Eight years after A$AP Yams’ death, Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky still has the “Same Problems?” On Wednesday (January 18), the artist and new father dropped his new single with surprise appearances from Tyler, the Creator, Thundercat, Miguel and Lil Yachty. Rocky, real name Rakim Mayers, who recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of his debut studio album LONG.LIVE.A$AP, spoke to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about his latest song.
“I think I was feeling remorse. I think I was feeling plight. I think I was also feeling a sense of guilt, because every time we lose somebody in our community, we all, especially me, have a habit of just saying things like, “It’s messed up. It’s wrong. Why do these kind of things happen?” You ask a bunch of questions and usually … I never took time out to really understand that I was part of the problem because I was contributing those kind of lyrics and whatnot to songs. Without preaching too much, I just wanted to touch on something a bit different opposed to just being braggadocios, flamboyant, and just regular rap content for me. I just kind of wanted to express myself and tell how I felt without preaching. And I think we can all relate. We all got the same problems. The irony that my biggest hit to date was … My first hit was “F*****’ Problems.” And now 10 years later exactly, I’m putting out a song named “Same Problems.” It’s just like problems, problems, you know what I mean?”
The Harlemite also says that his fourth solo album, titled Don’t Be Dumb, is coming soon. The album will be his latest since 2018’s Testing.
Listen to “Same Problems?” below.
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