ASAP Rocky’s mother has been pro-Rihanna since day one.
“[Rihanna] was always my boo,” Rocky said in a review of 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 admitted that at first, he didn't consider it as a real possibility. “I used to be like, ‘Ma why you keep saying that? That girl don’t even want me like that," he explained. Be cool, Ma. That’s just my friend. Chill.’”
“‘I’m telling you, she real,’” he said his mother told him. “And mothers know best,” Rocky added.
Rocky also gave insight into how being with Rihanna has fundamentally changed him as a human being.
“A woman will change your whole life, especially if it’s a companion,” Rocky said of 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 is happy the timing worked out 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 said. “I don’t think she was either.”
It took years for the pair to get together after first meeting during rehearsals for the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. They didn’t start dating until the end of 2019, and only confirmed their relationship to the public in 2021. The couple later welcomed their first son, RZA, in 2022, their second son, Riot, in 2023, and their first daughter, Rocki, in 2025.
Now, Rocky is gearing up for the release of his fourth studio album, Don't Be Dumb, which arrives on Friday.