Sitting down with MTV, A$AP Rocky breaks down the nastolgic “1 Train” posse cut from Long.Live.A$AP (which is available now).
When you think about New York, you think about things like the subway, and I needed to bring it back to that essence. [But] when I’m rapping and mentioning ‘anything is better than that 1 train,’ it’s the truth. When it’s winter, it’s cold in the station — especially on 96th Street, you’re waiting for hours because more than likely the 2 and 3 are running the most, and the 1 and 9 are taking the longest. Is the 9 still running? [No] Goes to show, I ain’t been down there in a while. In the summer, it’s hot as hell and too packed. In the winter, it’s cold as hell and too packed. Anything’s better than the 1 train, man.
I wanted to make a posse cut that felt like an original ’90s underground track, and I didn’t have to tell anyone what to do. The beat is self-explanatory — when you hear it, it just makes you wanna flow on some backpacker shit.
I took it upon myself to feature all the people who I respect as artists of my generation — Danny Brown, K.R.I.T, Yelawolf, Joey Bada$$, Action Bronson, Kendrick — I feel like they fit the criteria of the underground feel. I could’ve easily went and got Puff Daddy or Rick Ross, but I felt like this one needed the young feeling to it. And everybody came and ripped it in their own way. Nobody sounded alike, everybody took it back to the essence and they bodied it, executed it.
Now that you know how it came about, who do you think ripped it the most? I’ve been asked this same question countless times on Twitter and I can’t honestly answer..
