Hailing from Harlem, but professing an aural and lyrical allegiance to Houston, A$AP Rocky may be the most preternaturally poised among the recent crop of net-abetted under-ground-to-worldwide rap stars. He ain’t saying nothing new, but he says it with the waggish nonchalance of a smirking, perennially faded playboy who’s still got a hint of baby fat between his French braids and gold-crusted grill. In easy-flowing, sometimes Spanish-tinged rhymes atop woozy, artfully lavish productions from a who’s who of right-now beatmakers (Clams Casino, Hit-Boy, 40, Burn One), Rocky broadcasts unbounded confidence, style for days, flawless curatorial instincts — swag, however you wanna slice it. We’ll wait a few more months for the (ironical-ly?) delayed Long-LiveA$AP (RCA/Polo Grounds) to properly follow last year’s similarly titled ban-ner mixtape, but its eponymous tour rolls right on, folding in the six-deep A$AP Mob — complete with Ramones-style matching monikers — and West Coast homeboy Schoolboy Q, whose Habits and Contradictions (Top Dawg) pairs a comparable syrup-addled smoothness with deeper-pitched gangsta gravitas.
Sun., Nov 18, 8 p.m., $25-$33.15, with Schoolboy Q, A$AP Mob and Danny Brown, Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh St., 215-627-1332, electricfactory.info.




