ALBUM REVIEW: A$AP Ferg- Trap Lord
Last year, A$AP Mob dropped a relatively mediocre mixtape. Unlike Odd Future (and, to a lesser degree, pro era), the A$AP mob doesn’t have a whole lot to offer outside of their anointed leader. On that tape, the one guy who stuck out was goofball A$AP Ferg. With a distinctive growl and voice, he made every track he was on at least worth hearing. Now we have his debut, and it’s basically like his verses on that mixtape: not groundbreaking, but damn entertaining.
The title here, Trap Lord, is one of the more perfect titles I’ve heard this year. Every single beat on this album manages to mix ethereal and spacious sounds with trap music flavorings. The opener Let It Go has trap snaps and cracks over ghostly voices that circulate around Ferg’s commanding delivery. Every track here sounds like a super messed up religious ceremony, as if cocaine was being snorted at a funeral. It’s basically the kind of stuff A$AP Rocky did on his last record, but more obvious.
Now, comparisons to A$AP Rocky are inevitable (Look at his name), and they’re pretty easy to draw out. Honestly, Trap Lord sounds like Rocky’s cloud rap with a heavier emphasis on percussion. Hell, I’ll give Trap Lord props for being way more cohesive than Long.Live.A$AP. And then I’ll immediately qualify those props. Sure, A$AP Rocky’s debut was kind of all over the place, but at least each song was interesting and (often) arresting. Trap Lord is really entertaining and full of some great tracks, but it does have points where it begins to lag. After Work drops, the rest of the album feels like it’s just kind of there.
But, as I said, Trap Lord is REALLY entertaining. A$AP Ferg has really mastered his persona and delivery. On several tracks, whether it be with rappers that are clearly more technically able (Schoolboy Q) or tracks where his guests are clearly more interesting personalities (Rocky, Waka Flocka Flame), Ferg surprisingly holds his own. He’s developed a distinctive bark and growl that kind of resembles a faster Trouble or a clear throated DMX. With that over these spacious creepy beats, it’s a winning formula.
While this is a pretty standard debut album, it does the “Debut Album Tropes” pretty well. Many of the guests bring something to the table other than “Hey look, we’re on this record”. I mean, even though Bones Thugs-N-Harmony sound like Looney Tunes on Lord (Which honestly, the whole time I listened to it, sounded like I was watching Space Jam), they manage to keep things entertaining. Most of the guest verses are, at least, serviceable. Even though I wanted a few more tracks sans guests (Where the heck is the original version of Work?), none of the tracks with guests feel like wasted opportunities. Oh yeah, and I like the hooks a lot.
Trap Lord isn’t some groundbreaking Hip-Hop album and it also isn’t a flashy debut. But that’s probably why I like it so much. Ferg made a really entertaining Hip-Hop album in a world where those are few and fare between. It’s not as great as A$AP’s major label debut, but it’s almost as entertaining. It also helps that it took the taste of that A$AP mixtape out of my mouth.
Summary: Trap Lord is really entertaining, with a cohesive and engaging production style that meshes well with Ferg’s distinctive voice and delivery. It’s kind of by-the-numbers, but it hits more than it misses.
Choice Cuts: Work, Hood Pope, Murda Something
Leftovers: Cocaine Castle
B- (3-3.5/5)
Stream the whole project here. Trap Lord is out 8/20 on A$AP Worldwide/ Polo Grounds Music
MIXTAPE REVIEW: A$AP Mob-Lord$ Never Worry
Note: Mixtape Reviews are just Album reviews…of mixtapes. Meh.
A$AP Mob is a Rap collective from Harlem New York. Their most famous member (In fact, their only “Famous” member) is A$AP Rocky, who released a very solid mixtape, LiveLoveA$AP, last November. The reason that tape worked so well was because of A$AP having a certain charisma to his flow (Which helped, since his flow was kind of lazier), and some absolutely amazing production from producers like Clams Casino. His debut album comes out October 31st (Yeah, that’s Halloween…)
Sorry to the fans for this comparison, but Rocky to the A$AP Mob is kind of like Tyler, the Creator to Odd Future. Their sounds are completely different, but the whole “East Coast, West Coast” Rap Collective thing is there. This new tape is kind of meant to show off what this crew has to offer. However, it really doesn’t do that too well. The first problem with this tape is that when it tries to put every member on one track, it doesn’t work well. Full Metal Jacket has most, if not all the members of A$AP on it, but it’s only 2:30 minutes long. So that gives every member about 20 seconds to show off. What should have been done was something like Odd Future’s Oldie, or even Joey Bada$$’s Suspect off his 1999 mixtape. These tracks were long and, in the later’s case, kind of boring, but at least it showed what every member of the team had to offer.
The rest of the tape is just an assortment of A$AP members on tracks with each other. There’s not as much Rocky as one would suspect to be on this tape, which is kind of bad. Many members of A$AP have lazier, slower flows, but none of them are as captivating as Rocky’s. Thus, they just kind of come across as a bit…boring. Some of the flows are a bit more interesting (A$AP Ferg has totally sold me with this tape, and I’d totally download a solo mixtape from him). However, none of the others stick out, really. Harder tracks fall kidn of short, like Coke and White B****es: Chaper 2, where A$AP Ant drops a boring verse that falls flat of the guests, including a as-always-solid Danny Brown and the pretty good Gunplay (Who’s Fat Trel?).
The biggest problem I have with this tape, however, is that the production that was on LiveLoveA$AP just isn’t there. Some beats are weird late 90s underground (Coke and White B****es), while others are on some Waka Flocka Southern Boom style beat (Work), away from that very well done Cloud Rap style from Rocky’s first tape. Not that it makes any of the songs better, but one thing that made LiveLoveA$AP great was its consistent production, and here it’s just all over the place.
Either way, outside of some guests, like on Bath Salt where Flatbush Zombies do a much better job than they did on that “Meh” mixtape earlier this year, the only rappers in the A$AP crew that really stick out are Rocky and Ferg. Even if some of them are OK rappers (Most of them are), none of them have really distinct personalities, or verses. Back to the Odd Future thing, even their worst rappers (Jasper and Taco) are somewhat interesting to listen to. They might be terrible, but they have enough charisma and personality to really make you listen. Odd Future also has at least some kind of defined roles in the crew (Tyler’s the leader, Earls’ kind of right behind, Jasper and Taco are the clowns, Domo is the stoner, etc.). Even if the rappers in A$AP are technically more talented, they’re just too uninteresting, and this tape shows that all too much. If there was more A$AP Rocky, maybe these tracks would have worked better.
There’s nothing musically wrong with this tape, but it’s just for the most part…boring. Not a great first impression for an entire rap collective.
Summary: Lord$ Never Worry falls to the same old problems every Rap Collective tape has, being a bit too boring and not introducing members of the crew well enough. Also, not enough A$AP Rocky.
Choice Cuts- Bath Salt, Purple Kisses, Choppas On Deck
2.5/5
Bath Salt is streaming below. Lord$ Never Worry is available for download now.
Vantage Point Music 