Since day one, A$AP Rocky has dropped countless songs about drugs, sex and fashion over largely psychedelic (and pretty consistently excellent) beats, and that formula still runs the show here. There are a few songs that go against the grain such as the album's opening 1-2 punch of "Holy Ghost" and "Canal St.", which serve as surprisingly deep reflections on the perils of fame and losing focus on your core values and where you came from once you get consumed with the jet-setting celebrity lifestyle, but these are nothing but brief albeit welcome detours on Rocky's debauchery-filled journey.
Rocky may still be rapping about the same subjects, but the mood is much more melancholy than anything he's done in the past. Rocky is clearly reeling from Yams' death and the sadness he's feeling is stamped all over the production choices on this album. The production-which was handled by more than a dozen of the genre's heavy hitters including Mark Ronson, Kanye West and Danger Mouse-makes heavy use of eerie samples and lo-fi keys to establish a bleak yet trippy atmosphere that practically never lets up. Even the more upbeat songs like "Electric Body" and "Wavybone" have bursts of haunting psychedelia weaved into their otherwise sunny sound. The gloomy aura of At.Long.Last.A$AP adds a refreshing and welcome blast of darkness into Rocky's well-established sound.
The distinctly somber mood established with the production is nicely offset by the high-energy verses Rocky drops on a vast majority of the record. Whenever Rocky takes the mic, he's a ridiculously charismatic live wire, and that incendiary presence prevents this album from being a depressing listen. The swagger and simply incredible flow Rocky displays when he raps has been long been one of the strongest selling points of his music and on this record, those qualities have never shined brighter. The verses he drops on "Jukebox Joints", "Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2", "Better Things" and the aforementioned "Holy Ghost" are without question amongst, if not the most attention-grabbing and all-around impressive verses he's ever dropped. At. Long. Last. A$AP largely plays with Rocky's internal battle between light and darkness and the stark contrast between his rapping and the production perfectly exemplifies that.
At. Long. Last. A$AP succeeds on a number of different levels: It's a poignant tribute to the late A$AP Yams, it makes (mostly) great use of its abundance of guest artists and I'd imagine it's a great record for psychedelic drug enthusiasts to put on and vibe out to. But above all, it's a reflection of Rocky's growth as an artist. Rocky's lyrics are still pretty hollow on the whole and there are a fair number of tracks that fail miserably ("Pharsyde", "West Side Highway" and above all, "Fine Whine"-which relies way too heavily on Rocky's signature chopped-and-and screwed vocal effect and features a pair of embarrassing guest spots from Future and M.I.A.), but the production and rapping that have defined his musical identity continue to become more polished as time goes on, and that's more than enough to forgive his shortcomings in other areas. Rocky is getting closer and closer to perfecting his niche on each album he puts out and when the day arrives where he gets everything right, the world is going to be in for a serious treat.
3.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Holy Ghost
2.Electric Body
3.Better Things
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