When A$AP Rocky revealed the tracklist for his sophomore album, A.L.L.A., somehow the most interesting news wasn't a Kanye West feature, nor UGK or even the elusive Mos Def. Nope, all of those marquee, beyond-standard-fare guests were overshadowed by the name Joe Fox, which appeared a whopping five times across the 18 tracks. You may have seen it and ran to your nearest corner store music blog, thinking you missed something. But we were all asking the very same question: What the hell is a Joe Fox? Is he a new member of the Mob? A new guy on the rap scene? An alias for guest narrator Jaden Smith? A bare bones search result via Google only fueled the mystery's fire, although his Twitter and Instagram profiles were easily found. Fox appears on roughly a third of the album, tackling hooks with Rocky ("Holy Ghost," "Pharsyde," "Max B") and sharing the bill with bigger feature names like Future and M.I.A., and Yeezus himself on "Fine Whine" and "Jukebox Joints." And yet, he's still very much an enigma. Between his two social accounts, a very rare interview given to i-D, and a brief mention in British GQ, here are all the pertinent facts you need to know about Pretty Flacko's new protégé.
When A$AP Rocky revealed the tracklist for his sophomore album, A.L.L.A., somehow the most interesting news wasn't a Kanye West feature, nor UGK or even the elusive Mos Def. Nope, all of those marquee, beyond-standard-fare guests were overshadowed by the name Joe Fox, which appeared a whopping five times across the 18 tracks. You may have seen it and ran to your nearest corner store music blog, thinking you missed something. But we were all asking the very same question: What the hell is a Joe Fox? Is he a new member of the Mob? A new guy on the rap scene? An alias for guest narrator Jaden Smith? A bare bones search result via Google only fueled the mystery's fire, although his Twitter and Instagram profiles were easily found. Fox appears on roughly a third of the album, tackling hooks with Rocky ("Holy Ghost," "Pharsyde," "Max B") and sharing the bill with bigger feature names like Future and M.I.A., and Yeezus himself on "Fine Whine" and "Jukebox Joints." And yet, he's still very much an enigma. Between his two social accounts, a very rare interview given to i-D, and a brief mention in British GQ, here are all the pertinent facts you need to know about Pretty Flacko's new protégé.
He literally randomly met A$AP Rocky on the street.
The streets of his native London, to be precise. In an occurrence so straightforward it sounds more like a cliched biopic scene, Rocky and his boy literally bumped into Joe on the streets during a wee hour stroll. And he was holding a guitar, hawking mixtapes. And they asked to hear a song. It sounds borderline unbelievable, but the young Fox definitely didn't miss his shot. He must've went straight Jimi Hendrix on his guitar, because whatever he played earned him an instant invite back to the studio and into the squad.
He had no idea who Rocky was.
Further lending to the crazy, cinematic nature of their meeting, Joe had absolutely no idea he was talking to a rap B-lister when he tried to get Rocky to buy his free CD. The name still didn't ring any bells when he accepted Rocky's invite to the studio and hopped in his car. It wasn't until later that week that he did his research and listened to Long.Live.A$AP, which he was into, a surprise given he rarely connects with contemporary music.
His whole steez is a throwback.
His influences are the likes of Bob Dylan and John Lennon. His yearning for that era of music is much stronger than his opinion of what today's landscape has to offer. As he said to i-D, "I feel like music isn't that big of a deal to our generation. It's not like in the sixties and seventies where people lived and died by their artists...Music is a career now for people; people just want to be rich and famous." (He's also much more interested in roaming around outside and meeting new people than engaging in and with modern pop culture.) This would seem to indicate that when he drops his own project (expected in 2016) the sound itself will be in line with this image, skewing toward a sound similar to that of his influences. Given Flacko's desire to branch his sound out, it would seem like their union was, incidentally, a perfect match. Is Joe about to be the male Amy Winehouse?
*Here's one modern record he seems to appreciate*
Ian Connor welcomed him to the squad.
Joe's description of meeting Youth King™ Ian Connor, who became affiliated with the Mob under similar random, real-recognize-real circumstances, is perfect: "My first night in New York last year, Ian gave me 50 bucks and said "welcome to the family". I came with no phone or change of clothes."
He's basically Rocky's protege these days, so much so that they live together.
Also similar to Ian's entry, Joe is firmly under Rocky's wing now, which includes crashing and traveling with him wherever he goes (his Instagram shows him enjoying Tokyo while Rocky filmed "L$D"). Salute Rocky for actually taking care of his people, and not simply exploiting Joe for the album then discarding him. Until dude finishes his debut and is able to stand on his own, he goes where A$AP Mob goes.
Here's a preview of what he has in store.
Since the Internet caught wind of his name, his SoundCloud and various YouTube videos have since been taken down, but you can check his acoustic cover of "This Love" in the video above for a sense of dude's voice and the type of music he might be cooking up right now.