""Some people look at their circumstances and assume this is the end-all, be-all," Rocky tells Esquire's editor-in-chief, Michael Sebastian, in the latest episode of our "What I've Learned" video series. "For me, at a very young age, I learned that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Everybody has struggle, but what you got to do is trust your struggle.""
""If you look around at what's going on right now, a lot of rappers are starting to say, 'Fuck the streets,' says Rocky. "All the guys that were portrayed as gangster and street dudes, are now coming out and just being like, 'You know what? This whole shit is rigged. This is make believe. Kids, we've been selling ya'll a lie because we had a blindfold over our eyes.'""
""I see a lot of my mom in her," Rocky says about Rihanna. "It's just like, damn, that's a strong Black woman right there.""
Rakim Athelston Mayers rose from moving through New York City homeless shelters with his mother to international success in music, fashion, and film. His first album in eight years, Don't Be Dumb, sheds the reckless Testing persona in favor of mature themes about fatherhood, responsibility, and legacy. Rocky emphasizes that struggle can reveal a path forward, saying he learned young to trust his struggle and see a light at the tunnel's end. He notes many former street personas in hip-hop are being abandoned as contrived myths presented to youth. Family life with Rihanna and their three children now centers his priorities.
Read at Esquire
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