While you were sleeping, A$AP Rocky made his return, running out of the gates and swinging with “Multiply.” “I’m the motherf******* lord of this fashion s***/don’t I deserve just to brag a bit,” Rocky declares, chest fully puffed up.
But this isn’t the Fashion Killa we’ve come to know, because unlike Rocky’s previous fashion-packed tracks, he’s taking shots at designers on his new one—namely Hood By Air and Been Trill.
Related: Watch A$AP Rocky ‘Multiply’ In New Woozy, Technicolor Video
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If you paid close attention to Rocky’s Coachella cameo this year during A$AP Ferg’s performance, you won’t be surprised by his Been Trill dis. He called out the art collective, helmed by Kanye’s right-hand man Virgil Abloh, while first unveiling the verse: ““I ain’t really f****** with that Been Trill, swear that s*** is booty like Tip Drill/ And I ain’t really into throwing shots, but these motherf****** better gimme my props!”
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But Rocky’s attack on Hood by Air—”HBA s*** is weak, you can keep that/ I’m a trendsetter you ain’t even peeped that”—comes completely out of the blue. Flacko has been championing HBA from its humble beginnings, repping the brand on stage and in his lyrics and even closing one of designer Shayne Oliver’s very first runway shows. Rocky’s early support was arguably one of the reasons the brand landed on the radars of Kanye, Drake, and Rihanna, receiving enough exposure from their consigns to later catch the attention of Anna Wintour and her CFDA organization–who nominated him for this year’s Fashion Fund.
What can we glean from this? For starters, Rocky won’t be collaborating with Been Trill anytime soon—and making an enemy of Virgil Abloh likely means making an enemy of Kanye, so don’t expect any collaborations between them either. As for Rocky’s shade thrown at HBA, it could be that he and Shayne had a falling out. Or maybe it’s not personal at all—Rocky has been known to disavow designers before if they get too hot.
Back in early 2013, he told MTV, “I’m tired of all these rappers wearing Givenchy. […] Now, I can’t enjoy Givenchy anymore. They don’t even know what any of it stands for. They don’t even know why they’re wearing it. The only reason why they’re wearing it is because it costs money and they saw other rappers such as myself and Kanye and s*** like that. Now don’t even wanna wear Givenchy anymore because they spoiled it.” And yet, he’s since changed his tune, even wearing Tisci threads for his subsequent “Phoenix” music video. With “Multiply,” it feels like Rocky’s trying to reassert his street cred and crown himself at the top of the rap hill. Maybe, in part because of Rocky, HBA has become too mainstream for him and he’s already onto the next thing.
Either way, there hasn’t been a rapper-designer beef this big since Kanye and Hedi Slimane. Maybe this is A$AP’s “I Am a God” moment?
You can watch the full “Multiply” video below.
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