm blessed truly and I'm a fan of everybody who predates me and my career.
03:37I'm just blessed to be in this environment.
03:40You know, it's truly a blessing and I don't ever take that for granted.
03:45Oh man, y'all play too much.
03:46I ain't gonna lie, they roasted me on the internet for this.
03:49But this outfit was kind of fire if you think about it.
03:52Nah, I was wildin'.
03:54All right, so this is 2017.
03:56I remember years about outfits.
03:58You could tell me, yo, remember that day we went to the store
04:01or another, what did I have on?
04:02When you tell me, I'll remember.
04:04This is a crazy outfit and I gotta explain myself right now.
04:07This is nuts.
04:08All right, so this is a Balenciaga puffer bubble life jacket.
04:11For the life of me, I don't even know why I bought this.
04:13But I was driving to Milan and we was driving past the Balenciaga store and I saw it.
04:18And I knew that I had those funky yellow Gucci pants right there.
04:22And I was just like, you know what, that'll match.
04:24That's my Flavor Flav era right here, you know what I'm saying?
04:26Like it was tacky but fly, you know what I mean?
04:28And those are some Prada shades that I had got from the outlet.
04:32That's a Gucci sweater from Alessandro.
04:34And those are Gucci windbreaker pants.
04:37And those are some really long Gucci socks on.
04:39I don't know what the fuck is going on with this outfit to be honest with you.
04:42Can we turn this fucking page?
04:44Ah, my man Matt did his thing this day.
04:47All right, so look.
04:48All right, so this is 2018.
04:50And this is New York City Calvin Klein Raft Show.
04:52This is an oversized cashmere sweater.
04:56Calvin Klein like parka jacket with just different multicolored layers and different furs.
05:02Like this parka was sick.
05:03You know, this is one of my favorite like collections of Raft at Calvin.
05:07What I like about Raft is the significance of what he meant to me and my crew.
05:12A lot of his collections, it dealt with like the growing pains of becoming a teenager
05:17and transcended into an adult.
05:19So a lot of his collections dealt with like rebellion.
05:23We were rebellious.
05:24We were rebels when it came to fashion because we kind of like
05:27we colored outside of the lines and we kind of made our own rules.
05:31Check this handsome fella out.
05:33Get a load of that guy.
05:34The funny story about this whole suit right here was Jonathan Anderson,
05:38who was the creative director at Loewe.
05:40Every time I would visit him, let it be a showroom or factory, whatever he had going on,
05:45he would have like sort of like disposable pieces.
05:49And he would let me look on a rack at like anything that I liked out of the disposable pieces
05:54and see if it was what I wanted.
05:56And this happened to be one of them.
05:57I'm not sure if he actually made that.
06:00Maybe he changed his mind after this picture came out,
06:02but the Paisley just stood out to me and I was like,
06:04yo, let me get this gang.
06:05Yeah, let me get this one.
06:06I love it.
06:07I love it.
06:10Yo, Matt was totally against this suit, this whole babushka era.
06:13Until he realized the significance of it, right?
06:16Like he was like, all right, you wanted something, bro.
06:18You wanted something.
06:19This was a daring fashion statement.
06:21I chose to embrace, you know, being a grandma's boy.
06:25Got my babushka on, got my nice Gucci suit on.
06:28This is 2018.
06:32And this is at the Gucci LACMA in Los Angeles, California.
06:36Yours truly with the babushka on at the top, you know?
06:39I'm a firm believer in like, you can't really use clothes as like masculinity anymore.
06:46I think those lines are blurred as well.
06:49So I like to play with that.
06:50And I thought it was unfair that guys couldn't wear a silk scarf on their head with glasses.
06:54How come only women was limited to that?
06:56Fuck that.
06:56We stole it.
06:57Give people just a different outlook on something, you know?
07:00Make people think for a second like, uh, that's kind of cool what you did there, you know?
07:04Right?
07:05We should be able to wear glasses with silk scarves, man.
07:09Shout out to Amon.
07:10This is Vogue.
07:12This shoot was amazing.
07:13I remember it being really hot and we were on the beach and these motherfuckers made me put a puffer on.
07:18I was sweating bullets that day.
07:20I was just like out all night the night before.
07:23I left straight from like the club.
07:25I had went to a hospital for a little bit and then I came straight there to my shoot.
07:29And when I got there, Kitty Cash had the music popping.
07:33The vibe was right.
07:34Amon had good energy.
07:36I mean, Matt was in a good mood for a change.
07:40Pictures came out dope though, right?
