With headlining sets at Rolling Loud and Governors Ball, Harlem rapper ASAP Rocky is set to make his big return this summer. In anticipation of the busy months ahead, Rocky sat down for a GQ interview in which he confirmed a relationship with Rihanna and revealed an unlikely collaborator on his upcoming album: Morrissey.
Rocky described Rihanna as “the love of my life” and called her the One. “She amounts to probably, like, a million of the other ones,” he said. “I think when you know, you know. She’s the One.”
The superstar musicians and fashion icons have known each other since Rocky opened for Rihanna on her 2013 world tour. They spent part of the COVID-19 pandemic on a private trek of their own, traveling across the country in a tour bus last summer. Rocky said he “met myself” during the trip while dropping acid and making his own clothes.
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He also recorded new music for the tentatively titled All Smiles along the way. Although Rocky didn’t confirm a Rihanna collaboration, the rapper said she weighed in on the album, which he estimated is 90 percent done.
“I think it’s important to have somebody that you can bounce those creative juices and ideas off of,” he explained. And of course, the relationship has influenced the project, which Rocky described as a “ghetto love tale” and “way more mature” than his previous work.
As for Morrissey’s involvement, Rocky said The Smiths singer has been writing, producing, and contributing vocals to All Smiles. “Anything you need him to do, he show up and do,” he said of his new collaborator.
Rocky has actually spoken about his desire to work with Morrissey in the past. “I might have to fuck with Morrissey on some Smiths shit,” he told Peter Rosenberg in April 2018. “Make some emo, real, retro-infusion, motherfuckin’ 2018 shit, man.”
Elsewhere in the piece, Rocky insisted that Donald Trump wasn’t directly responsible for his release from Swedish jail in August 2019, despite the former US President’s insistence that he was owed a thank you. Calling it a “misperception,” Rocky said Trump’s involvement could’ve actually been detrimental.
“He didn’t help — he made efforts and he rooted for me to come home, but he didn’t free me,” Rocky said about the assault case. “They felt like they had a point to prove because he kept saying stuff… We knew what was going to happen and it happened the same way they said it would weeks prior.”
Rocky added, “I was hoping it wouldn’t turn for the worse” before saying he was ultimately thankful for Trump’s involvement.
Read the full GQ profile here.
