A$AP Rocky’s mom has been team Rihanna from the very beginning.
“[Rihanna] was always my boo,” Rocky shared while discussing an upcoming episode of The New York Times’ Popcast. “I always fucked with her. My mother used to say shit like, ‘I know you like this girl that you with right now … But I want you with Riri.’”
Rocky confessed that he initially brushed it off and never saw it as something that could really happen. “I used to be like, ‘Ma why you keep saying that? That girl don’t even want me like that,’” he said. “‘Be cool, Ma. That’s just my friend. Chill.’”
“‘I’m telling you, she real,’” he recalled his mom insisting. And as Rocky put it, “mothers know best.”
Rocky also opened up about how his relationship with Rihanna has deeply changed him as a person.
“A woman will change your whole life, especially if it’s a companion,” Rocky said while talking about his partner. “I got with a very special woman. … It was just like, we were on the same page. Born the same year. My dad is from her country [of Barbados]. … It’s so many similarities, it’s just funny. We laugh about it a lot.”
The “Punk Rocky” rapper said he’s grateful everything aligned when it did with Rihanna, with whom he shares three children.
“I’m thankful that she was put in my life at that time, because I think any time prior to that, I don’t think I was ready for something like that,” he explained. “I don’t think she was either.”
The two first crossed paths years ago during rehearsals for the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, but it took a long while before things turned romantic. They didn’t start dating until late 2019 and only made their relationship public in 2021. Since then, they’ve welcomed their first son, RZA, in 2022, their second son, Riot, in 2023, and their first daughter, Rocki, in 2025.
Now, Rocky is preparing for the release of his fourth studio album, Don’t Be Dumb, which drops on Friday.
