Thu 11 Aug 2011
Things I Love: ASAP Rocky’s “Peso” Video…The Glorious Excess of Harlem Accessorizing
Posted by Miss Info under About Miss Info , Fashion , Good For Hip Hop , Good For Me , New Music , Things I Love , Videos[26] Comments
I’m a sentimental fool for anything that reminds me of carefree times, risks survived, friends from past lifetimes….
So this ASAP Rocky video had me on the illegal dirtbike wheelie-ing down a Harlem intersection (blip at the 0:12 mark).
But aside from that, the song is a good one….flashy enough for all of ASAP’s Uptown-meets-Harmony Korine kids, mixed-genre enough for the music snobs and ignorant enough for hipster fascination.
“Peso” was previewed on ASAP Rocky’s previous video “Purple Swag”….which was even more mesmerizing because it’s like a re-animation of that chopped-n-screwed lifestyle that killed folks long enough ago to be edgy rather than sad to kids. Medicated relaxation and an inability to operate heavy machinery is back on top. Hyper is out. (Except in manic short spurts.) But even for opiate lightweights like me, that “Purple Swag” video was super catchy…the hook was in my head for days and Jason Ano’s video direction gave ASAP a deviant but camera-ready-enough-for-primetime aura.
The “Peso” video, directed by Abteen Bagheri, is just as fascinating but maybe even more so because of it’s pure excess. If there’s one Harlem mainstay that carries from Dipset to ASAP Rocky…it’s a love of accessorizing. Harlem has always been the Harajuku of New York:
Headbands, John Lennon glasses, bandanas cowboy style, supreme towels as head blanket, Raf Simmons namecheck, Rick Owens namecheck, portwine stains, 40 Below boots, 2 and 3-finger rings, Y-3 skullies, manic panic hair dye, mohawks, HERRINGBONES!, bandanas washer-woman style, bandanas robber style, enormous shoelace locks, adorable beltloop tchotchkes, dangerously misshapen teeth.
It’s like sensory overload for a rap fashion history buff like me! Rococo Rap lives…and you don’t need to be a zillionaire to pull it off.
ASAP Rocky’s “Purple Swag” video…after the jump
August 11th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
lol@ “The Glorious Excess of Harlem Accessorizing”
you know whats crazy; Harlem dudes do over accessorize they’ve always been like that. miss info nailed it lol The kid asap isnt that bad, but the white girl with bottom grills is too much for me
August 11th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
I want to marry your brain, Info!
August 11th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Its got a little Odd Future (young but not inexperienced) meets Early Cash Money (ticket into a neighborhood you prob couldnt go to) meets Max B (wavy swag)thing going, doesn’t it?
August 11th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
i F with this nigga’s music and his music videos heavy. he gonna be the next to blow out of N.Y.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Het info any youngins makeing hard hip hop that u know of?
August 11th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
dope video this kid got it
August 11th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
LOL. is this the moment when NYC finally just completely gives up on being NYC?
i hear him saying Harlem, and I see the Rucker and Big L portraits in the background, but I swear I’m listening to a new rapper from Houston.
not that I wouldn’t get high to this or anything.
also, isn’t this what Juelz wanted to do? you know, before Cam shamed him by calling him a junkie.
August 11th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
I ain’t never heard of these dudes, and I’m from Harlem, SMH. Sounds good and like nuthin that’s out or being attempted either wit their vid’s. It has a mix of nostalgia from each era too in their look just like you said Info. I fuxs wit it!
August 12th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
BLVCK SCVLE in full effect…
August 12th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
thanx 4 d the intro
August 12th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
You bigging this kid up for his fashion style but really his style isn’t much different from and Odd Future dude or Tyga or any young boy rapper. This video is just a bunch of random styles tossed in a salad bowl.
Before the internet, fashion was very regional and unique. You could look at cats like “boom, he’s from philly (sunni beard, capris, hook sideburns)” or “he’s from the bronx (north faces, gores, saying ‘moe’)” But nowadays guys from LA look like guys from Chicago look like guys from NY.
The last frontier of a lot of original styles and trends is still the inner city but to talk like this kid is epitomizing Harlem because he’s wearing a bunch of random accesories is kinda bold. Besides that, he sounds like he’s from Tennessee, no arrested development.
