For Father’s Day, rapper A$AP Rocky and Italian fashion house Bottega Veneta announced his new ambassador status for the brand with a sweet ad campaign featuring his sons, two-year-old RZA and ten-month-old Riot Rose. The musician shares his children with Rihanna, though she does not make an appearance in the series of black-and-white videos and photographs of the dad and his boys.
What does make an appearance in the “Portraits of Fatherhood” series is some luxury fashion from Matthieu Blazy’s latest collection for Bottega Veneta. The children are also wearing the brand, with pictures featuring little Riot and RZA in white shirts emblazoned with “Best Dad” across the back.
In the caption of his Instagram carousel, he wrote, “IT WAS A PLEASURE TO WORK ALONGSIDE MY CHILDREN & FAMILY X MATTHIEU BLAZY X BOTTEGA VENETA X CARRIE MAE WEEMS TO BRING U THIS HEARTFELT FATHERS DAY PIECE. THIS SPECIAL MOMENT CAPTURES THE VULNERABILITY ,LOVE AND INTERACTION BETWEEN MY SONS AND I , IM PROUD 2 BE THE MAN THEY CALL DADDA ❤️ HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL PROUD DADS OUT THERE A$AP.”
In an interview with Dazed, Rocky shared more about how his persona has changed as he’s embraced fatherhood.
“This player persona is very pushed. When you think about a rapper, you think about adolescence, about the single bachelor lifestyle,” he said. “When you think about A$AP Rocky, you think about a playboy, pretty boy, bras being thrown on stage. This is about me as a one-woman man, as a family man. It’s about what completes my life now: being present as a partner and a parent.”
The photos were taken by artist Carrie Mae Weems, who told Dazed she was moved by Rocky’s commitment to fatherhood.
“This was a unique opportunity to say something not just positive, but truthful—not just about Rocky’s own experience, but about how that reflects out to the broader population,” she said. “In the wake of all the atrocities committed against Black men—particularly because of their masculinity—Rocky can be seen with his children, in love. To be able to speak that authenticity through him was galvanizing.”