(Interlude: Schoolboy’s criminally underrated album Oxymoron is a great companion to Always Strive.) The depiction bleeds over into “Let It Bang,” where Schoolboy Q complements it from the POV of a dealer selling to his own relatives. Sometimes his personal insights are lighthearted, like the mundane toil of struggling with weight while scooping ice cream for minimum wage on “Strive” or encountering identity theft with his newfound wealth on “Swipe Life.” Others are considerably darker: “Hungry Ham” offers a dramatis personae rundown of dope fiends, dealers, schemers, and just-plain-weird personalities in his Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Harlem, while “Psycho” is such a starkly detailed portrait of his drug-addicted, philandering uncle it resembles a fusion of Raymond Carver and Donald Goines set to music. The trips into his psyche are also far deeper and more moving than anything on Trap Lord (except perhaps the horrifyingly sad “Cocaine Castle”). The core sound is that synth-heavy atmospheric take on Southern trap that dominates many A$AP Mob releases, but it remains fresh by incorporating classic house, modern EDM, slow-jam R&B, soul and minimalist noise. A 2014 mixtape, Ferg Forever, showed signs of a broader vision, particularly the drum-and-bass-indebted madness of “ Dope Walk” and the somber sociopolitics on “Talk It.” What makes Always Strive so successful is that it ups the ante of Ferg’s eclecticism through the oft-danceable production, provided by Clams Casino, DJ Khalil, Lex Luger, No I.D., DJ Mustard, A$AP Mob’s in-house VERYRVRE crew and others. His debut Trap Lord alternated freely between dark street stories and sophomoric sexual boasts, amid beats that drew equal inspiration from 90s boom-bap and codeine-slow Houston bounce. Few other rappers would sequence a Missy-Elliott-featuring pop anthem, “Strive,” after the buzzsaw-synth banger “Hungry Ham” and before two grim boom-bap tracks, “Psycho” and “Let It Bang,” and be confident that the transitions will work.įerg isn’t new to exploring a wide range of moods and sounds. It makes the depth of his ambition crystal clear and proves that it’s genuine. is by far A$AP Mob’s most idiosyncratic member, and Always Strive and Prosper positions him as its most artistically progressive. While not as popular as crew leader A$AP Rocky, the man born Darold Ferguson Jr. A$AP Ferg’s sophomore album Always Strive and Prosper is yet another major-label rap release with the potential to chart high with its hooks and move listeners with the depth of its emotional insight. This persists to an extent despite countless examples disproving it, from Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city to YG’s My Krazy Life, Vince Staples’ Summertime 06, Future’s run of releases from Monster to EVOL and many more. One of the major fallacies about hip-hop believed by those who don’t truly follow it is that, aside from rare exceptions (like Kanye West), rappers either go for commercial or critical appeal and can’t chase both.