A$AP Rocky’s visual team has worked their magic again. The video for his new track “A$AP Forever” is no deviation from their norm of excellence, consisting of a psychedelic tour of A$AP Rocky’s hometown of New York. The camera endlessly spirals (sometimes shifting to a rapid-fire continuous zoom) through these videos and images of A$AP Rocky’s world, his friends and frequent haunts. The way in which the main visual motif of rotation is altered during the outro to be A$AP Rocky himself now boundlessly spinning is a clever structural touch. The visual manipulations in this video are redolent of those in the “L$D” music video (directed by the same man, Dexter Navy).
As for the song itself? At the risk of damning with faint praise, it’s certainly better than the other recent singles released from his upcoming album, and it gives me hope that the album might be up to his usual standards. But still, this particular track is still not up to the watermark of his earlier work; the beat rides on the back of the Moby sample pretty heavily (especially the outro) and the hook veers uncomfortably close to monotony. It’s clear based on their recent output that A$AP Rocky — and A$AP Mob as a whole — is missing the visionary input of the late A$AP Yams. However, even though the song leaves something to be desired, the creative and captivating video shows that there is still potential for an innovative post-Yams A$AP Mob.