Music

ASAP Rocky looked pretty nervous on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night

by Tyler Munro

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has gone from the finest form of schadenfreude to a venerable pop music power house over the last few years, and its no stretch to say that performances on his show have helped push the likes of Odd Future and more through the pop culture threshold. So maybe that explains why A$AP Rocky looked so absolutely, positively terrified when he performed “Goldie” on the show last night.

Watch his eyes as he shifts between cameras, seemingly unsure of where to look. At times, it’s like he doesn’t know what to do with his hands. But Rocky’s done this a thousand times before, maybe not on a national stage like the one NBC provides, but in front of thousands of hyped up kids around the world. So what do we think made him seem so uncomfortable? We don’t think it was the exposure, but instead that he was without his ever-growing posse. The guy is clearly enjoying himself up there, as shown by the beaming smile when it’s all over, but without his hype men (except for that one dude tucked behind the DJ table), he drops the mean mugging charade and just does the song at its most stripped. The thing is, that’s probably not why people listen to him. We want the theatrics and the swagger (not the “swag”) and the eccentricities. We want the excitement and general atmosphere we got when Tyler, the Creator took the same stage last year. What we got was a young dude who looked like it. Also, all white, dude? Seriously?