{"id":243533,"date":"2026-01-21T01:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243533\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T01:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:45:08","slug":"aap-rocky-reveals-he-got-rejected-from-the-club-the-night-he-met-rihanna-and-shares-the-most-wholesome-tim-burton-story-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243533\/","title":{"rendered":"A$AP Rocky reveals he got rejected from the club the night he met Rihanna (and shares the most wholesome Tim Burton story ever) –"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Harlem rapper dropped by Fallon to chat Don\u2019t Be Dumb, German design obsessions, and the morning ritual that convinced him Tim Burton was the one.<\/p>\n

A$AP Rocky has officially entered his \u201cart auteur\u201d era, but that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s forgotten the days when he couldn\u2019t even get past a doorman. <\/p>\n

In a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the rapper peeled back the curtain on his new album<\/a>, his deep-dive into German industrialism<\/a>, and the surprisingly sweet artistic process behind Tim Burton\u2019s genius.<\/p>\n

While Rocky and Rihanna are now the definition of royalty, their first encounter wasn\u2019t exactly a VIP experience for him. Rocky told Fallon<\/a> that the first time he ever laid eyes on her, he wasn\u2019t famous yet\u2014and he was busy losing a fight with a bouncer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was arguing with the bouncer because he wouldn\u2019t let me in,\u201d Rocky laughed, setting the record straight. He described the cinematic moment of seeing Rihanna walk out of the club while he was stuck on the sidewalk. And no, despite the meet-cute, she didn\u2019t wave him through. \u201cI didn\u2019t even get in,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

Beyond the romance lore, Rocky geeked out over the heavy visual influences behind his long-awaited record, Don\u2019t Be Dumb. He\u2019s been deep in a rabbit hole of German industrial design and Expressionism, a stark aesthetic that led him to the doorstep of Hollywood\u2019s king of gothic whimsy, Tim Burton.<\/p>\n

But the moment that truly sold Rocky on the collaboration<\/a> wasn\u2019t a movie set or a storyboard \u2013 it was a drawing on a table at Burton\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

Rocky described seeing a piece of art sitting on the table and asking about it. Burton revealed a daily ritual that is honestly wholesome AF: The director wakes up every morning and draws half a picture. Then, his kid wakes up, finds the drawing, and completes the other half.<\/p>\n

That blend of seasoned genius and pure, childlike instinct is exactly the energy he wanted for the album cover.<\/p>\n

With the artwork now confirmed to be a Burton original and the new video for \u201cWHISKEY \/ BLACK DEMARCO\u201d showcasing that dark, hand-drawn flair, Rocky is building his own distorted universe, one sketch at a time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Harlem rapper dropped by Fallon to chat Don\u2019t Be Dumb, German design obsessions, and the morning ritual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[142773,156,594,44039,111,139,69,693,437],"class_list":["post-243533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-album-art","tag-entertainment","tag-interviews","tag-jimmy-fallon","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rapper","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}