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Less than a month after he was released from a Swedish prison and flew back home, ASAP Rocky pepped up the audience for his new creation “Babushka Boi”, posting a teaser on his social media accounts, leading some to ask themselves what they had just watched.
The video, with the caption “BABU$HKA BOI COMING SOON”, opens with a shot of several people standing behind bars and a question that reads “Why does this black boy wear a babushka?” – a term the US rapper uses to describe a traditional headscarf worn by Russian old ladies. It proceeds to show several cartoon characters suggesting what the reason might be as to why the rapper is wearing a scarf on his head with Russian subtitles. It also depicts a man with a scarf on his head tapping to a cover of an old Russian song, popular among criminals, that is also sung in Russian.
The bizarre trailer apparently left some commenters lost.
The US rapper made the Russian granny scarf, which he calls a babushka (Russian for a “grandmother”), his thing last year when he appeared wearing one at the LACMA’s 2018 Art+Film Gala, setting social media on fire.
“I’m encouraging all guys to wear babushkas from here on out. Silk gang, silk city”, he said at the time.
A man of his word, he started to wear it at other public events and even presented a babushka-themed piece in January, prompting speculation that it might lead to new material. The musician had to put his work on hold in July after he and his staffers were jailed following a street brawl with two men in Stockholm. Both sides' stories of the event completely contradicted each other.
The performer pleaded not guilty and stressed that he wanted “justice” and “his name cleared”. Rocky claimed that he and his comrades were stalked by “some drug addicts” and eventually provoked to engage in a street fight in order to defend themselves. The plaintiff, 19-year-old Afghan-born Mustafa Jafari, argued that it was he who had been attacked and severely beaten up.
After several weeks in jail, he was allowed to leave and travel back home, while his case had turned into an international scandal, with President Donald Trump demanding that Sweden “give [US rapper] A$AP Rocky his freedom”. Nevertheless, a Swedish court later found him guilty of assault, convicting him to a suspended sentence.