A$AP Ferg Already Working on New Album, Reveals A$AP Yams Posthumous Release Nearing Completion

Lyndsey Havens
·4 min read
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A$AP Ferg is staying busy. Fresh off the release of his latest record, April’s Always Strive and Prosper, Ferg revealed to Billboard that its follow-up, Still Striving, is already in the works. The Harlem rapper says he’s currently in the studio, and that “it’s coming out dope.”

A new record isn’t the only thing on the horizon for the A$AP Mob member, as he is preparing to set out on his Turn & Burnt tour, which kicks off in October and will feature rising talents Playboi Carti and Rob $tone.

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“They’re hot new artists and I’m ready to see their fans and how they turn up, their energy,” Ferg says of the two. “Being around new energy and new artists and being inspired, that’s really what it is — I wanted to take on tour people who inspire me to keep going and keep these wheels rolling.”

Ferg seems to do a good job of that on his own, though, as evidenced by his many plans in the works, one such seedling being to create a film using the Samsung Gear 360 camera — a device he became acquainted with while filming his entire day spent at Lollapalooza in July.

“Man, that 360 camera is crazy” Ferg says. “It’s out of this world. It’s just a new wave of the future.”

As for his own plans for the technology, he intends to put together a cinematic film of him “rapping with crazy visuals” all packaged and presented in the emerging format of a 360° view. But while all of that lies ahead, last Thursday evening Ferg was only concerned with one thing: his intimate yet rousing performance at the Samsung 837 event space in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Ferg’s set served as the finale for the Live@837 Summer Concert Series, which had previously booked shows from the likes of St. Lucia, Capital Cities, Phantogram and more. And as the last performer of the bunch, Ferg sure delivered.

“Why does this feel more like a party than a performance?” he asked the crowd, a wide smile on his face. He proceeded to run through fan favorites, including the Future-featuring hit “New Level” that is quickly creeping towards platinum sales.

A$AP Ferg & Future Salute Success in ‘New Level’ Video

“I’m a big fan of the remix,” Ferg says of the track. He references the work of Michael Jackson and Teddy Riley as inspiration, citing Jackson’s desire to remix every song to take it to the next level as what led him to do the same. Ferg adds that what we hear on “New Level” is actually the remix, because he did all the verses by himself first before questioning, “Yo what can I do to turn this song up even more?” The answer, he says, was simple: “I’m going to put my boy Future on there.”

Ferg, along with the rest of the Mob, also have another collaboration in the works in the form of a posthumous album from A$AP Yams titled Cozy Tapes. Ferg says it’s an eclectic album, “because it’s got so many sounds and elements to it,” and adds that they already shot the cover for it, which means “we’re pretty close,” though would not reveal any scheduled release date.

In the meantime, Ferg is channeling his energy into the reception of Always Strive and Prosper, an album he says is “only going to grow.” While he was quick to deem “Strive” as the song of the summer — “It sounds like a picnic song, like you would go to your family’s picnic and hear that ‘I wanna thank you,’ sample,” he says. “They played that at every picnic growing up for me” — he adds that many of his songs are still in the beginning stages of exposure, “because a lot of people got to grow into these types of songs.”

He continues to say, “people aren’t ready to be so introspective and look at themselves in the mirror sometimes, so I feel like they’re going to have to sit with this album and really really dissect it, or go through problems and really listen to how I handled them and [in turn] can appreciate it even more.”

Be sure to check out the 360 video that chronicles Ferg’s day at Lollapalooza (including his headline worthy performance) below:

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