A$AP Rocky talks Lana Del Rey collaboration, announces songs with Santigold & Pharrell

While the whole (digital) world has been disappointed by the removal of the A$AP Rocky / Lana Del Rey-collaboration “Ridin’” from the tracklist of The Kickdrums’ Follow the Leader mixtape, the Harlem rapper has initiated the promotional run for the tune which is set to be featured on his full-length debut. In a conversation with Billboard‘s hip-hop blog The Juice, the self-proclaimed “Pretty M*therf*ck*r” has stated that mutual admiration was key to make the song happen:


You didn’t know about me being a huge Lana Del Rey fan? That’s all I kept talking about all winter. I first had a crush on her from seeing her on the Internet– I fell in love with her voice the first time I heard it. I probably heard it in July, August for the first time, I think it was “Blue Jeans.” And from then on, I’m like…I love her! Mind you, we never even spoke to each other, and then in Complex [magazine], when she said I was her favorite rapper, I was like, ‘Oh fuck no, man. I gotta work with her! My dream girl acknowledges me!’

The official followup to his highly successful LiveLoveA$AP mixtape is likely to boast even more big names.

“I’m also working with Santigold, Pharrell, Hit-Boy — a few people, man. It’s getting crazy,” he says. For his collaboration with Hit-Boy, who produced The Throne’s “N***as in Paris” and Kanye West’s new banger “Theraflu,” Rocky says he doesn’t utilize his “usual flow that everybody’s so familiar with. I went kind of hard, but it was cool, it was easy. You’ll see.”

This sounds promising to say the least.