This week, the A$AP Mob celebrated Halloween in similar fashion as to how they pulled it off five years ago — dropping new music.

After alluding to the release for months, the Harlem-bred ensemble released Cozy Tapes Vol. 1: Friends, their first posthumous release since the passing of A$AP Yams. “It was for him,” said A$AP Rocky to REVOLT after a private listening session for the album in Los Angeles just days before its release. “I look at it like I just want to make him proud. I just want to give the kids something fun.”

At 12 tracks, the album is filled with fun, angst, and enough bangers (“Put That On My Set,” “Crazy Brazy”) to last through the fall, winter and beyond. This is a testament to amount of hardwork that was put into the album, which Rocky said took a minute because creating an “organic” vibe was a bulk of the inspiration. “We had to,” he shared after being asked if the entire crew was in the studio for the recording sessions. “That’s why it took so long.”

“I’m not opposed to sending emails and beats and all that, but if I’m gonna make something that’s a vibe with my brothers, we have to vibe,” he said. “We can’t give people a facade, you have to give them a vibe.”

Speaking on this “vibe” and the chemistry shared within his brotherhood, A$AP Rocky talked to REVOLT about Cozy Tapes Vol. 1, how an idea for a “Canal St.” visual turned into the 12-minute “Money Man” short, and what he would tell President Barack Obama if invited to the farewell dinner.

How important was it to be together in the studio to create this body of work?

We had to and that’s the point and that’s why it took so long. It has to be organic. I’m not opposed to sending emails and beats and all that, but if I’m gonna make something that’s a vibe with my brothers, we have to vibe. We can’t give people a facade, you have to give them a vibe. We create together, that’s like cohesive [and] the only way everybody is synchronized. If you don’t then other people go off and they adapt different mannerisms and different thoughts and different intake. No, you have to stick with the same vision. I just want to show that yeah, we’re from the streets but, look at André 3000 man, we all just young entrepreneurs. That’s what we do, we capitalize, we spread and that’s just the point.

How crazy was it to have you all together in the studio because when I think about all you guys in the studio I think of a mini family reunions as you all are going down memory lane while putting on for a late family member.

Rest in peace A$AP Yamborghini. I look at it like I just want to make him proud. I just want to give the kids something fun. I want to have fun and show them the fun we having, show the creativeness and give people some things that they won’t forget.

Knowing Yams, as much as you do, what would his favorite tracks be?

“Telephone Calls”

Now, “Money Man” is a 12-minute short film that kind of took you back to your acting realm, what was that like? How was that creative process?

That concept, honestly, I was supposed to use that for a track named “Canal St.,” from my last previous album, and I didn’t do a video for it so I just figured I would apply that to this. The “Money Man” fit the concept so well, but I just was like I need to shoot this in London because if I shoot it in New York, like Canal, I want to save that concept for something else. So I was gonna shoot it in Paris, but I thought about it and realized Paris might be too complicated. In London, I can do what I want. That’s damn near home number one. I was just like I’m gonna hit up my boy Dex, because we had worked together before, and he looked at the treatment and my references and was like, “Yo bro, because the Yams stuff, you should actually do butterflies.” I [originally] wanted them to be doing angel dust. The point is they do a drug, it was supposed to show a beauty [of doing]. It was supposed to be butterflies in general but then he was like, “Nah do butterfly then.”

When you were in there talking about doing music and doing fashion, and then directing and now becoming creative director of MTV Labs, you have all these different avenues and the attention of those looking up to you. How do you handle the task of being a role model?

I’m gonna show them how to do it for themselves. Everybody before us, and I’m not talking about Jay Z or nobody, but people before us didn’t spread the knowledge. People are scared to let other people get the money and sometimes you can’t spread that knowledge onto other people because they’ll do the wrong thing with it and there’s certain people who just don’t deserve [it] or will fuck their money up on dumb frivolous shit. That’s why for me, I kind of live like a — I live a flamboyant modest lifestyle. If you really look at it, I’m handsome and I’m into influencing others. I don’t really got a hundred diamond chains on and shit, but then again I have diamonds implanted in my teeth.

So it’s just about how you flaunt it —

I have more of a modest approach. My approach is way more subtle.

If you were invited to President Obama’s farewell dinner, what would your words be?

It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. Honestly, I would say thank you for inviting me to the White House, allowing me to come in. Thank you for changing the world the way you did and giving a lot of people hope.