How A$AP Rocky paid tribute to his scar-hiding head scarf
In 2018, A$AP Rocky appeared at LACMA’s 2018 Art+Film Gala wearing a Gucci headscarf, but not everyone thought he was a ‘Fashion Killa’. Rather, his choice of accessory prompted a Twitter barrage of jokes about grandmothers of diverse ethnicities, comparisons the New York rapper wholly embraced in one of his hit singles.
‘Babushka Boi’ is a confident and powerful display of braggadocio on a Memphis trap beat by American rapper A$AP Rocky, whose name hails from the New York hip hop collective A$AP mob and his mother’s childhood nickname for him. Released as a single in 2019, the track illustrates how Rocky dares to be different in the public eye. In a little over three minutes, he delivers a message about the impact money and fame have on identity, trust and self-expression.
At its root, ‘Babushka Boi’ is about Rocky’s prideful and protective attitude to his success since the release of his debut album, Live. Love. ASAP. The song opens with the line “They call me F-L-A-C-K-O and don’t play, no, ‘bout my papes”, referring to Rocky’s nickname ‘Pretty Flacko’ but primarily to his money. Here, and in the rest of the song, he shamelessly owns who he has become since acquiring the nickname and making it big.
The melodic chorus, in which Rocky sings “Praise to the Lord, give him grace, the scar on my face”, highlights his disinterest in gratefulness for success but simultaneous disinterest in hiding his past and flaws, despite wearing the scarf on his face at the awards and since, as a fashion statement. As he keeps coming back to these words, the song’s potential interpretation as pure peacocking is nullified.
Rocky draws multiple contrasts in the track between his previous life and his present. In the same breath that he raps about no longer having to duck bullets, he says, “Shit, I ain’t duck sauce since I became a vegan,” a diet typically associated with a bougier lifestyle, notably hipers, in the Western world. In his guide to Harlem with Complex, he acknowledges his new diet’s convergence from what he used to eat growing up: “That kind of food going into your body is unhealthy. I don’t mean to sound like some weirdo, but it is what it is.”
At the same time, however, he intertwines the past and present. The lyrics “Baked potato on that Draco, new bandana on my face” follow his opening line about his money. As a potato on a gun’s barrel is believed to silence it, Rocky emphasises the great lengths he would go to protect what is his.
The title, ‘Babushka Boi’, stems from Rocky’s misnomer of the scarves he spots. In an interview with GQ, the New York rapper explained that his choice to wear a “Babushka” (which is in fact the Russian word for grandma, not the scarf itself) stemmed from a cut on his face acquired from a razor scooter accident. “I did a pop-up wheelie and just ate s**t and I just had a big f*****g gash on my face,” he told the magazine. His choice of title cements his confidence in his fashion choices.
The name in its exact form emerged in a 2018 post by Frank Ocean of himself wrapped up, with Rocky commenting, “?? BABUSHKA BOI.” He subsequently made “BABUSHKA BOI” his Instagram bio.
Despite the fun fans poked at Rocky for his decision to wear a scarf beyond practical purposes, headscarves did take off in the hip-hop fashion world. Only last May, Atlanta rapper Gunna released One of Wun, the cover of which shows his entire face covered in sheer, floral fabric.