Watch A$AP Rocky’s SXSW Brawl in New Documentary
ASAP Rocky‘s shows have always felt more punk rock than hip-hop. So when a fan at the rapper’s 2012 South by Southwest show lobbed a full beer can on stage, nearly hitting a member of Rocky’s crew, fans got the feeling that this may not end well. “Please! Don’t throw nothing at us because we don’t want to end this early,” said Rocky. “We want to have fun. People came to have fun.” As the clip above shows, things devolved quickly after another can was thrown, with nearly every member of Rocky’s crew rushing the crowd and starting a brawl that would cause organizers and police to quickly shut down the party.
The scene is just one part of SVDDXNLY, a new documentary on the rapper produced by Noisey. The hour-long film chronicles Rocky’s life from a 5-year-old “Cocky Rocky” named after pioneering rapper Rakim to his rise as a hip-hop and fashion trendsetter.
Describing his music as “laid-back, slow, calm, druggy, cloudy, psychedelic and bringing you back to the first time you got high,” Rocky opens up about the deaths of his father and brother (the latter was shot and killed in New York) and life on the road, showing off his sneaker collection, hanging out with designer Jeremy Scott and playing beats-in-progress for Macklemore.
The film combines previously seen footage such as Rocky’s meetings with Snoop Dogg, Danny Brown and Kathy Griffin with new background clips, culminating in the rapper’s show at Barclays Center opening for Rihanna. Given that it’s produced by longtime Rocky supporter Noisey, the film is more than a little hagiographic, but the rapper’s outsized, charismatic personality makes him a compelling figure. “I came into this shit big-headed and that’s not going to change,” admits the rapper toward the end of the film. “Everybody knows that.”
Watch part one of the five-part doc below: