A$AP Ferg - Always Strive and Prosper

A$AP Ferg
Always Strive and Prosper
2016
Spotify

When you first listen to Trap Lord, A$AP Ferg's previous album, self reflection and exploration are not the first words that come to mind. Trap Lord was about bangers, flexing and pushing a genre forward by sheer force of will. For the follow up you certainly did not expect what Always Strive and Prosper would become, a reflective, artistic and wholly single view on the current state of hip hop. What A$AP Ferg shows is that trap is not just about bass and fashion, there is a soul behind his words and there should be in all the music coming out of the genre. "Strive" featuring Missy Elliot, is a take on house music and really shows Ferg's range. Throughout the record you realize that Ferg is not going to be constrained by what people expect. He refuses to allow what you think about him to affect the music that he makes. Much of Always Strive and Prosper is classic sounding, like it is straight out of the 1980s and 1990s but not dated at all. Even on the heavier trap songs like "Let it Bang" there is still a sense that Ferg is not being overtaken by a moment in time, that his music is going to hang around much longer than just a song of the summer. The features on the record read like a who's who including: Future, Chuck D, Rick Ross, Big Sean and Ty Dolla $ign just to name a few.

It is not all the best you have ever heard. "New Level" the track featuring Future is the most basic trap beat you are going to hear. When people rail against trap music this is exactly what they are thinking of. It is not all for not however as "New Level" is already the most successful single off the album. The song however just shows that Ferg is well aware that he could simply put out an album full of stuff like this, but instead He takes a risk and tries something different. What is really interesting is that besides the super high level production on the record the lyrics always take center stage. This is Ferg giving us a view into the real man, not the Trap Lord myth. The songs on Always Strive and Prosper are quite concise with some not lasting over two and a half minutes and 18 tracks total (three are skits). Towards the middle the record does drag just from the sheer amount of music burying a really pretty collaboration with Chuck D "Beautiful People" at track 11. On this song Ferg makes his transition from Trap Lord to Hood Pope, accepting the responsibility as the hoods soul leader. Always Strive and Prosper is A$AP Ferg's look inward, his revelation that there is more to life than lean and bangers. A really solid album, and a twist on a genre that many thought would never have any depth.

7.9 out of 10