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Ever since he stopped the presses on A$AP Rocky’s debut mixtape Live.Love.A$AP with his balls-to-the-wall verse on ‘Kissin’ Pink’, we’ve had our ears open for anything concerning A$AP Ferg. We were drawn to Ferg’s energy, melodies and playful IDGAF approach to hip-hop after just 40 seconds of creative pronunciations. And as Rocky solidified his fame and became an international success, the time came for A$AP Mob to promote its next soldier to the ranks of solo stardom. Now Ferg is gearing up to release his first-ever, full-length project, Trap Lord, and all eyes are on him to see if he can officially prove his talent, push forth the A$AP brand, step out of the shadow of Rocky and officially become the Trap Lord of hip-hop.

So what does Trap Lord mean?

Trap Lord basically means being a lord of my trap, and my trap is rap.

You’ve said something about trying to speak for your peers without a voice?

Basically, Trap Lord is the Hood Pope, which is me being a voice for my people who can’t speak out. Being from the hood and stuff, a lot of people don’t go to church and shit, but they still need some type of guidance. And I feel like I’m the person to bridge that gap. People think we’re just being ignorant young people. If you talk to an old person whose life is dedicated to church, they’re automatically judging you saying “Don’t do this or don’t do that. You can’t do this. You can’t behave like that.” But they don’t understand the youth. I understand the youth, but at the same time I listen to my old Gs. So, I’m just the person to bridge the gap musically.

What made you choose Shabba Ranks to reference in your new single?

I just wanted to pay homage. I felt like he was forgotten. My generation wasn’t schooled to Shabba Ranks, so this is a way for me to bring him back up and show people who he was.

He was in the video too, right?

Yup.

Where did you find him?

I didn’t even find him. We was on a manhunt. Me and my full team was, like, searching for Shabba. Like Where’s Waldo, but Where’s Shabba.

I heard you sometimes draw inspiration from movies for songs. Why is that?

I draw inspiration from everywhere, not just movies. At that particular time I might have just been watching a movie that just inspired me.

What are some of the movies?

Well Jungle Fever is particularly where I get the inspiration for Cocaine Castles. There’s a certain scene where they go to the Taj Mahal, which is actually a crack house. It looked sort of like a cocaine castle to me.

What was it like working with Bone Thugs?

It was dope. It was a legendary moment. I never met them until we got into the studio –never even spoke to them until we got into the studio. So it was a crazy day for me and one of the best days of my life, just working with my idols.

So they influenced you a little bit?

Nah, a lot. They influenced me a lot. They’re the first guys I heard sing-rap, put harmonies to their vocals or just do double time. They brought a whole new fresh style. They represent innovation, and that’s what A$AP is to me. A bunch of young artistic kids who are innovative and motivate people.

So besides Bone Thugs, who else influenced your flow?

They just influenced me in being an innovator because they were doing something different. That’s what I like. I like being different. It’s not necessarily that I picked up on flow from them or took anything from them. It’s that I saw them doing something different, and I wanted to do something different as well. As far as my flow, I always wanted to create my own flow. I always wanted to create my own type of music – my own genre. So, I basically experiment with shit. I don’t want to sound like anyone.

Was it hard to keep all the A$AP members off the album? Rocky’s the only one of there. Did you do that on purpose? 

I just did everything organically. That’s the way everything just happened. A$AP is blowing up now, so it’s kind of hard for everyone to get in the studio at one time. But when we get to go on tour together and shit like that, it’s sort of like a blessing for us because all of us are getting pulled in a different direction. Before I came here, I was touring with Juicy J. Before that, I was on tour with Rocky and Rihanna. And before, I hadn’t seen Rocky or any A$AP members for damn near a couple months. So that’s just how the album happened. But as you know, right after Trap Lord drops, we’ve got a compilation A$AP Mob album. So that’s where you’ll hear a lot of the collaborative things that we’ve done together.

Is Trap Lord something you went off and did on your own? Who was around you to help with it?

I didn’t really have help with it. I just had a lot of opinions I value. But for the most part A$AP Worldwide is very supportive of me and my taste in music. So they kind of just let me go and get in my own creative zone. Then, we’d all meet up and congregate about it.

Besides A$AP Mob, what’s your favorite hip-hop crew of all time?

