Rapper A$Ap Rocky has been forced to delay the release of his debut album until next year (13) due to sample clearance issues.

The hip-hop newcomer was expected to unveil LongLiveA$Ap in September (12), but the project was rescheduled for a Halloween (31Oct12) release.

However, the star and his management team have faced a struggle obtaining official authorisation to use samples of other artists' tracks on the disc and, as a result of the post-production problems, the album has been pushed back until 2013.

In an interview on MissInfo.tv, A$Ap Rocky says, "The issue with my album is I got things on it that's so out of this world that it's taking so long to get mastered. That's the issue, and I refuse to take anything off. It's complete, everything is being mastered and cleared right now.

"It's just so hard to get things cleared, because you got to find people to clear samples. It takes a long time and that's why it keeps getting pushed back.... I want to say it's looking like top of the year, first quarter because it makes no sense to put out a album in December."

LongLiveA$Ap is reported to feature collaborations with singer Lana Del Ray and fellow rappers Drake and 2 Chainz.