In light of ASAP Yams’ 28th birthday, his mother pens an open letter in memory of her son.
On January 15, 2015 at approximately 3:00 a.m., Tatiana Paulino lost her only son. At only 26, A$AP Yams, born Steven Rodriguez, passed away from a drug overdose. Almost two years later, his mother continues to mourn his untimely death, but is more than determined to warn others of the dangers of opiate abuse.
In an editorial for Noisey, Paulino wrote, “Even if it makes us uncomfortable, I wish public health messages about drugs were more clear and simple in emphasizing real concerns as opposed to hyping less likely outcomes. I wish such messages simply stated, ‘Don’t combine opioids with other sedatives!’ If they did, perhaps my son would be alive today.”
Yams struggled with an lean addiction, which Paulino was unaware of until his passing. Paulino says she believes that Yams was abusing drugs due to the stress of keeping A$AP Mob together and making sure that the group was successful.
Paulino wrote, “My son was under a tremendous amount of pressure to keep the A$AP Mob collective striving together, successful and producing hit recordings. At the same time, he told me he felt as if he was being squeezed out of the group of creative friends he had spent so much time and energy putting and keeping together.”
“The business began to weigh on him mentally and physically. He often felt uneasy in having to make the transition from a fun collective of friends, to a business partner in A$AP Worldwide, the business. In my mind, his drug use was a strategy to decompress and release.”
She added, “Through my discussions with Professor Hart, (a Columbia University Professor and drug expert) I have learned that while it is possible to die from an overdose of an opioid alone, this is uncommon. The majority of opioid-related deaths involve multiple drugs, especially combining opioids with other sedatives, such as alcohol or benzodiazepines.”
Sadly, Yams’ toxicology reports confirmed that he had Codeine, Oxycodone, and Xanax in his system.
R.I.P. Yams…