That’s hard … Oh, yeah. Wu-Tang would have to be one of them. But you’ve got Wu-Tang, Bone Thugs, Das EFX, fuckin’ M.O.P., duos like Mobb Deep. When you’ve got so many, you can’t just pick one. The Firm was the shit.

Was it Rocky who got you started rhyming?

Yeah. I was rapping, but it was Rocky who said, “You should pursue this.”

When did you meet?

We met on a couple occasions in Harlem, but I remember talking to him on this boat ride that my cousin had for her sweet sixteen birthday party. That was when MTV Sweet Sixteen was poppin – all the big-ass super sweet sixteens – so she had one of them shits, and me and Rocky met there. Probably in, like, 2004 or some shit.

So, did you know anybody else from A$AP or you all kind of met?

First person I knew out of A$AP was A$AP Bari. That’s who started A$AP, and A$AP was a crew before me and Rocky was even down with that shit.

Is there any pressure to write verses better than the one on Kissin’ Pink

Nah, because there wasn’t no pressure when I wrote Kissin’ Pink. When I wrote Kissin’ Pink, first of all, I didn’t like the song, I didn’t like the beat. I didn’t know what Rocky wanted me to do on it. He didn’t tell me what to do on it. I just did it. And when I did it, everybody was fuckin’ with it. But I didn’t even like that song, to tell you the truth. Everybody else liked it, though. Even Work – when I did Work, I just thought it was a fun song. I was just doing it just to do it. I fuck with Persian Wine and Choppas On Deck – my songs. Work was, like, a fun song everybody else gravitated to. It wasn’t one of my favourites, but now it is because the shit gets turned up in parties. It’s different writing a song versus seeing how people react to it at parties and performances.

How did French and Schoolboy Q end up on it?

They’re just my homies. I’m not accustom to doing remixes and shit like that. I wasn’t even gonna do a remix for Work, but Schoolboy was like, “You should have threw me on the fuckin’ original, nigga.” Then Rocky ended up on the remix. That’s how it happened. It was just a bunch of friends.

I’m really excited to hear what Fergivicious sounds like. Can you describe it at all? 

It’s different.

What made you even think of that as a title for a song?

I was watching a movie about Sid Vicious – Sid and Nancy – and I liked Sid’s name, so I stole it. I took that shit.

You used to design clothes, right?

Yeah, I used to design. Not just clothes but mad shit. I used to be a designer period – an artist. That was before I became a rapper. That’s what I used to do.

I heard you did belts…?

Yeah, I used to do belts, but not just belts. I did a bunch of different shit.

How did you get started doing that?

Just being broke. A lot of being broke and being artistic and creative. Nobody was doing accessories at the time, so fuck it. Why not belts? I made some money doing it.

I read that your dad made shirts for Bad Boy or something…?

My dad created the Bad Boy logo. That image you see with the “bad” and the “boy” with the boy coming out of it with the Timbs and the hat on, he did that.

So you probably met Diddy when you were like three, right?

Yeah, I knew Diddy since I was a baby.

So the Trap Lord merch available on the Trap Lord website – did you design that stuff? 

Yep. Me and Soe the Emperor collaborated on a lot of the early stuff. All the new stuff, I had a lot of input on. I just found some time and really put forth my efforts into doing some shit to go with these visuals and music. To me, it’s important that everything goes with the music because that’s where everything starts. You have to come with the dope-ass music. Then, you gotta come with the dope-ass visuals and the merch to go with it. So, I felt like it was mad important that I had a lot of creative direction when it came to this new project.

You Vine right?

Yup.

I saw a Vine of you avoid an onstage fall by going into a somersault. How did you manage to pull that off?

Rocky was throwing mad water on the stage – when we get turned up, we throw mad water all over the place – and I was slipping and I didn’t want to look crazy, so I just did a front flip instead of just falling on my face.

So where do you stand on the Vine versus Instagram video debate?

I don’t own Instagram video. I just never [updated] it. I fuck with Instagram pictures, but  I only fuck with Vine.

I know you’ve got at least one groupie story from touring over the past year.

I’m going to try to keep it PG. But the craziest groupie story is when I was onstage performing, and a girl came onstage and stripped down butt naked. But I’ve got another one: we went to Bonnaroo, and performed in front of 70 or 90 thousand people. And there were girls crowd surfing and mosh-pitting butt naked with dirty Vans on in front of the stage.

So that’s where you got that line from Shabba?

Yeah, dirty van bitches wanna suck my dick off.

Trap Lord is out on August 20.