Get To Know: A$AP Mob

Who: A$AP Mob

From: Harlem, NY

Why You Should Get To Know Them: Because at this point, you kind of have to...

There's something you should know about present-day Hip-Hop: it's all about strength in numbers. While the typical Rap crew has thrived throughout Hip-Hop's childhood and adulthood, nowadays if you're not sitting at the tippy top of the Rap tax bracket, you're working with a small crew of geniuses hoping to build something of a makeshift empire to carry your career several miles past the success of your first single.

When Harlem's A$AP Rocky hit the ground running with his flagship single "Pe$os," the rumblings of his A$AP Mob were relatively new. Rocky was this charismatic Uptown NYC swagworthy individual who took the traditional Harlem sound of crews like Dipset and turned it on its ear. Production was fierce, his style was slick and cutting edge, and the visuals that surrounded his eargasmic music were of documentary quality. You'd be a damn fool to think A$AP Rocky did all of that himself. A$AP Rocky's never hidden his posse though; the common Rap fan just hasn't really acknowledged them until now.

First things first, A$AP stands for "Always Strive and Prosper." As their notoriety increases, so do the various meanings behind the acronym. Therefore, a secondary definition is tacked on as "Acronym Symbolizing Any Purpose." Besides A$AP Rocky, A$AP Mob members include A$AP Yams, A$AP Bari, A$AP Ferg, A$AP Twelvy, A$AP Ant, A$AP Ty Beats, A$AP Nast, and Clams Casino. Spaceghostpurrp was a sometimes-member of A$AP Mob, but due to a falling out involving Purrp, Raider Klan, and A$AP Mob, he's now on the bench. Da$h (nephew of Damon Dash) is also a sometimes member. It's all so confusing, but all so important.

Besides actual rhyming, members serve a multitude of functions. A$AP Yams is A$AP Rocky's manager, while A$AP Bari and A$AP Ant are the fashion guys (Bari is a founding father of the Mob). A$AP Nast is Rocky's cousin, and Clams Casino and A$AP Ty Beats are the producers (Ty Beats produced "Peso$").

At the end of August, A$AP Mob made their big debut with Lord$ Never Worry. The mixtape-slash-street​ album was arguably a rough introduction to the A$AP Mob, as each member never really had that big of a platform to strut their stuff. A$AP Rocky will deliver his solo album "LongLiveA$AP" at the end of October. What's next for A$AP Mob as a whole? Just wait and see.