A$AP Yams’ mother, Tatiana Paulino, has taken part in the preservation of her son’s legacy. To commemorate what would have been Yams’ 28th birthday, she penned an op-ed in Noisey recalling the night of his death in January 2015 and warned readers of the dangers of opioid use.
Paulino explained that she was not aware of her son’s addiction to lean, and did not know what lean was, until her son died. “Even if it makes us uncomfortable, I wish public health messages about drugs were more clear and simple in emphasizing real concerns as opposed to hyping less likely outcomes," she wrote. "I wish such messages simply stated, ‘Don’t combine opioids with other sedatives!’ If they did, perhaps my son would be alive today.”
She added that she believes her son's drug use was a response the stresses of holding A$AP Mob together. "My son was under a tremendous amount of pressure to keep the A$AP Mob collective striving together, successful and producing hit recordings," she wrote. "At the same time, he told me he felt as if he was being squeezed out of the group of creative friends he had spent so much time and energy putting and keeping together. The business began to weigh on him mentally and physically. He often felt uneasy in having to make the transition from a fun collective of friends, to a business partner in A$AP Worldwide, the business. In my mind, his drug use was a strategy to decompress and release."
Read Paulino's full op-ed here.