Courtesy of NYT.

This past Sunday the hip hop community was shocked by the death of one Steven Rodriguez, better known as A$AP Yams. Yams was one of the original cofounders of the Harlem-based A$AP Mob, a hip hop collective home to, most notably, rappers A$AP Rocky and A$AP Ferg. Often likened to the Puff Daddy to Rocky‰’s B.I.G. Yams successfully navigated Rocky to a 3 million dollar record deal while never compromising the creative integrity so crucial to the A$AP Mob brand.

I heard the news of Yams’ death, like many, by scrolling through my Twitter feed Sunday morning. Many notable members of the hip hop community including Drake, M.I.A. and Rihanna all expressed sadness over his loss. As an A$AP Mob fan I recognized Yams‰’ face from many A$AP Rocky and Ferg videos and was shocked by the news; Yams was just 26 years old. I was even more shocked because, oddly enough, I had tickets to see YG and A$AP Ferg in concert at the Fillmore Silver Spring that same night on their “BestCoast Connection” tour. I thought for sure that Ferg would cancel his set and return to New York to grieve for his mentor and friend and, as much as I wanted to see the “Shabba” rapper preform, I couldn‰’t really blame him. However, as the day progressed, there was no announcement of a cancellation and it appeared that the show would go on.

It was around 11pm when Ferg hit the stage Sunday night. YG had just killed it, and despite a too-short set he had brought a little bit of the “Bompton” streets to Maryland and spoken on the loss of A$AP Yams. The crowd was certainly hyped for YG but it turned up a notch when Ferg finally came out. He performed several songs from both his recent mixtape Ferg Forever and debut album Trap Lord before taking a moment to pause and say a few words. 

A formally rowdy crowd, who had been moshing to Ferg‰’s track “Dump Dump” moments before, quieted down and listened as Ferg spoke about his sadness at losing a friend and visionary. He said that although he had wanted to cut the tour short he couldn‰’t risk letting down his fans. He dedicated the night to Yams and called for a moment of silence. It was brief but the quiet of the concert venue and sadness of so many A$AP fans was tangible. After the tender moment, Ferg delved into a crowd favorite, turn up record “Fuck Out My Face” and stayed turnt for the rest of the concert.

It seemed an appropriate way for Ferg‰’s as well as the A$AP fans to remember a person who’d had such a creative and positive effect on hip hop; by giving a really great hip hop performance. It is truly sad to lose someone who has been pushing hip hop forward since his arrival in the mainstream world. However, I think we can safely assume that the A$AP Mob and hip hop community will continue to follow the motto by which Yams lived his life: always strive and prosper.