A$AP Ferg Interview with Crack Magazine

Harlem. Six square New York miles that have offered a home to everyone from James Reese Europe to Big L; Duke Ellington to Super Fly’s Youngblood Priest. Today, this historic epicentre of black American culture counts Darold Ferguson Jr. as one of its brightest ambassadors. In his truest form he’s known as A$AP Ferg – his family name and loyalty to his mob melded into one single moniker.

Filing into the room behind A$AP Rocky around the time that pretty motherfucker was repping Harlem and thrilling the planet with his purple-tinted vision of Gotham, you’d be forgiven for assuming Ferg was destined to be just another rap sidekick. You know, the guy seen jumping on stage with his famous friend at shows but whose mixtapes are perennially ignored. But Ferg wasn’t going to be left stunting in the background, and early tracks like 40 Below and Persian Wine confirmed it. Here was a rapper who could mirror Biggie’s cadences, breathe hooks like they were air, and had an on-record presence that was undeniable.

In the light of his studio output since, it’s easy to see what Harlemites probably always knew: Ferg is one of the wildest, most innovative stars to swagger out of Uptown. Fusing boom-bap, trap, EDM, R&B and more into his own untamed concoction, he’s forged a discography that has its fair share of misses – which is why Ferg doesn’t have a classic record in his clutch of very good ones – but stays loyal to the theology that it’s better to take risks and lose than it is to play safe. And, like Rocky and the rest of A$AP Mob, everything he touches has the feeling of the ostentatiousness that’s inspired by his hometown.

Continue reading on Crack Magazine.