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You are here: Home / Reviews / SXSW Review: SVDDXNLY

SXSW Review: SVDDXNLY

March 23, 2014 By LoserCityBoss Leave a Comment

The Loser City team caught a lot of stuff at SXSW this year, including a mutant strain of bird flu courtesy of a rogue pack of grackles. So we’ll be rolling out select individual film reviews for a while, starting with this look at the disappointing vanity doc, SVDDXNLY.

A$AP Rocky is a New York rapper seemingly willed into fame by Forever 21. In 2011 Rocky released the single “Peso“, and off of the power of that one track he managed to open for Drake and Rihanna, sign a seven figure deal with Sony, and even headline Austin’s beloved Fun Fun Fun Fest. So with SVDDXNLY, does A$AP Rocky come across as the next chapter in hip-hop or is he just Rap Game Lana Del Rey, an artist with a super strong first single that we later come to find out is super boring and fake?

He’s a little of both, to be honest. A Noisey documentary, SVDDXNLY tells the life story of A$AP Rocky, born Rakim (his sister is adorably named Erika B.) and his life growing up Harlem. After tragically losing his older brother the gang violence and his father going to jail at a young age, A$AP Rocky overcame drug dealing in the projects by founding the A$AP Mob, a collective of rappers and artists who seemingly existed to wear Gucci and ride BMX bikes. And that’s about it. Because after that the movie turns into “here’s a cool thing that happened to me, here’s another cool thing that happened to me;” no mentions of his arrests or his work with Clams Casino, which gave him strong critical backing. There is a scene showing his infamous brawl at SXSW 2012, which they make sure you know took place at the Vice Party. But even that comes across as A$AP Rocky only fighting because everyone was being mean to him and throwing water bottles at the stage. Not because his shows take the form of punk shows, and people throw shit at punk shows.
I do have to commend SVDDXNLY for finally showing me what it is I didn’t like about A$AP Rocky: he’s a boring kid that surrounds himself with super interesting people whose rising tides lift his boat. And since he’s chill and charismatic, he comes across as this sort of ringleader. This comes across most obviously with his poolside conversation with rapper Danny Brown, who is truly an interesting artist with a vision. And Danny basically wipes the floor with A$AP Rocky with his charisma and wit, leaving him to sort of cower.

A$AP Rocky is super young, and still has time to learn about the world, but SVDDXNLY, in the words of James Murphy, is “like a culture without the effort of all of the culture.”
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Dylan Garsee is a freelance writer/bingo enthusiast currently living in Austin, TX. He is studying sociology, and when he’s not winning trivia nights at pork-themed restaurants, writing a collection of essays on the gay perspective in geek culture. An avid record collector, Dylan can mostly be seen at Waterloo Records, holding that one God Speed You! Black Emperor record he can’t afford and crying. You can follow him on twitter @garseed.

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Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: A$ap Rocky, hip-hop, Music, Noisey, SVDDXNLY, SXSW, Vice

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