ASAP Rocky is revisiting his 2019 detention in Sweden and how Donald Trump’s public comments made things worse for him.
The topic came up during Rocky’s recent interview with Ebro Darden on Apple Music 1, which premiered on Wednesday (Jan. 21).
Near the 22-minute mark in the video linked above, the Don’t Be Dumb rapper explained what daily life was like while locked up, describing the small cell, and that the lights in the bathroom would shut off quickly. He also discussed how he was confined for 23 or 24 hours a day, with only about 30 minutes outside on a rooftop with no real recreation, describing it as "just dudes just everybody either working out in circles smoking or talking."
Until one night, Rocky recalled waking up in the middle of the night to hearing Trump's voice on television and later seeing coverage everywhere, from Al Jazeera to other Swedish national broadcasts, realizing how big the situation had become.
He described the emotional whiplash of that attention, especially while behind bars in a foreign country, saying, “I was honored and then I was so low. But when I saw my peers, different rappers, different singers, different entertainers, different people—just black, white, Latin, everybody, Indian, Asian, all agreeing, like, ‘Yo, that ain't right. Free that man. Free him.’ Honestly, Ebro, that shit uplifted my spirit so crazy that even when I got out, I was still on a high from that.”
He relied on other inmates to translate what was being said about him on television, saying he could not understand the system and kept asking himself why he was still there when he felt he had done nothing. According to Rocky, Trump's involvement backfired.
"When Trump said what he said, he made it worse," he said, explaining that the reaction from authorities was essentially, "'Oh, word. Alright, we keeping him longer!"
Rocky said he even had to stop Kanye West from coming to Sweden with Kim Kardashian and President Trump.
He went on to explain that a national negotiator was eventually sent and claimed that financial concerns played a major role in his case, saying that because he was stopped two days into a concert tour, releasing him would have required reimbursing the rest of it.
"So they didn't want to pay X amount of millions," Rocky explained. "I still ended up being guilty even though they let me go, that was the catch."
While he waited, he said he kept hearing that he might be released, until Trump spoke again and his fellow inmates were telling him, "Yo, they saying they going to give you eight months, kid."
"With the grace of God, I got out. I ain't really let that make me jaded," he continued, before adding that he held a charity concert for refugees and African communities on the outskirts.
Rocky has been consistent about this perspective for years. In his 2021 documentary Stockholm Syndrome, Rocky said, "That's the narrative they pushin': That he got me out. And he didn't free me. If anything, he made it a little worse."
Watch ASAP Rocky’s full Apple Music 1 interview up top.