A$AP Rocky Wrestles Downside of Fame in ‘Everyday’ Video
A grown-up A$AP Rocky struggles with painkillers, plastic surgery and the passage of time in his new video for “Everyday,” the Rod Stewart-sampling cut off his new LP At.Long.Last.A$AP. Dubbed a “Hip-Hop Hollywood Story,” the “Everyday” video opens up the same way as Sunset Blvd. — another cautionary tale about fame and fortune — did 65 years earlier: With the dead protagonist floating face down in the pool of a palatial estate.
As told in flashbacks, the video finds an older, bloated Rocky cavorting around his mansion, with the efforts to keep his youthful looks resulting in a marathon of plastic surgeries stamping a haunting, disfigured grin on his face. (Stewart makes a quick cameo during this chapter to make a mysterious phone call to Rocky.)
The clip makes allusions to wealthy pop stars who were similarly reclusive in their final years, like Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley; Rocky’s future self even secures a Las Vegas residency in 2030. The video then rewinds years earlier to show the effects drugs and partying had on the rapper.
The Emmanuel Cossu and Fleur & Manu-directed “Everyday” video, which premiered on Apple Music, also features appearances by Miguel – the singer of the track’s soulful hook shows up twice: first at an award show, then the closing flashback – and Mark Ronson, who produced the downbeat At.Long.Last.A$AP single that boasts a sample of Python Lee Jackson featuring Rod Stewart‘s “In a Broken Dream.”
In a more jubilant collaboration, Rocky and Stewart recently joined James Corden to play a quick round of “Carpool Karaoke” on the Late Late Show.