Testing is completely out of step with any mainstream rap album youРІР‚в„ўre likely to hear this year.

Just as striking is the acid-laced, psych-rock freak-out Kids Turned Out Fine. Consider the opener, Distorted Records: it takes supreme magnetism to make the songРІР‚в„ўs analogue buzz sound musical but RockyРІР‚в„ўs braggadocio (РІР‚СљIf IРІР‚в„ўm in your top 10, mine better be the first name,РІР‚Сњ he sneers) brings the grating orchestration into line. Racked with tension and twistedly psychedelic, the record sees the 29-year-old take his unusual proclivities to even more outlandish destinations. WhatРІР‚в„ўs clear from Testing, his third studio album, is that Rocky wonРІР‚в„ўt totally abandon the universe he has created for himself. Can RockyРІР‚в„ўs decadent vision of the world also evolve? But this is 2018: cloud rap beats are old hat, and the very meaning of that flag is being bitterly fought over. The cover of his breakout mixtape, $AP, featuring the star standing in front of an American flag, has become modern rap iconography РІР‚вЂњ one nation under RockyРІР‚в„ўs cool. Whatever РІР‚СљswagРІР‚Сњ meant to early-2010s rap kids, Rocky was dripping in it. He raps cleanly but not uniquely and his lyrics show him to be a man of simple tastes: threads, thugginРІР‚в„ў and admiring his own fine looks. A$AP РІР‚вЂњ real name Rakim Mayers РІР‚вЂњ will flow over the kind the dusty boom-bap associated with the legendary rapper he was named after, but also acidic Skrillex beats. Who else could be pitched as the successor to New YorkРІР‚в„ўs golden-age legends while leaning on subwoofer-rumbling, screwed-up Southern hip-hop? Rocky is an ostentatious impresario who took hollowed-out cloud rap and Odd FutureРІР‚в„ўs lo-fi aesthetic and made it all sound like high-end fashion. A $AP RockyРІР‚в„ўs great gift isnРІР‚в„ўt that he flies above rap trends Р’ВРІР‚вЂњ itРІР‚в„ўs that he contorts them at will.

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