The singer A$AP Rocky said he would marry before Rihanna: “This is not a joke”
Nowadays, A$AP Rocky is settled down with Rihanna with two kids between them. But before the ‘Umbrella’ artist was even on his radar romantically, the Harlem rapper admitted that he would marry another singer, something he wasn’t joking about.
During an interview in 2016, Rocky was asked to pick between collaborating with two legendary hip-hop artists, Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. Although he chose the Fugees member from a musical standpoint, wedding bells were ringing regarding Badu.
“Ah, man. Damn, bro. How you gonna do that? Alright, I would marry Erykah Badu and this is not a joke,” he told Thrasher Magazine. “And Lauryn Hill, she connected to me more as a rapper just because I think she’s one of the illest female MCs ever to do it. So yeah, it would probably be Lauryn, but I heard she’s, like, off her rocker now, but really, it would have to be her.”
Although nothing came to be between Rocky and Badu, he sampled her music on his 2013 song ‘Suddenly’ off his debut album, Long.Live.A$AP. Rocky, alongside Hector Delgado and A$AP Ty Beats, used the Karriem Riggins-produced ‘Fall in Love (Your Funeral)’ from 2010’s New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh.
Rocky started dating Rihanna in late 2019, before going public in the summer of 2020. They confirmed their relationship in May 2021, with Rocky describing RiRi as the “love of my life.” He said their chemistry sparked after playing lovers in the music video for ‘Fashion Killa’ in 2012.
During an interview with W Magazine, he said, “This is very special because this is the first place she fell in love with me,” as Rihanna “giggled]” in the background. “Virgil Abloh shot the music video for ‘Fashion Killa’ in 2012, and that was the same couch where Rihanna and I sat in the first scene. That was that same room.”
Recalling another early encounter with Rihanna, Rocky said, “It’s a lot of history between us. I was kicked out of this nightclub. They wasn’t giving me no access to it. This is when I’m just starting out, so nobody knows me.
“I was with [designer] Matthew Williams and Virgil. I was getting into it with the bouncers, and she came out. We just locked eyes. She didn’t even know us, but she was like, ‘Yo! Why y’all not letting him in? What’s wrong with you?! Let that man in!’ I knew from when we were younger. We both did, I think. So it was only right when we got older. We just kind of reconnected.”
The couple first met during rehearsals for their performance of the ‘Cockiness (Love It)’ remix at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2012. During the performance on stage, Rocky famously grabbed her butt, but Rihanna was totally fine with it.
“When he grabbed my ass that night, everybody thought I was about to … My team was worried that I wanted to have his head on a fucking mantle,” she told Interview Magazine. “But I was like, ’Ah, nah.’ That’s why everybody was like, ‘Oh my god. She likes him.’” She was so unbothered that Rocky went on to open for her during the Diamond World Tour in 2013.