Yesterday would have been the 28th birthday of A$AP Mob founder Steven Rodriguez, better known as A$AP Yams. In honor of her son, Yams's mother Tatianna Paulino penned an article remembering his tragic passing, as Yams died from a drug overdose.
The piece centers around the night of Yams's death, as Paulino retells the story in first person. In addition to describing the sequence of events, Tatianna also disclosed that once she learned of the cause of her child's death, she then tried to educated herself as much as possible about lean over the next 22 months.
"On several occasions, I met with Columbia University Professor and drug expert, Dr. Carl Hart," Paulino said. "I read his book High Price and got quite an education on social and biological factors that drive drug use."
She went on to add: "My son was under a tremendous amount of pressure to keep the A$AP Mob collective striving together, successful and producing hit recordings. At the same time, he told me he felt as if he was being squeezed out of the group of creative friends he had spent so much time and energy putting and keeping together. For Steven, money was tight; he never had much. In fact, I had to pay for his drug treatment through my employee benefits plan."
Tatianna concluded the article by disclosing: "To be clear, I recognize that parents, including me, should discourage drug use. But, you should also know that my son wanted to get high, not die. And because this is the case for many young people, whether we like it or not, we should do all we can do to keep them safe and alive. It's the humane thing to do."
Since the tragic passing of A$AP Yams, A$AP Mob has started The A$AP Foundation to bring more awareness and prevention to drug abuse, seeking ways to minimize the impact of addiction in communities.
