30 Under 30 All-Star Updates: A$AP Rocky

At our Under 30 summit in Philadelphia this fall, Rakim "A$AP Rocky" Mayers was among the last to arrive at our group cover shoot.

"Sorry," he said with a grin, decked out in a full-length Dior coat. "I'm fashionably late."

Indeed, nobody in the hip-hop world has been more fashionable of late. The Harlem-born mixtape maven grew up shuttling between homeless shelters, swaggering into mainstream consciousness with debut album Long.Live.A$AP, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 2013, helping him earn an estimated $5 million that year.

But it's his fashion sense--modeling for DKNY and creating a capsule collection for Guess--that makes him ascendant. Rocky is focused on his creative collective, AWGE, which does everything from designing album artwork to managing stylists.

"To be able to curate and manage my own business," he says, "I always wanted to do it."

Full coverage: The Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2016

The above text appears in the 2016 30 Under 30 issue of FORBES magazine. After the cover shoot in Philadelphia in late 2015, though, A$AP Rocky sat down with me and gave me more information than we could fit into our print edition. He talked about his experiences growing up in Harlem, his thoughts on fashion and his plans for AWGE--the creative collective that's been his main focus of late--and comparisons between it and Kanye West's DONDA. I've edited our conversation for length and clarity below.

ZOG: Take me how you got from where you grew up--the rise, your influences--to where you are today. And then I want to ask you about going from fashion to the business side.

Rocky: I think it's just a pretty cliché story ... grew up unprivileged. My life, man, there's ups and downs like anyone else, as far as finances, money, income. Most of my life I was used to it. I got to a point where I think stuff like music and fashion is always good. You put me in deep thought because you say you want to talk about how I grew up and then you want to talk about how I converted fashion to business. That for me probably was the biggest evolution or method or conversion. That's what I would say, I just knew, because I've always had that fashion sense, that … taste. I don't think you can buy that; I just had it. I knew what I liked. I was always precise.

ZOG: There's something to Harlem that style is a really important thing in a way that it isn't in other parts. People who aren't from New York don't get it. They don't understand why Harlem is different from Brooklyn. Harlem and Brooklyn couldn't be more different.

Rocky: When it comes to fashion and stuff, we're just nostalgic. Harlem, from the Renaissance, from music, everything cultural, I think it's impactful to an urban community on another level. ... We had our own fashion sense. You've got music, you've got culture, you've got food. What I think is incredible about Harlem is that no matter who you are coming out of Harlem you just feel like somebody.

ZOG: You come from Harlem, you burst on the scene a couple years ago. You're the fashion guy. Tell me the concrete steps from being the fashion guy to creating AWGE … the Rocky DONDA?

Rocky: I wouldn't call it DONDA.

ZOG: What would you call it?

Rocky: I would compare it to companies such as Vice, Noisey, Fool's Gold, Roc Nation.

ZOG: More expansive than DONDA.

Rocky: I wouldn't say that, not at all. I'm going to say this: for me, DONDA didn't accomplish enough yet for me to compare ... I wanted to develop something that reflected the world the way I saw it. I wanted to make something for lifestyle, to put people into a new lifestyle. I wanted to make some for culture, some for music, some for skating … How do you organize all that? About a year and a half, two years ago, I just came up with an idea of just being involved in something more than A$AP Rocky … I want to be in the field and be respected as a creator of original ideas.

ZOG: Yeah.

Rocky: I wanted to turn my Instagram into a Tumblr, because at that time, everybody showcased their Instagram to make you feel bad about how good their life is and how much yours sucks. … It got to a point where I'm like, people just want to come on there and see what I'm wearing and steal my clothes and ideas. F**k that, I just want to make this a place where I can express myself and put up dope photos that I take and keep that tradition moving. That's what it used to be. It used to be a place where people could socialize and see what each other was doing and it turned into a new thing. It's more of platform for people to network, it's almost a portfolio. … Anything I'm involved in, I stand behind it as a business man, as an artist, as a genuine person. I only do things like that I genuinely like doing and I appreciate that passion for it.

ZOG: You go the route of being so hands-on in every video, every part. It reminds me, in a way of Michael Jackson. … Michael Jackson was a businessman, but a lot of people don't think of him that way, right?

Rocky: Everything has to be cohesive. ... If you for instance put out a song, and you want to release the video a week later and you miss your mark, that can reflect on and change the outcome, the response … regardless if you get paid or not, I don't think that feels good.

ZOG: Tell me too about your expanding into artist management.

Rocky: The first artist that I signed was, the first personality that I signed was Ian Connor … I noticed that his influence on Tumblr and on the internet doing streetwear fashion. Being the face for it, he was the king of the youth. ... I'm working with artists and businessmen and it's kind of cool, and this business brings me money. I kind of like this world of signing thing.

ZOG: My colleague Natalie Robehmed interviewed you a couple years ago for Forbes, and you told her that you felt you were a ghetto hipster. Does that still hold true?

Rocky: I would have to say I'm an artist and businessman. I think that's where I stand. I'm happy to be here, that's what I would say. … I did it from my own bedroom, Zack. I tell these kids, you can definitely do it just as good. If you've got some good shit, whatever you do, pursue that shit. … The only advice we had was, "Want to run around, make a quick 20, a quick hundred?" You want to pull big money and get that shot, man. That's what we see: football, basketball, baseball, or f**king rapping. That's why more people more people know the difference between rappers and artists, true artists. I'm going to classify the way I'm going to be, I'm going to dress, I'm going to be. I want to be considered who I am and that's a genuine do-it-yourself artist. … Make more money, try to grow as a businessman, it's that simple.

For more about the business of music, check out my Jay Z  biography, Empire State of Mind, and my other book, Michael Jackson, Inc. You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook and by subscribing to my quarterly newsletter.