A$AP Rocky At.Long.Last.A$AP

The album features Lykke Li, FKA Twigs, Juicy J, and Clams Casino. It was executive produced by Danger Mouse and the late A$AP Yams.

There's Rocky's signature jet-setting swag and the usual fashion shout-outs, but you can also hear psychedelic '60s London and introspection. You hear Rocky singing. And acoustic guitar. And an unknown Brit named Joe Fox, whom Rocky met near the studio.

"I'm claiming ownership of my legacy," Rocky says, sitting up on the rooftop banquette. "Look at it: At.Long.Last.A$AP. A-L-L-A. Like slang for 'Allah.' It's the return of the god MC." Rocky leans way in, as if letting me in on a secret. "I'm named after Rakim, and I'm finally facing what it means: I was born to do this shit," he says. "And I hope I get to do it for a very long time."

May 12 announced for release date

Rocky held his official A.L.L.A. listening session yesterday evening in New York City's Red Bull Studios in Chelsea. The two-floor venue was everything but secretive about the event, as the outside wall of Red Bull had a gigantic lightbox displaying the A.L.L.A. album cover--where Rocky is wearing the signature birthmark of his fallen friend-slash-manager A$AP Yams who passed away in January. Once granted access to the venue, however, it was the equivalent of an Illuminati meeting. Phones, laptops, and anything with a battery pulse were taken away, as a mini reception with hors d'oeuvres were served upstairs before everyone was ushered to the downstairs area for the official listening. Red Bull was naturally the beverage of choice, but the other two options were symbolically champagne and PBR, which is exactly where A$AP Rocky sits within the music industry. Sometimes flashy, sometimes hipster, Rocky is that artist who navigates through both worlds seamlessly. He arrived at Red Bull Studios around 10pm, apologizing for his hour tardiness, and stood behind two turntables and an iPhone ready to do this.

While Rocky didn't play every track on the album, the ones he did spin were either about drugs and/or God and/or death. His first selection, "Holy Ghost" carried a psychedelic vibe thanks to Danger Mouse's production, who seems to be picking up where former A$AP Mob producer Clams Casino left off. London newcomer Joe Fox cooed on the cut, with an assist from Chace Infinite as Rocky tosses lines like "Who's more important than your Lord and Savior?" and "I got my own relationship with God." Both Danger Mouse and Joe Fox are frequent collaborators on A.L.L.A. appearing on several tracks, including the next one Rocky spun, "Electric Body." The cut is sonically divided into three parts: the first harnessing spacey blips timed to the rhythmic cadence of Rocky's bars. The tone toward the middle drops into dank basement dance party territory, where an interpolation of TAPP's "Shake That Ass" repeats in between a verse from ScHoolboy Q before finalizing into a trippy soundscape.

A skit happens, featuring James France with ad libs from A$AP Ferg, where Rocky delivers some Pretty Flacko rhymes as "J.D." or as he likes to call himself, "the Black James Dean." (maybe 'Jimmy Dean' which has surfaced in YouTube as a snippet)

The song "Canal Street" could be A$AP Rocky's version of Biggie's "Juicy" with its aspirational slightly braggy theme about once shopping for gold on Canal St., but now "went to Paris for my Chucks." The video for the track "LSD" arrived during the session (but no phones meant no mobile viewing) and after a few failed technological attempts, the room got to view the Tokyo lit visuals that lead into another album track "Excuse Me," which begins with hating on bill collectors but concludes with the self-loving line "I guess the new me is gonna take some getting used to." The super smooth "West Side Highway" has Danger Mouse on the beat with harmonizing from James Fauntleroy. Rocky tries his hand at production on "Dreams," where he turns banging on piano keys into a beat and mutters through his bars about life being a bitch in red lipstick and stilettos as he has a dream "like Dr. King" while "police brutality was on my TV screen." Other deep cuts like the stream of consciousness titled "Juke Box" get pretty dark, as Kanye West returns to his soul samples for the production while A$AP envisions his own demise: "When my death calls, I pray the Lord accepts collect calls." He closed the listening session with the Danger Mouse produced "Far Side," another morbid track about finding clarity in LSD as his signature chopped and screwed voice recites the "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" prayer.

While previously released singles like "Everyday" and "What's Beef" do fall in line sonically with what was heard yesterday evening, there's plenty of room within the rumored 19-track project to throw in a wild card or two.

At. Long. Last. A$AP has the soul of the '70s placed within a 21st century context. Drug-induced religious revelations are a common theme, along with the concept of death. Some tracks are short and punchy like a mixtape segue, while others are full-bodied cuts. While there is some familiar A$AP DNA in the mix, there is a degree of new territory from the Harlemite. "I didn't want to give people what they expected," A$AP Rocky explained about the project. So far so good.

At. Long. Last. A$AP drops June 2nd via ASAP Worldwide and RCA Records.

1. Holy Ghost
2. Canal St. Bones
3. Fine Whine (feat. M.I.A. & Future)
4. L$D
5. Excuse Me
6. JD
7. Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2
8. Electric Body (feat. Schoolboy Q)
9. Jukebox Joints
10. Max B
11. Pharsyde
12. Wavybone (feat. Juicy J & UGK)
13. Westside Highway (feat. James Fauntleroy)
14. Better Things
15. M'$ (feat. Lil Wayne) [Remix]
16. Dreams
17. Everyday (feat. Rod Stewart & Miguel)
18. Back Home (feat. Mos Def, Acyde & Yams)

Per target's website, the album will be available in-stores tomorrow (05/26/15). Hopefully it's not a mistake.

Rocky tweeted on the evening of May 25th that the album would be officially released at midnight, pushing the release a week ahead of schedule. New official release date is May 25, 2015.