![]() ![]() Happily, the spirit of Yams still courses through this record, while simultaneously allowing Rocky to make huge leaps in developing his head-spinning sound. This makes TESTING the first album that has no involvement of Yams, save for a few referential tributes, and a heartbreaking line that sends the album off: “Lose someone every release, it feels like the curse is in me, press is gone and I grief”. Yams sits alongside his dad who passed months after the release of $AP, and his sister just weeks after dropping Cozy Tapes, Volume 2. The influence of Yams could never be understated, as founder of the A$AP Mob, and this post-release bereavement is an unfortunate curse that Rocky has been put under. ![]() But the most glaring absence going into this album is the executivity of A$AP Yams, who passed during the lead-up to At.$AP. However, TESTING represents something different completely, even breaking away from the punctuated titling and monochromatic artwork. From a cloud-rap mixtape that earnt praise well beyond his New York area and Houston, whose sound ironically he clung onto and re-energised, he’s been constantly stepping forward to the experimental lane of hip-hop rather than the dead-end cul-de-sac of throwaway brag-rap. From Harlem beginnings, Rocky has risen like his boxer namesake.
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