A$AP Rocky Addresses His Past BLM Comments That Resurfaced During His Detainment In Sweden
In 2016, A$AP Rocky found himself on the receiving end of Black Twitter’s wrath after past commentary resurfaced that he made about the Black Lives Matter movement in a Time Out interview.
As a refresher, the interview occurred after the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. In response to a question about using his platform to speak more openly on social and political issues, Rocky said that he didn’t sign up to “be no political activist” and didn’t “wanna talk about no f***ing Ferguson and sh*t” because he doesn’t live there and, therefore, “can’t relate.”
Once the comments came across Black Twitter’s stoop, the criticism rolled in
Rocky went on The Breakfast Club where he clarified his stance and iterated that he wasn’t trying to trivialize the socio-political movement. However, many still found his comments callous and haven’t entirely forgiven him. Thus, when Rocky’s international legal snafu with Sweden in summer 2019 rose to national news, Black Twitter adopted a similar contemptuous attitude toward his circumstances. Some even argued that his situation was direct karma given the comments about Black Lives Matter, which Rocky recently addressed with hip-hop commentator Kerwin Frost.
“I thought I addressed that in the past and to be in jail hearing people still trying to stir up some weird s**t,” the 31-year-old said in a new interview with hip-hop commentator Kerwin Frost on Sunday (Jan. 5).“What I will say though is in those old interviews I used to say I think it was inappropriate for me to rap about certain s**t that I didn’t help with. I felt like when it came to Ferguson, J. Cole went down there and he was on the news and he actually helped. So he deserved to rap about that. He deserved to say something about that. So when somebody asked me that in 2015, I’m like I just felt like, personally, if I’m in SoHo or here, I can’t even talk about that...That’s appropriating...It’s not sincere...That’s what everybody [does].”
He continued, “It’s some fake s**t just to say and do for the ‘cause of seeming like a certain type of person. I’m still not wrong for that. The only part I was wrong for was that, in my case, there [were] people that [have] never been to Sweden, people that [have] never been to Harlem, [and] people that don’t know A$AP Rocky but was still sympathetic to my situation and had empathy and could understand, and [were] vocal and helped my situation. So I was wrong, you know?”
Hear what other thoughts he had to share in the full hour-long interview below.