August 14th, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Really?fashion? harajuku of ny ? lol..It’s pretty embarrassing when these kids can make a living for doing whatever that was and even more so for the people who write these elaborate, well-articulated justifications of a bunch of teenage black kids drinking 40’s, smoking weed and talking about bitches. Maybe sounding something like this “Somehow, the youthfully rebellious and carefree defiance of the music transcends the current state of music influenced by .99 downloads and radio airplay”. get the fuck outta here…how about treating it for what it is…wack ass sounding music for teenage kids. smoking weed, fucking bitches, getting drunk, wearing skate clothes but name dropping raf simmons, fucking CORNY. Info you’re just about 35 years old, c’mon now, seriously dipset is one thing, but co-signing this? really?…the only reason you’re actually on board with this group, as opposed to Tyler, is because they are from harlem and they “accessorize”…Your continued fascination and blind acceptance of anything Harlem reeks of rotten sewage. Get another zip code, it’s cool.
The PESO video and track are cool, if you’re into that southern rap drawl. Southern rappers must be flattered by the imitation.
Also, you cats may deny this but it’s funny how a kid from the west coast is actually rhyming (tyler the creator)whike this clown from harlem is mumbling a combination of words.
The fuck outta here. Wake the fuck up. don’t believe the HYPE and support real music.
Joell Ortiz is the only cat anyone should be talking about when it comes to NY RAP…GAME OVER.
YAOWAAA
August 15th, 2011 at 12:22 am
“portwine stains” – damn info you wrong for that.
August 15th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
I made it 20 secs into the vid.
I’ma put this in perspective for myself and others.
Mobb Deep at 20 drop The Infamous
Nas drops Illmatic
Shyheim at 14 drops a song about gun violence and freestyles on stage with 2pac and Big
2011-This nondemoninational, salad bowl, biting ass, no steez having garbage. Rap is officially the new reggaeton.
Big Boi said once “If hip hop is dead, exhume the body if you ain’t scared.” Well folks, we looking at a zombie in stunna shades with malt liquor oozing out the decomposing wounds. And white girls find it nonthreatening
August 15th, 2011 at 6:07 pm
hmm. I love this comment even though we disagree on this clip. I definitely don’t think it any of the emotional depth of infamous or illmatic. I hope it doesn’t claim to. But I think there’s style. And that’s not nothing. It’s just not the complete package that those two albums clearly are. are you comparing solely because of the age range of the artists?
August 15th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Yes I’m referring to their age. It might be a bit overstepping comparing it to those albums, but the effort for the age, the subject matter and the originality is what I call into question. We need to demand more from artists. I heard the argument “It’s kids, they’re having fun.” Critiquing anyone nowadays is heavily considered “hating” which is hilarious since most new rappers sound like Drake and Wayne clones to my horror.
No one has brought anything new to rap aside from overblown egos and shock value of the weirdest kind. Rappers like this are the personification of a meme.
I won’t front, I was digging Wolf Gang for a sec, then the gimmicks and the fan base started to annoy me.
Every generation of rap had monumental shifts of style and influence, it can be argued to a degree for better or worse, but fact of the matter is a lot of these new dudes I see no future in they’re fronting, they’re actors, not musicians. 3 years from now people are going to be like “What was I listening to?”
One of the saddest days for rap is when Mos Def and Andre 3000 started singing.
August 19th, 2011 at 4:39 am
historians are not meant to listen to RAP
August 19th, 2011 at 10:38 am
ASAP is next up….harlem world!
August 20th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
i see what wolf bitch is trying to get across .. im from that 90s era .. and kids then compared to kids now ..well there is no comparison ..
we were 15 going on 40 .. which is why niggas like cam nore capone nas prodigy and havoc had the mentality they did ..
when you listen to tracks like niggas bleed .. you dont hear a 22 23 year old spittin ..but the reality is that big was only 22 whn he was recording all that shit ..
back when we was young we didnt have all this technology so we was out on the front lines wildin we wasnt online allday bloggin and pickin up styles from other regions we created styles we took shit that wasnt meant for us and made it fly .. hiking gear coogis polo running sneakers fishing gear army surplus gear work out gear like champion discus .. work wear like carhartt timberland iceclimbing gear .. north face asolo vasque ..
who ever “young lopez” is you hit the nail on the head .. bx niggas was asolo down spyder moed up or north faced out with blow outs and head bands sayin what up moe .. while queens niggas was avirex up and hilfigered out .. bklyn niggas was still lo down .. manhattan niggas was all mixed wit it .. but harlem niggas stayed in velours and pelles jeff hamiltons and af1s and coogis .. no biggie did not start that harlem niggas did big got that from a harlem nigga ..
for christ sake i first hit rikers island in 1996 and lil niggas was diddy boppin around the corridors in versace silks with big cuban links cartiers and mary pieces ice muggin everything ready to put pinstripes on ya face its bugged out if you think about it and im talkin c-74 adolescents niggas like 16 years old ..
