SAMUEL HYLAND
After introducing hip-hop audiences to a gritty, trap-infused New York flair with the release of his first two albums in 2013 and 2015 respectively, A$AP Rocky sought to expand his creative repertoire in his third LP.
The result?
“Testing is completely out of step with any mainstream album you’re likely to hear this year,” one review from The Guardian said. “(it) suggests that Rocky’s heydey is in the rearview.”
When a painter transcends the boundaries of his/her genre, however, thousands flock to museums to celebrate what is hailed as abstract art. Why is it that when a musician does the same, it “suggests that their heydey is in the rearview”?
Too often, we fail to recognize that music- like art- has the right to be abstract