When A$AP Rocky walks into New York’s Mercer Hotel one July evening for his W photo shoot, he is impossible to miss. He’s wearing sunglasses, a green terry Lacoste robe paired with a thick gold chain that he “got on Canal Street,” and a platinum grill on his molars. An enormous golden bauble on his finger brings to mind a line from his new single, “Highjack”: “Bitch mistake my newest pinky ring for a ice pack.” Slip-on leather mules and a green custom Goyard tote complete the look. “You guys really gotta wish me luck today,” he says in a low voice, a boyish glint in his eye. “I heard the photographer lady is crazy.”
The “photographer lady” is none other than Rihanna, Rocky’s partner and the mother of their two children, Rza, 2, and Riot, 1. The couple first met in 2012, stayed friends, and didn’t actually begin their relationship until seven years later, setting the Internet on fire. Here was Rihanna saying in interviews: I want to become a mother. And here came the “Fashion Killa” himself, ready to take on the mantle of her forever partner. In the music video for Rocky’s 2022 track “D.M.B.,” he wore a golden grill shaped into the words “Marry Me?” Rihanna’s, in glittering diamonds, read “I Do.”
Rocky, who is 35 and was born Rakim Mayers in Harlem, burst onto the rap scene in the mid-aughts with his A$AP Mob crew. Two of his albums, 2013’s Long. Live. A$AP and 2015’s At. Long. Last. A$AP, went No. 1 on the Billboard charts. His fashion sense—kilts, leather jeans, backward snapback hats—proved to be just as era-defining as his music. More recently, he has been hard at work on his latest album, Don’t Be Dumb—his first full-length feature since Rza and Riot came along, and since 2018’s Testing. “I’ve been working so hard, night and day, it don’t even feel real,” says Rocky. Fatherhood has had an impact on his outlook on the world, his schedule, and even what kind of music he finds inspiring. “That shit changed my swag,” he says, while his hair is being braided into artful swirls in a suite at the Mercer. “I’m such a dad, it’s fucking hilarious. I haven’t been in the gym in weeks. I come home, my kids are already in bed, asleep. I leave, they still asleep. But the sacrifices we make to put out something substantial…”
Suddenly, a familiar voice rings out from the doorway: “Shut up!” cries Rihanna. She laughs, and he mutters something about her being too much. She greets him with a hug. “Don’t put a mirror in front of that guy,” she advises his hairstylist. “That’s a dangerous fate.”
Back in the dressing room, stylist Matthew Henson brings Rocky a Louis Vuitton–monogrammed watch case displaying three vintage timepieces. “This is way older!” Rocky says, pointing to the gold Piaget he’s wearing.
“You can have my watch case if we wrap this photo shoot by 1 a.m.,” Henson tells Rocky. “Aight,” Rocky responds, then pauses. “What about 1:30 a.m.?”
At 2:45 a.m., Rihanna is still wielding an SLR with a long-range lens, giving Rocky artistic direction: “Walk through that door! And move your leg this way!” “Wiggle around!” She urges him to show more of his chest and his gold chain, pulling open his shirt. Her baggy, ripped Vetements jeans drag on a wooden box as she stands barefoot on her tippy toes, looking for a better angle. Rocky, meanwhile, is concerned with the music playing, which includes J Dilla, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and Westside Gunn. “This is very special because this is the first place she fell in love with me,” says Rocky, pointing to the sofa that dominates the room while Rihanna giggles behind him.
Weeks later, Rocky and I are sitting on a stoop across the street from his apartment in Lower Manhattan, and he explains that our shoot marked a full-circle moment for the couple. “Virgil Abloh shot the music video for ‘Fashion Killa’ in 2012, and that was the same couch where Rihanna and I sat in the first scene,” he says. A cone-shaped joint is stationed firmly between his fingers, and his dark sunglasses are on, despite the fact that it is nearing 11 p.m. “That was that same room.”
When I ask how he knew Rihanna was the right person to be the mother of his children, he doesn’t miss a beat: “I knew from when we were younger. We both did, I think. So it was only right when we got older. We just kind of reconnected.” That happened around “kind of, sort of 2019, 2020,” says Rocky. Rza arrived in 2022, then Riot in 2023. “I think Rza is going to keep to himself. He’s an introvert,” Rocky continues. “Riot’s an extrovert—he’s just like his mom. Rza is more so like his dad, like me. And he’s my twin. He got his mom’s forehead, but he got everything else from me. I love my boy’s big forehead! I loved it on his mother. Listen to ‘Jukebox Joints.’ ” (He’s referring to this lyric from the 2015 track: “Ain’t nothing better than the pretty, big forehead bitch.”) Rocky shows me a video on his phone of Rza sitting on the floor cuddling with Rihanna, the two of them surrounded by pairs of shoes. “Riot looks up to Rza,” he says. “I think Rza’s warming up to Riot.”
A$AP Rocky’s hairstyling and braiding by Tashana Miles for Dyson at Exclusive Artists; skin by Michelle Waldron for Dior Beauty; manicure by Sonya Meesh for Deborah Lippmann at Forward Artists. Set design by Spencer Vrooman for SVS. Special thanks to The Mercer Hotel, New York.
Rihanna’s hair by Naphia for Fenty Beauty; makeup by Raoul Alejandre at CLM.
Produced by 138 Productions; Executive Producer: Simon Malivindi; Line Producer: Hye-Young Shim; Production Managers: Francis McKenzie, Miles Soboleski; Production Coordinator: Sean Kim; Photo Director to Rihanna: Jen O Hill; Lighting Director: Eduardo Silva; Photography assistants: Storm Harper, Brandyn Liu; Digital Technician: Kiri Wawatai; Lab: PictureHouse + Small Darkroom; Retouching: Dtouch CREATIVE; Fashion assistants: Tori López, Hannah Atira; Production assistants: Jackie Bendeth, Isaac Taylor-Young, Tate O Hill; Assistant to Tashana Miles: Natasha Brewster; Assistant to Naphia: Sadja Latta; Set assistants: Justin Helmkamp, Charlie Turner; Tailor: Coco Lee.
