A$AP Ferg remembers the Stay Trippy tour—his 2013 co-headlining run with Juicy J—vividly.
“Tour life was fucking wack as shit,” the 27-year-old Harlemite recalls. “Juicy J was living, he had the big-ass bus. We couldn’t afford that shit. We were grinding. It was a big tour for us, but we were pushing around in a Sprinter. I used to sleep in itchy beds in broke-ass motels. Niggas had little red dots on their back. It was crazy.”
Fortunately, like DJ Khaled, Ferg’s status has changed a lot since those early, humbler days. He’s rocked the Madison Square Garden stage multiple times, traveled the world, scored a prominent Adidas endorsement deal (the design of his first skateboarding sneaker incorporates his own “Hood Pope” lyrics), all the while making fans of legends like Jay Z, Puff Daddy and Timbaland.
This elevation is the narrative that weaves together Ferg’s sophomore studio album Always Strive and Prosper, led by the Future-assisted single “New Level.” With his forthcoming music, Ferg looks to continue showing just how versatile he can be—his Missy Elliott and Fatman Scoop collaboration is DJ Mustard’s take on EDM—while lyrically getting more personal.
“I feel like my fans don’t really know who I am,” says Ferg, slouched in a swiveling chair at the Genius HQs. “You’ve got a bunch of hollow artists and I’m not like that… With this album, I became a human. I show people I’ve been always striving. And I finally prospered.”
Fergenstein sat down with Genius to discuss “New Level,” getting denied by Ashanti, and the guest verse that jump started his career. —John Kennedy
Genius: The songs on your sophomore album Always Strive And Prosper all sound very different from each other.
A$AP Ferg: It’s all so versatile. This album represents my growth. I worked with DJ Khalil for most of the album—that was like a dream for me. He brought bands and top musicians to play violin, opera singers—all different types of great musicians. I brought Clams Casino in to sit with DJ Khalil. He’d place a mic in the middle of the room and record the jam sessions. You can hear us, the extra noise and everything. And he’d take those jam sessions and make loops out of them. We created and sampled our own music.
The first official single is a collaboration with Future called “New Level.” What’s the message you wanted to get across with that song?
That record picks up where I left off with “Work.” It shows my rags-to-riches story. A lot of people didn’t get the story with Trap Lord, because I was busy putting out the sonics and showing people how different my music and style was. With this album I became a human and showed people—I’ve been always striving. And I finally prospered. This album represents that right now.
How is your new level different from where you were previously? Talk about that growth, from where you’ve strived and are now prospering.
In my two verses, I talk about the full circle of “New Level.” I went on tour with Juicy J, but tour life was fucking wack as shit. Juicy J was living, he had the big-ass bus. We couldn’t afford that shit. We were grinding. It was a big tour for us, but we were pushing around in a Sprinter. I used to sleep in itchy beds in broke-ass motels. Niggas were uncomfortable. Sometimes we slept in the sprinter, sometimes we slept in the motel. Niggas had little red dots on they back. It was crazy.
In the second verse, I talk about how we overcome that. Flashy jewelry, chains—I’m shining now. I can buy diamonds. We’re on a new level. Yams passed away but it’s like—take care of the family. I do my best to teach Marty [Baller] how to do his thing so he could never be broke. He don’t gotta depend on me.
Family seems to be really a really important concept for everyone in A$AP Mob.
Yeah, family is important. We all start with family. Personalities, racism it all starts in the home. The family is the soil. If you have a bad soil, you have a bad seed—a bad child. So I’m big on family. Raising people who are around me to be the best. Making sure that soil is good so we all can be living and good money.
On “New Level” you mention your Uncle Terry. It’s not the first time you’ve shouted him out in a rhyme.
I always talk about both of my uncles. I got an uncle named Psycho, he’s crazy. He’d remind you of ODB—he was like the lost Wu member. And T-Ferg is the suave guy with hazel eyes, buff. He’s always with me. That’s my pop’s brother. He was in the streets and went to jail for 15 years. When he came out he was trying to go back to the street. This was during the Juicy J tour—I was scraping the plate. But I had to figure out a way to get him out of the streets. One of my best friends got killed and it was getting hot. I was like, we just gotta get him out of the streets. Same thing with Marty. I was taking on all these people and I couldn’t even afford it. I made it work though.
When you remixed Tinashe’s “Thug Cry” for Ferg Forever, you captured that same story about your Uncle Terry.
Yeah it was written from his perspective and his wife’s perspective. He cheated on his wife with another female and around that time he went to jail so she was already mad at him. It’s like a whole movie. She had a baby on him. My pops died when he was in jail and my cousin died too. That’s what I was talking about on “New Level.” And they didn’t even let him out of the jail cell. He took two losses back to back. Me and my pops were going to my cousin’s funeral and the next year my pops died and he couldn’t even come to the funeral.
What was it about “Thug Cry” that made you want to record your own take on it?
It was supposed to be mine originally. I already had the beat, I did it already. And she turned around and put it out. But that shit is still hard—like a modern-day Ja Rule and Ashanti.
You released the song “Ja Rule” on Ferg Forever as well. Did you ever speak to him about that?
Yeah. Ja Rule is friends with my manager. He loves it. I’m pretty sure anybody would love anybody that’s chanting their name. Shabba loved that shit. [Laughs]. But yeah I met up with him. The funny thing about that song is that I was supposed to put Ashanti on there. But I said a line about sideburns. Ashanti—I love your sideburns. I love girls with Indian silky, smooth, wavy sideburns. But I’m cool with her sister—she wanted me to take that line out. And I was like, I’m not compromising my song. Fuck that. But shoutout to Ashanti.
On the new album, you have a song with Missy Elliott and Fatman Scoop. How did that collaboration come together?
I ran into Fatman Scoop at a show and he was like: “Yo! I’ve been looking for you. I used to look up to your pops, watch him driving his Benz around Harlem.” I was like, “let’s work.” So I got Fatman Scoop first.
Then I was in Virginia working on the album. Missy’s cousin called my producer like, “Timbaland wants Ferg to come to the studio.” I packed everything up and went over there. This was when Missy did the Super Bowl show with Katy Perry. I pulled up to the studio and Missy was in the hallway. She was like, “Oh yeah, Timbaland told me about you.” She took me to the big room, and Timbaland just turned up. He was loud as shit. I just wanted to play one song. Missy stopped me like 30 seconds into the song like, “This is the music I want to make!” Timbaland was like, “He would’ve been hanging with us back in the day.” They didn’t let me stop playing songs. Timbaland said, “Hov put me onto your music.”
That’s crazy, because the next day I went to the first Yeezy Season fashion show and I saw Hov. He was like, “Yeah, I fuck with your shit.” It’s crazy how everything comes full circle.
For you, this all started with your verse on A$AP Rocky’s “Kissin Pink.” Did you know how important that verse would be when you first wrote it?
No. It just felt good and everybody would get crazy when it comes on. I didn’t know it was going to be like that, though. I didn’t even like that beat at first. I was like, “What is this?” I wasn’t even living that life at that time when I wrote that rhyme. [laughs] I’d never experienced none of that at that point.
I knew it was something when Drake put it on his blog. When we went on tour with Drake that was the only song I was performing. “Work” wasn’t even out. But it’s cool because now you see a bunch of artists doing that—turning up to sing-songy trap beats. That’s what we were doing already, melody over trap beats. That’s the new wave.
