In 2017, A$AP Rocky starred in a Mercedes-Benz campaign where he described arriving in Harlem knowing that music was his destiny – a constant beat pounding in his chest. The slogan ? “Grow up. Find a job.

Suffice it to say, Rocky has done both of those things since then, and more – and he’s got even more on deck. This week, he announces a new collaboration between Mercedes and his creative agency, AWGE, on a gender-neutral collection of streetwear and updated lifestyle pieces. This summer, it will once again be on the festival circuit. Oh, and he and his girlfriend Rihanna are expecting their first child. As Rocky tells me, speaking from New York on Tuesday, “Man, I couldn’t be happier.”

For the capsule collaboration, Rocky and his team wanted to play on the cultural significance of Mercedes-Benz iconography in hip-hop and New York fashion. Indeed, logomania was born in Harlem in the 80s thanks to Dapper Dan, the legendary designer who created his luxury brand “knockups” in his workshop on 125th Street, in turn the origin of the fashion monogram obsession as we know it. Not to mention that Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, and his older sister, Erika B. Mayers, were named after New York DJ/MC duo Eric B. & Rakim, beloved not only for their music but also for their hip -top notch hop. -Dapper Dan’s Golden Age uniforms with the logo and iced out chains with the Mercedes star logo. Growing up, “we would go to 125th Street or downtown, and you would always find contraband Mercedes-Benz logos and so on,” Rocky says. “It correlates with my life in many ways.”