Wine and Cheese: Lana Del Rey and A$AP Rocky
Lana Del Rey and A$AP Rocky’s make for the perfect dreamy rap duo.
It’s your dream collab. The artists you add back-to-back to the queue. The pairing you can’t get enough of. You know they sound good together, but why? Welcome to Wine and Cheese, a series investigating the why and telling you all about it.
Written by Mandy Meier
Photo courtesy of VEVO
Lana Del Rey and A$AP Rocky have been garnering attention for some time now. The union is highly appreciated, although we’ve seen little of them. Their genre-mixing talents and intense chemistry make it easy to fall in love with the two.
The first glimpse we got of Lana and A$AP was back in 2012. Subsequently after A$AP called Lana his dream girl, they blessed us with the beauty that is the “National Anthem” music video. The seven minute and 48 second short film takes you into a lavish world, showing you a new age John F. Kennedy and Jackie O. The dreamy vibe of the video, the cute babies, and the obvious chemistry between the two is just the first glimpse of how well Lana and A$AP go together aesthetically.
Fortunately, they gave us their first duet just one day after the “National Anthem” video. The leaked single “Ridin’,” a Bonnie-and-Clyde-esque collaboration, gives a taste of just how well the duo works together.
Production team The Kickdrums made the collaboration happen. According to tweets posted when the track was leaked, A$AP wasn’t proud of the song. He deemed his own bars “wack,” saying they were just a freestyle reference. The leak caused friction between the rapper and the production team and the song was never formally released.
After “Ridin’,” the pair held off on another collaboration for 5 years, but that didn’t stop them frmo getting attention. It seemed like fans were attached to the thought of Lana and A$AP being an item. At this time, we knew the two were hot as hell together. The glimpse of the musical aspect in “Ridin’” was good, but it didn’t quite reach the artists full potential together yet.
Photo courtesy of We Heart It
Finally, in 2017, the duo gave their fans something to hold onto. That’s when we really got to see how Lana is the wine to A$AP’s cheese (and vise versa). Lana dropped “Groupie Love” and “Summer Bummer” ahead of her fifth studio album Lust for Life.
“Groupie Love” fits into Lana’s natural category. Robust but lush vocals over hi-hats set the tone. A$AP comes in near the end over faint and airy Lana melodies. His verse gives her the hard rhythmic structure she usually doesn’t play by.
Although A$AP has never released a song with Lana from his side, “Summer Bummer” feels like it’s his. At the beginning, ad-libs from Playboi Carti and A$AP whisper in the background as Lana’s thick vocals serenade. A$AP’s voice is hard, catchy, and forceful at the beginning, turns into something more like Lana’s vocal style, balancing each other out beautifully.
A$AP’s lyrics, “She just might become my lover for real, I might f--- with her all summer for real,” along with the rest of the verse, play into the hype around their relationship. The lyrics intrigue the listener, while Lana’s vocals give a soft, chilled essence. Essentially, the 808’s mixed with woozy flows appeals to both of the artist’s audiences, making for the perfect dark ballad.
Although we only have two official Lana-A$AP duets as of now, Rey said there are multiple out there somewhere. For now, we can only hope one of those many songs will be leaked.