For an artist drawing effortlessly from what seems to be a wellspring of creativity and thoughtful tribute, Trap Lord can, at times, feel underdeveloped and skeletal.īut, that’s not to suggest that Trap Lord doesn’t sound great- A$AP Mob still has the best ears in town.
Where it’s effective on songs like “Hood Pope” and the thundering opener “Let It Go”, it’s less so on scatterbrained songs like “Fergivicous” and “Make a Scene”. But a fair chunk of Trap Lord finds Ferg trying to figure himself out in real-time- a natural shape shifter, he never stays in the same form for long, switching personalities and flows at the drop of a hat. Some of that can be chalked up to the nature of the record's existence- like Flockaveli, it was originally conceptualized as a mixtape and only later was transformed into a major label debut. While it begins with a fierce, feverish bundle of tracks- the hulking, patois-smeared “Let It Go”, the infectious knocker “Shabba”, the emotional, mythologizing “Hood Pope”- it’s also listless in spots, too reliant on underdeveloped ideas. Trap Lord, Ferg’s debut mixtape turned debut album, probably isn’t that record, though it has quite a few bright spots. If he were to deliver on that promise with a debut that properly channeled all the potential. Like Rocky, he's a uniter of rap audiences and regional sounds, the only other performer in the A$AP crew who’s exhibited that star-like sheen so far. He’s funny, he’s got a peculiar style, and he’s got, for a lack of a better word, a sizeable amount of swag.
(Sounds like he’d enjoy Jay-Z’s bathroom). He also talks big: “I wanna be as known as Jesus,” he told me earlier this year, later mentioning his affinity for artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Warhol. He sings (see his star-making debut on Rocky’s “Kissin’ Pink”), he can write (take his bendy, gleeful “Shabba”), and he’s weird- when he’s feeling purple, he channels his inner Fergenstein, a lewder, more hedonistic persona. Darold Ferguson Jr.- best known as A$AP Ferg, a member of A$AP Rocky’s A$AP Mob- brings a tantalizing skillset to the table, a startling versatility and an electricity that not even his more famous friend can touch.
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