By Jeff Weiss for Rolling Stone
It took nine years for people to start calling Jay-Z the "King of New York." It took A$AP Rocky nine words. From the moment the charismatic rapper drawled, "I be that pretty motherfucker/Harlem's what I'm repping," bloggers, label brass and teens buying blunts in bodegas started sizing him for the crown.
The video for "Peso" went viral and incited arguments about what New York hip-hop should sound like in the second decade of the 21st century. Rocky emerged as an avatar for the post-regional era – a synthesis of slick uptown slang, humid Houston screw music, morbid Memphis crunk and Midwestern double-time. His fluid style and sartorial flair started a label bidding war even before the release of his acclaimed 2011 mixtape, "Live.Love.A$AP." The winner, Polo Grounds/RCA, offered a deal worth almost as much as the Basquiats on Jay-Z and Beyoncé's walls.
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