07:41They look fire, right?
07:44Why you did the one where my leg is all like I'm fixing my pants?
07:47You could have showed the one where my swag was on 10.
07:49Don't do me like that, bro.
07:50This is one of the best fits I ever did.
07:532019 is the Clive Davis Grammy pre-party.
07:58Well, this is 2019, ain't it?
08:02As you can see, I got the good pearl rings on, nice manicure.
08:06Yeah, I was just basically telling them like I'm the best video director ever.
08:10The Grammys need to give me a Grammy for it.
08:12All the videos I did in the past that I didn't win for,
08:15I think they need to go back and just fuck it.
08:17Just give me Grammys for them because I think I'm the best video director.
08:22Yeah, I said it.
08:24I love this one.
08:25This is the Loewe Show 2019.
08:28Jonathan Anderson gave me some of the coolest fashion advice, you know, in my time.
08:35I pick his brain from time to time when I can, whenever I get to speak to him.
08:39What I like is that he supported us on an early, early, early stage.
08:442014, 2015, we already had collaborations with Aug and JW Anderson.
08:49It was always organic.
08:50He's fun.
08:52He's crazy as shit, as you can imagine.
08:55Bro, look how we was giving it up in 2019, bro.
08:58This outfit's so fly, I thought it was 2021.
09:00Like, you know what I'm saying?
09:01Like, this is crazy.
09:02Two, zero, one, nine.
09:04At the time, I was challenging everybody to like go from skinny jeans to the big oversized
09:09baggy jeans at the time.
09:10That was the trend that I always wanted to like bring back.
09:13It felt so, felt so me.
09:16My love for bags is more of a recent thing.
09:19You know, I've always had bags, but now I actually have an incentive.
09:22It's not a purse, it's a statue, but you can call it a merce, whatever floats your boat.
09:27We got stuff to put in bags.
09:28I shouldn't have to carry around my phone, my brush, my comb, my chapstick.
09:34Like, nah, put that in the bag.
09:36Look at us now.
09:37Fellas, we holding it down with our merces and our statues, you know?
09:40Man, DMB.
09:43Rihanna standing there right next to me.
09:45This look was cool, but I started to like, kind of like love hate this scene,
09:50because I kind of feel like I jinxed myself when I was going in and out of the
09:53fucking penitentiary so much.
09:54So let's go to the next one.
09:552020 motherfucking one.
09:58I'm going to tell you how this all played out.
10:00So we went to, you know, go to the ERL showroom.
10:05The designer had a couple of clothes pulled out for, you know, me and Matthew to check out.
10:10And on the couch was just this beautiful Captain Crunch looking quilt.
10:16And it was just like calling me.
10:17I was like, all right, this is cool and all that, but what's up with that quilt, bro?
10:21He's like, oh, okay.
10:22We could talk about getting you one, but look, here's the bit.
10:24Nah, what about that quilt?
10:26And the significance of us popping off such a new designer like that,
10:31supporting them and wearing them to somewhere like the Met Gala,
10:35and putting them in an avant-garde space, I think was so phenomenal.
10:39I think that the quilt was an exceptional piece to it because it just shows some type of humility.
10:45I'm cozy as shit, so we go how we go.
10:48If it was up to me, I'd have kept the quilt on all night.
10:51Thank you for making Black Excellence the, you know, the theme of Met Gala this year.
10:56I'm so glad to be a part of it and the timing is perfect.
11:00You know, where I am in my elevated style and my preference right now is very evolved.
11:06It's very much embodies, encompasses me as who I am in this very period.
11:10And it's been a very, very long walk up the hill, but here we are at the top.
11:16And I'm so glad, like I said, I'm so blessed and I'm happy.
11:19This is the reveal of our pregnancy 2020. All right, January 2022.
11:29Don't let my girl see this because that's fucked up.
11:32My girl, even though like she's from Barbados, she look like a Harlem chick to me right now.
11:38She look like she from the BX. She look like she braid hair on the weekends.
11:43My girl, she rocking that pink with them denims and she got her jewels just going and she looks so
11:47pretty and happy, you know? We were in Harlem, New York City, and we wanted to reveal that we
11:52were having a child, my first child, RZA. We're human. Every now and then we need some type of
11:57privacy. I appreciate the fact that there were no leaks of this or this and that and people allowed
12:02us to give them the information when we were ready to give them that information. And I think that's how
12:06it should be. She thought it would be the best place to do it in my hometown. And right after this,
12:11we went a few blocks to my grandma's house, ate some food and fell asleep. Okay. Nice. This is 2022.
