A$AP Twelvyy

Bronx-based rapper A$AP Twelvyy has been active in hip-hop circles since the late 2000s, working as part of the A$AP Mob from the time of A$AP Rocky’s debut mixtape. As years went on, he moved from featured appearances on other artists’ tracks to projects of his own, bringing his charged East Coast rap style to albums like 2020′s Noon Yung.
Born Jamel Phillips in Harlem in 1989, the rapper, always nicknamed after the Harlem area code 212, altered that nickname a bit when choosing a stage name, since he didn’t feel like “A$AP 212” had a very good flow to it. One of his first appearances was a guest verse on the track “Trilla” on A$AP Rocky’s 2011 debut mixtape, Live.Love.A$AP. From there, Twelvyy was prominently featured on a host of A$AP-related tracks, as well as making appearances on tracks by Flatbush Zombies, Smoke DZA, Tray Pizzy, and many others. Along with these cameos, he also issued several tracks of his own between 2014 and 2016. In 2017, after years of experience in the studio and on-stage, Twelvyy’s debut album, 12, was finally released on the RCA sublabel Polo Grounds. It would be a few years before he returned, but in 2020 Twelvyy released both the extended mixtape Before Noon and second proper album Noon Yung. The latter featured guest spots from A$AP Rocky, Joy Postell, Conway the Machine, and others. ~ Fred Thomas