ASAP Rocky's Mom Had to Raise Him in Homeless Shelter for a Time – More about Renee Black

Renee Black, A$AP Rocky's mother, struggled to raise her kids with her husband jailed. In 2019, her son was arrested in Sweden following a viral video depicting the rapper and his security team assaulting a civilian.

In July 2019, Renee Black opened up about her son's arrest in Sweden. A$AP Rocky and two men from his team were arrested for assaulting a man who'd allegedly followed and harassed them. Video evidence of this event circulated the internet, and Swedish authorities held the rapper until late that month.

After it was announced that the said man wouldn't face any charges, on account of the Swedish prosecutors deeming his actions as "self-defense." They also stated that they kept Rocky due to the "Fashion Killa" artist being considered a "flight risk."

Black hoped that former US president Donald Trump's involvement would make a difference following a request for Rocky's bail. However, because her son was still held in Swedish custody, she implied the country would only do as it pleased.

Moreover, although Black said she didn't want to "pull the race card," she felt that Sweden was making "an example" of her son and insinuated that the color of his skin influenced his punishment. During that month, she told TMZ she'd only spoken to Rocky once, and while he "sounded all right," the rapper "wanted to come home."

On July 13 that year, Black joined an action rally held by National Action Network to advocate for her son's release and safe return, along with the two men with whom he was arrested. After fans learned about the incident, she was the first to speak out for Rocky, and the world realized who Renee Black was for the first time.

Black was a mother of three children, two sons and one daughter. She had always been a lover of music, particularly the hip-hop genre, so she named her kids after her favorite hip-hop artists, Rakim and Eric B.

And so the famous artist known as A$AP Rocky was born Rakim Mayers on October 3, 1988. Black named her daughter Erika B, who unfortunately passed on in 2016. However, that wasn't the first time she'd lost a child. Her firstborn, Ricky, was killed at 20 years old in the early 2000s.

Rocky was 13 at the time, but a year before, his dad, also Black's husband, was imprisoned for drug dealing. Black's husband was absent for most of his family's lives as he served his sentence. Sadly, he died in December 2012, and his son remembered him fondly as the man who influenced his fashion sense.

A$AP Rocky & His Mom Have Known Homelessness

Black and her family stayed in an apartment on Morningside Drive in Harlem. As things became more difficult, with Rocky being pulled into the world of drug dealing, there came a time when they all temporarily lived at the Volunteers of America homeless shelter.

A few years passed, and Rocky moved Black and his sister to Elmwood Park in New Jersey, where he sought "peace of mind" for his creative process to flow freely. He also felt it would be safer for them and explained:

"I needed peace of mind to be creative, I needed peace of mind because I was getting street money and I didn't want anybody trying to stick my family up."

A$AP Rocky's Mother Is Also a Muslim

Rocky – who recently welcomed his first child with Rihanna – once shared a Mother's Day tribute to his mom in 2020 in a since-deleted Instagram post. It depicted Black wearing a hijab, revealing to the artist's fans that his mom was Muslim.

Fans responded in the comment sections and on other social media platforms, expressing their shock at the discovery. However, others noted that Rocky had begun displaying a Muslim influence in his fashion style, with the "Praise The Lord" artist incorporating scarves around his hand in his outfits.