ASAP Rocky Honored With Virgil Abloh Award

ASAP Rocky was honored by Harlem Fashion Row during the annual Fashion Show & Style Awards with the Virgil Abloh award.

During this year’s Fashion Show & Style Awards A$AP Rocky was honored with the Virgil Abloh Award. Harlem’s Fashion Row held the annual event last night and Rocky was on hand to accept the special award. LVMH CEO Anish Melanie and North America Chief Human Resource Officer Gena Smith presented the award. According to Complex, once onstage he revealed he didn’t pre-write anything for the occasion and wanted to “come from the heart”. Virgil is a very significant piece to the story of Rocky and the entire A$AP Mob.

Rocky told a story during his acceptance speech that highlighted how in tune Virgil was with culture and always knew what was next.

“For y’all who don’t know, Virgil discovered us, ASAP, as a bunch of kids before I got my record deal or any of that,” Rocky told attendees at the Apollo, per TMZ-shared footage. “We was downtown in SoHo just cooling and we wasn’t old enough to get into this club.” Rocky recalled. “Virgil peeped us and unbeknownst to us—and we ain’t know that he knew who he was—he’s like, ‘Wait, y’all are those Harlem kids, the trendy ones,’” Rocky said. “And we was tripping like, ‘Wait. Virgil knows who we are, the fashion world knows about us?’”

Rocky revealed it was only a year later he “became A$AP Rocky” pointing out Virgil’s eye for talent and fashion. This marks the second year the Virgil Abloh Award was handed out with Issa Rae being the first honoree. With the award being named after Virgil it’s meant to celebrate “like-minded individuals who embody Virgil’s spirit, brilliance, and vision, through invaluable contributions to culture, community, and innovation”.

Virgil’s sudden death left an impact on music, fashion, and culture as there was no one else quite like him. An apprentice of Kanye West who used that time and his engineering degree to rethink how we saw everything.