"Raf" (stylized in

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...

) is a song by American hip hop collective

ASAP Mob ASAP Mob (stylized as A$AP Mob, ASAP being an acronym for "Always Strive And Prosper") is an American hip hop collective formed in 2006 in Harlem, New York City, that consists of rappers (most of whom carry the "ASAP" moniker), record producers, ...

, featuring American rapper and collective member

ASAP Rocky Rakim Athelaston Mayers (born October 3, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Rocky ( ; stylized as A$AP Rocky), is an American rapper, music producer and record executive. Born and raised in Harlem, he embarked on his musical career as a membe ...

alongside fellow American rappers

Playboi Carti Jordan Terrell Carter (born September 13, 1996), known professionally as Playboi Carti, is an American rapper. Carter was initially signed to local underground label Awful Records prior to signing with ASAP Mob's AWGE Label under Interscope R ...

Quavo Quavious Keyate Marshall (born April 2, 1991), known professionally as Quavo (), is an American rapper, singer, and actor. He is best known as the co-founder and former frontman of hip hop group Migos. Quavo is the uncle of late fellow Migos m ...

and

Lil Uzi Vert Symere Bysil Woods ( ; born July 31, 1995), known professionally as Lil Uzi Vert, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. They are characterized by their face tattoo, facial tattoos, facial piercings, eccentric hairstyles and androgynous ...

and American singer

Frank Ocean Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. His works are noted by music critics for featuring avant-garde styles and introspective, elliptical lyrics. Ocean ...

. It was released on May 15, 2017 and is the lead single from ASAP Mob's second studio album '' Cozy Tapes Vol. 2: Too Cozy'' (2017). The song pays tribute to Belgian fashion designer

Raf Simons Raf Jan Simons (; born 12 January 1968) is a Belgian fashion designer. Beginning in furniture design, Simons launched his own menswear label in 1995. He was creative director at Jil Sander (2005–2012), Christian Dior (2012–2015), and Calvin K ...

Background

ASAP Rocky posted a snippet of the song on Twitter in January 2017, and previewed the song again at the 2017 Rolling Loud festival. The song premiered on Frank Ocean's ''

Blonded Radio ''Blonded Radio'' (stylized as ''blonded RADIO'') is Frank Ocean's Apple Music 1 radio show that originally lasted from February to August 2017, with four additional special episodes that aired in November and December 2018, four more episodes fr ...

'' on May 15, 2017 in two versions. It is named after fashion designer Raf Simons, whom Rocky is a longtime admirer of. When Simons was selected to be on the ''Time'' 100, Rocky wrote for ''Time'':

I feel like Raf Simons is important for the culture based on the fact that he built a whole new religion around fashion. It's to the point where kids, male and female alike, will get in full arguments over why he's the greatest. And it's amazing how his prior work, his archive, is more important and relevant than anything that's out today.

Content

In the song, ASAP Rocky sends warnings to not touch his designer clothing, notably Raf Simons-designed ones. Throughout Rocky's verse, Playboi Carti provides background vocals with ad-libs. The other artists each rap about owning designer clothes, also warning not to get close to their expensive garment. The two versions of the song that were originally released featured different verses from Frank Ocean. One version features a hook from Rocky, on which he raps, "Please don't touch my Raf."

Music video

The music video was released on July 24, 2017. Directed by Alec Eskander, it finds ASAP Rocky, Playboi Carti and Quavo modeling clothes from Raf Simon's archive. Simon's Fall/Winter 1995-1996 and Spring/Summer 2002 collections are referenced in the clip. The video uses a shortened version of the song which excludes Lil Uzi Vert and Frank Ocean's verses.

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Frank Ocean 2017 singles 2017 songs ASAP Mob songs ASAP Rocky songs Playboi Carti songs Quavo songs Lil Uzi Vert songs Frank Ocean songs RCA Records singles Songs written by ASAP Rocky Songs written by Playboi Carti Songs written by Quavo Songs written by Lil Uzi Vert Songs written by Frank Ocean Songs written by Michael Uzowuru Posse cuts