A$AP Ferg on How the New Rock Stars Are Rappers (and Why He Doesn’t Hang Out with Them)

Once known mostly as A$AP Rocky’s stylish and raucous running mate, A$AP Ferg has spent the past several years carving out his own territory as an artist: bombastic and emotional, confessional, a little disrespectful. He’s a curious and restless musician who also, when he feels like it, will make a song like “New Level,” with Future, that could destroy a whole city skyline. In person, he has a round, friendly face, and today—reclining on a couch in a photo studio on the west side of Manhattan—red leather pants. Last August, he released a galvanizing mixtape, Still Striving. But he’s already working on the next thing. “I’m rapping like I’ve never rapped before,” he says. “Pushing myself as an artist to make better art. And just try to make more effective art. Art with intention.”

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