A$AP Yams mother, Tatianna Paulino, opens up about her son’s drug abuse on what would have been his 28th birthday. She says it was due to severe stress he was facing among the A$AP collective and that he told her he felt he was being pushed out of the group he he loved and helped create.
Ms. Paulino told Noisey:
My son was under a tremendous amount of pressure to keep the A$AP Mob collective striving together, successful and producing hit recordings. At the same time, he told me he felt as if he was being squeezed out of the group of creative friends he had spent so much time and energy putting and keeping together. For Steven, money was tight; he never had much. In fact, I had to pay for his drug treatment through my employee benefits plan. This was not missed on Steven. Over time, he grew less comfortable with his role and place with A$AP. 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.
Yams mother doesn’t speak any names and doesn’t hold a grudge against anyone in particular, but one can only speculate what happened.
