A$AP Rocky opens up about the unexpected person who helped steer him toward a life-changing romance with Rihanna, his mother.
During a recent appearance on the January 15 episode of Pop castthe rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, revealed that his mother, Renee Black, was the first to suggest he date the global superstar long before their friendship turned romantic.
Looking back, A$AP shared that his mom was surprisingly upfront about it.
“My mom used to say, ‘I know you like this girl you’re with right now,'” he recalled, adding that she would then say, “‘But I want you with Riri.’
At the time, he brushed it off and insisted they were just friends.
“‘Mom, why do you keep saying that? That girl doesn’t even want me like that. Like be cool, mom. Like it’s just my friend. Chill,'” he recalled telling her.
But his mother did not back down. “‘I tell you, she’s real,'” A$AP said, before adding with a laugh, “And moms know best.”
Their bond eventually developed into a romantic relationship in late 2019, and since then, A$AP Rocky and Rihanna have been building a family together.
The couple now share three children: RZA, 3, Riot, 2, and Rocki, who is just three months old.
For A$AP, the connection has always felt natural, even inevitable.
“It was like we were on the same page,” he explained. “Born the same year. My dad is from her country. My family, when I come back I get to see both sides of my family. It’s so many similarities, it’s just funny. We laugh a lot about it.”
Even before romance entered the picture, he admitted that there was always something special there.
“She was always my boo, you know what I’m saying?” he said. “Like I always f–sorry about her.”
Still, A$AP thinks the timing mattered.
“I’m grateful that she was put into my life at that time,” he shared, explaining that neither was ready earlier.
Rihanna has echoed that sentiment, later saying the pandemic played a role in speeding up their relationship. “COVID sped up our relationship,” she told Interview Magazine in 2024. “There was no question about it… It just happened.”
In the end, it seems his mother saw the love story coming long before either of them did.
