"You gotta take risks. You gotta be willing to fail to grow"
About this Quote
The subtext is about control. "Be willing to fail" sounds humble, but it's also a way of owning the narrative before anyone else can. If failure is something you consent to, it can't be used as a weapon against you. That's a survival tactic in hip-hop's attention economy, where experiments get mocked instantly and permanently, and where the line between reinvention and "falling off" is brutally thin.
Context matters: Rocky built his name by treating rap like a fashion house - swapping sounds, aesthetics, and scenes without asking permission. That takes the kind of risk that isn't just artistic; it's social. You're betting your credibility with every pivot. The quote reads like advice, but it's also self-justification: a permission slip for evolution in a culture that demands both loyalty to your past and constant novelty.
The intent isn't to romanticize failure. It's to normalize it as a cost of entry. Growth, here, is less about self-help and more about staying alive creatively.
Quote Details
| Topic | Failure |
|---|---|
| Source | A$AP Rocky interview in album-press cycle (mid-2010s; various outlets) |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Rocky, A$AP. (2026, January 25). You gotta take risks. You gotta be willing to fail to grow. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-gotta-take-risks-you-gotta-be-willing-to-fail-184389/
Chicago Style
Rocky, A$AP. "You gotta take risks. You gotta be willing to fail to grow." FixQuotes. January 25, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-gotta-take-risks-you-gotta-be-willing-to-fail-184389/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You gotta take risks. You gotta be willing to fail to grow." FixQuotes, 25 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-gotta-take-risks-you-gotta-be-willing-to-fail-184389/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.