12:20I think Virgil was special because his influence, his inspiration, it's vicariously living through
12:27all of these kids today. I love the fact that he kicked down doors for a lot of people for a long
12:32time. It was almost like, you know, our culture wasn't really acknowledged or it was always like a
12:37secondary kind of thing. Him leaving his print in history was very significant. Now we actually
12:43have a black musician artist that is the head of Louis Vuitton men's at this current moment.
12:48Virgil was always given. He'll give you like the shirt off his back, especially if he designed it.
12:55You know what I'm saying? Creativity was always key. It was always first. And my morale is just like
13:00that. I put creativity first above everything. You can't compromise creativity. And he was one of those
13:07kinds of guys that actually advocated for that. Virgil meant,
13:14he means the world to the world. And I can only assume. And for me, we love him,
13:20we miss him and rest in peace, you know? Yeah.
13:24Why my son cheesing so hard though? Like baby RZA cheesing. This is 2022, right?
13:30This is 23, right?
13:31You bullshitting. What the did I just do? What did I just do?
13:38I think becoming a father helped me just getting my dad swag back. I'm really on that. That's what
13:44I do. I'm on that dad swag. I love it. It stepped me up, honestly. I could justify doing things like
13:50not going to the club or just leaving after five minutes and shit like that. Doing old people
13:55shit, you know? Just for the sake of it. I act tired. Now I don't even be tired. I'm on my back.
13:59Kurt, let me sit down. Dad swag on full. And they can't with me, man. It was the first photo shoot
14:05we did with baby RZA. And he was delighted and thrilled to be there, as you can see.
14:10I'm an idiot. It literally says March 2023 right here, man. This is crazy.
14:14I love this. I fuck with Carl. I liked his elegance. Sometimes I'll just be embodying that spirit.
14:22I was just paying homage to his look at one of the shows that he did. We kind of wanted to exaggerate
14:27the kilt a little bit so it could feel more grand. I was just like, man, I'm going full throttle today.
14:32Like, we're going to do one glove. We're going to do some Michael Jackson shit. You know,
14:36we're going to have all of the belts like Carl on some Taz Arnold shit. This outfit,
14:40it's a lot going on, but it's actually well put together, yo. This is dope.
14:44This is when over-accessorizing goes right. This is how you do it.
14:48There was a moment when you jumped the fence.
14:50Did you talk about that? Why were you there?
14:52I never, I was trying to get into my room. I was going to be late for the Met Gala.
14:56I was trying to get in my room and this poor young little lady, man,
15:00I didn't even know that I messed up her glasses.
15:02To whoever that young lady was, again, I apologize. I'm so sorry.
15:06I didn't mean to do that, sweetheart. My fault.
15:08This is pure buffoonery. I love it.
15:10You got the all Pave Natio pearls in the head. Pave Natio pearls on the glasses.
15:16You got the pearls on the neck. You got the Pave Natio AK-47 ring.
15:21All American Sabotage bulletproof vest t-shirt on.
15:25What? The Pave Natio riot belt buckle.
15:28That outfit is a fucking 10 out of 10, my friend.
15:31I come from a place where it's just like, you get a ticket for sagging your pants
15:34and they could just stop you and that's probably cause.
15:36So this whole stop and frisk, like law, just started getting out of hand.
15:41I kind of wanted to make a mockery of that.
15:43Imagine a police officer wrongfully pulling you over for sagging,
15:47but your jeans are just made like that.
15:50Right?
15:51Can't lie, my skin glowing right there.
15:53This is probably one of the most happiest moments of my life.
15:56Just to see all the models just, you know, come off the runway from a collection that we
16:00all worked so hard on.
16:01Everything happened exactly how I wanted it and that never happens.
16:05You know, most people could tell you.
16:06For my first show, I was so pleased and satisfied with how everything turned out.
16:10Stay tuned.
16:11We got something really, really special coming up in the works right now.
16:16All of these things that are happening to me right now, I've been praying on and working on
16:20for a long time.
16:22To be on the cover shooting where I'm from in Harlem.
16:26I'm the first dude to bring Vogue to Harlem.
16:29That's crazy.
16:30That's nuts.
16:33That's all I got to say.
16:34I ain't got nothing else to say.
16:36Yo, Vogue.
16:38It's the prettiest motherfucker ever.
16:40Your boy, A$AP Rocky.
16:42And I'm signing out.
16:43Thanks for having me.
16:44I'll see y'all next time, man.
16:54Peace.