16 year olds dont resemble that today .. niggas look loike 12 year old skateboarders ..
back in the day if a pair of jordans dropped and you didnt get em on time .. it was over for you .. you would never see em again .. there was no flight club no ebay none of that so young niggas had to on point heavy with everything .. you couldnt just talk crazy from on a computer from the comfort of your home .. niggas was in the street so what you say would catch up to you quick.. everything was a full contact sport ..now kids get cyber bullied and commit suicide.. go fig .. shit just changed and you have to accept it ..
im gettin way off topic but the purple swag video is cool .. i was feelin it cuz the homie steveski was in it .. but the peso shit is str8 flame that beat is ill and the visual makes the shit liver .. im pretty sure alot of the ideas was stevies aka asap yambimo he a younger cat but was taught the ways of the samurai most these young niggas dont know which is why he gonna lead asap to the top.. the cartier specticals .. the 40 below timbs .. the hennessy jersey .. gold in the mouth alot of that shit brings the old era back niggas is up in jimbos and it mixes it with the new era and it wasnt done in a corny way .. if it was i would be the 1st to point it out .. i co sign it 1 mill .. and niggas cant tell me nuffin i been around trust that .. check the resume ..
P$hines art of war bka: now these lil monkey niggas wanna play gorilla .. aka: surfin on ya weak productions ..fka: dominican christ rockin 5 karat ice ..aka: ashy knuckles with shiney rolex presis circlin the wrist ..
thuggedoutorthapics.com peep game !!
August 25th, 2011 at 5:03 am
When Purple Swag came out, I couldn’t stop watching the clip with the chopped and screwed version of PESO. The beat, along with ASAP’s blank, dazed/ominous stare (teamed with slow-mo) were the strongest parts of that video. Overall, the couch shots were sort of disappointing and much less entertaining/stylistic than the shots outside.
The director of PESO really did some work on this video. It is clear that they worked closely with ASAP and got to know his crew. All seem very comfortable in front of the camera compared to Purple Swag. Really appreciate the docu-style b-roll of Harlem locals and spots as well. No special effects, solid on beat cuts, and great pacing. Very strong production crew. I envy you for getting to work on this song.
As for Miss Info comparing this to KIDS and Harmony Korine…embarrasing. Feel like you read that bit from the Village Voice article. Besides a similar setting the two have no resemblance to one another.
September 15th, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Info I love your website but I must ask, do you really look for new hiphop? I know you’re VERY busy but as someone that lives the industry you can really cosign this? Queens has Tijon who you’ve never posted, Immortal Tech has brought him out a few times. And there are 100’s others. Help put the SOUL and KNOWLEDGE back in rap dont help drug out a new generation this is trash. Youve lived the world and you know wtf is real. My point if u listen to this then something like Tijon’s One Way Track how can you take this? And like the other dude mentioned Joel Ortiz anything but this.
November 13th, 2011 at 10:45 am
For the idiot sayin Joell Ortiz is the only good rapper outta NY, well obviously you haven’t heard of Stann Smith or P3Heartagram from Brooklyn, here’s they shit for ppl sayin NY rap is dead, and they both young niggaz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn8-kA0JdLA
March 7th, 2012 at 4:51 pm
FUCK YALL LAMES SON ASAP GOES HARD YALL JUS HATING CUZ THEY ABOUT TO COME THE FUCC UP A.s.A.p B.P 2.16
May 26th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
I don’t understand why people are hating? Or questioning his style?
People say that they make music look wack but years have passed by guys. 20 years passed by, and obviously it has to change in the mix. Blame 50, eminem, and all of them for changing it. They’ve changed it little by little, new people come in, so do they. Or how about this, let’s not blame them and instead agree that it’s just changing.
It’s called evolution guys. Don’t you think old niggas been sayin the same thing back in the 90s about music back than? And so have they?
October 19th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
This information is worth everyone’s attention. Where can I find out more?
February 25th, 2013 at 1:54 am
http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/153424-rock-band-redlight-cinema-black-cloud-single.html#po2CLv7LWwiTRXGE.99
this is the guy that sings in the chorus!