ASAP Ferg has been busy touring with Tory Lanez for their joint "Level Up" tour, and during a recent pit stop in D.C., he took the time to sit down with Baker for an interview about the album that preceded the tour, Always Strive and Prosper. The album found Ferg opening up and trying a variety of musical styles; the latter of which earned him some mixed reviews, but nonetheless it proved he's not a one-trick pony. During the interview with Baker, Ferg speaks on why he decided to let fans in, as well as his job at Ben & Jerry's and his infamous uncle from the record "Psycho." At the end of the interview, Ferg promises the long-awaited Cozy Boys tape is coming soon: "the whole thing is that we ain't wanna rush, but it's definitely at that solid stage where we like yo it's time to put it out."
Listen to the audio below, and read some highlights below.
On if the passing of ASAP Yams influenced his decision to open up:
"Before Yams passed I was working on this album, Always Strive and Prosper, so he heard a lot of the songs that I was working on and everything, so it wasn't really his passing. I feel like it was really me wanting to be an open book to my fans, cause when I make a lot moves, or I do a certain type of song, they say like, oh that's not Ferg..So they obviously don't know who Ferg is so I gotta take 'em back in history to who I am."
On his music video for "World Is Mine" with Big Sean:
"This might be my best video ever, I didn't get the edit yet, but I seen like the raw cuts and it's crazy."
On working at Ben & Jerry's:
"I was probably working at Ben & Jerry's, I wanna say, six years ago. When I got kicked off the job, they said I was playing loud music, they was getting complaints, like they had a website and I was getting complaints, like, 'some dude, he was playing Biggie, loud rap music.' That was me, they knew it was me. I just didn't care cause I knew I wasn't gunna be there for too long, they knew I wasn't gunna be there for too long. You know I walked in on that job, cause my friend worked there, he was the manager there, I didn't go for no interview I didn't do nothing, I just put on a t-shirt and started scooping ice cream like 'whattup.' And I was giving mad free ice cream to the hunnies."
On his uncle:
"My uncle is an interesting character, I always talk about him. If you listened to Ferg Forever I talked about him in a song called 'Uncle,' Clams Casino produced. And I go even further on this album, his name is Psycho...Just like real shit about my uncle. I'm just talking about shit I used to see growing up, my uncle was like an action figure to me. He was like a light-skinned version of ODB, always drank 40 ounces, had the camaflouge outfits on, no shirt under, walking outside with the kitchen knives, beef and broccoli Timbs on. He was just real rugged, and I used to look up to that, even though it was kinda fucked up every time he come into the house, he be having like war wounds and shit from going crazy outside, but it was something like, this motherfucker's brave. I was like, 'yo, this motherfucker's brave and crazy.' I knew that wasn't me, but it was interesting to see growing up."