Post-Mortem: Always Strive & Prosper by A$AP Ferg
Whatsup, jerks. I'm pleased to welcome you to the first ever Post Mortem album review here at Highly Regarded, which will be coming at you (almost, when good shit comes out) every friday. As many of you probably know, my very good friend, Darold Ferguson, Jr., AKA the Hood Pope; the original dope walker; the man best known as A$AP Ferg, just walked up to the plate for his second at-bat by releasing Always Strive and Prosper for the masses to ingest and comment on. So...should I keep talking about random bullshit or should I just get to them meats and collard greens and just let you know whether or not you should fuck with this disc? That's rhetorical...I'm going to shut up now.
*I have removed all thoughts I have on the skits from the review...because I can't stand any of them on any hip-hop album. Unless I shoot lean straight out my nostrils because of one of them, they will be omitted from the Post-Mortem. Your welcome.
A$AP Ferg somehow has a perma-sweat look going on for both his album covers...but he be him and I ain't so that's fine with me
Rebirth: 5/10
This song is an opener, and I'm feeling bruh with his ability to spit difficult lines, but similarly to Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, why does that mean you have to make beats that sound like they were inspired by Ms. Bailey dragging her fingernails on a chalkboard b? Does musical talent equate to being able to make music that no one wants to listen to? Because if it is, then I am a prodigy at the guitar, son. Not that TPAB or this album loses it's 'importance' because of destructive dissonance coming through my speakers, but it's just a way to narrow the amount of listeners receiving the message nahmean? Once the flow gets going I s'pose it's aight, but I'm a percussionist kinda guy. I'd take bongos and djembe spirituals over some of these wack ass filler tracks. This is what you open the album up with Ferg? You tryna get people to step away from your ish in the first track? The dude talking bout needing to be prepared before this joint getting airtime on MTV and how people be misjudging Ferg's wealth. I'm going out on a limb here, but I don't think MTV'll be knocking on Ferg's door anytime soon asking him to make a guest spot on TRL (that's still a thing right?). Just because it's called Rebirth don't mean it gotta open up this shit. There are hot tracks, this just ain't one of them unfortunately.
eight gold rings, four gold chains, 32 GOLD TOOTHS
Hungry Ham: 7/10
I am over dubstep...said me 5 years ago b.Specifically this jivin' ass Skrillex motherfucka. I listened to From First To Last, and ain't nothing hard about starting a band to vent against your moms not letting you hold practice in the basement anymore because gam-gam needs to move back in with you fam. I can comment on this, because that's my stomping grounds. Talkin' bout the burbs son. The real real shit. Starbucks and disposable income and shit, real talk. But seriously, what is dubstep now? I feel like it's a joke being played on us listeners b. Hear me out. When dubstep first started...it sounded...bearable? Now that every CompJockey has downloaded the Dubstep-101 app it's almost a competition to see who can get the most plays on the least listenable song possible. What did Skrildicks sample for this? The squelching during horse-copulation? Then putting it through a helium-vocoder filter? Dubstep has done to music what Instagram has done to photos. Made every two-ply motherfucker into the grittiest sand paper artist, with a whole deck of filters to match how good at art you wanna be. SMH. The worst is that this is one of the better songs, technical and lyrically speaking, that Ferg spits his fire on. Hungry Ham being the nickname of Hamilton Heights in Harlem, he talks about everyone hoping to get off the block and make it outta there ya feel me? Instead of it reaching me doe, we got skrilly dilly back there shaving half his scalp looking like a half-broken Natalie Portman from V for Vendetta, being like "dis is all I got for the A$AP Mob after Wild for a Night b."
Strive: 7/10
I fucks with this song b. It's subtle about it's flow, and Ferg has proven before that when he's just using the ivories and a stripped down baseline it can lead to good vibes namsayin. This song is like Kid Cudi doing his Man on the Moon ish over a J Cole beat...and that's not just because Missy Elliot is on the track. Not always a huge fan of rappers singing, but Ferg sings without an obvious autotune filter to make it sound "better" and you gotta give a man props for putting himself out like nahmean? Also, good looks from people in the game being down to give Missy a verse here and there. I don't know how much she's been featured recently on perps tracks, but every time she shows up, she rarely disappoints.
Psycho: 6/10
A song about Ferg's Uncle 'Psycho' and about how this cat who liked to sling bags at the park nearby and get blood-related sisters (not to be confused with sistas bruh) pregnant was a role-model for a young Darold. This is one of those sumsum introspective songs ya feel me? I can actually feel Ferg starting out as a bright-eyed bushy tail little burner, and by the end hear him realizing that maybe Uncle Psych ain't such a great mentor. Rocking one of the jazzier ensembles for the bottom on this song, I wish that I could vibe to a song with this beat not about Uncle Psych smoking crack and cutting up a rug on the corner with his posse while hoping to get a couple spare nickels so he could get another bottle of that OE. Maybe that's just me.
Let It Bang: 8/10
Finally we get to the bangers. This is the type of song where I don't mind listening about how ya fam used to head up the corner around their cribs and pipe it up before going to the block party to start a rabble. ScHoolboy Q takin it straight from 60 to a red 100 with some blue fire emojis in between to represent the acceleration of what this song does from first to second verse. Not going to lie though, when A$AP Mob & Black Hippy it's almost cheating. They save the best beats and best lines for when they need to bring the ruckus nahmean. These crews be like the starter pokemon bruh. They nasty by themselves, but you grab your bitchass friend and force him to buy a connectivity cable, start the game 3 times and trade you the others. How you go straight to Elite 8 status bruuuuh. A new level if you will...and speaking of....
New Level: 8/10
This is arguably the best beat of the album, but i swear to God if Future puts out another album or is a featured artist on any more songs, bad things are gonna happen. Future is like the HPV of hip-hop right now - having ousted Lil' Wayne from the position - you don't know f'sho positive 100 proof you've most likely come into unprotected contact with him, and there is no cure. Most likely this indomitable spread of FuturePV is why Ferg and Ciara's ex-arm candy is why they talk about shovels and burying the peeps who look at them with those 'excuse me' eyes namsayin.
Yammy Gang: 9/10
Best song on the CD no doubt...but is that because of Ferg or the featured artists that are present? Getting back to that Shabba Ranks kinda beat and these kids go HAM over this track nahmean. This is an ode to the late A$AP Yams (get it? Yammy Gang?), and as I said before, they save the best for when the Mob unites on some bars. Any rapper looking to step to these cats when they splitting verses better watch out. As Ferg says "If your man talkin' shit then I shoot like DOOT-DOOT-DOOT-DOOT." Words that, with the way this song plays out, I actually kind of believe.
Swipe Life feat. Rick Ross: 8/10
I didn't know Ross was still in the game, but I'm not gonna lie, I don't not like him on this song. I also can relate to this song way more than the others because it's about consumer credit card debt and being unable to reign in your card swipes due to recurring prodigious expenditures in order to maintain your comfort levels. It's really a song that expands all socioeconomic, racial, and gender boundaries. Touche, Ferg, touche. You've made a song that transcends generational partitions.
Uzi Gang: 6/10
I've never listened to Lil Uzi Vert or Marty Baller, but I'm just not really feeling this song dude. The verses are good but that chorus/hook/choir of whales suffering from a bad dish of plankton...just doesn't do it for me. Is it just me or did the Uzi Gang hit up some of that Nashville Hot Chicken at the Colonel's and then recorded this chorus from the bathroom? The verses got flow but that chorus just upsets my fruit basket more than I like b.
Beautiful People 6/10
This song is not bad-bad, but it's not good. I feel like Ferg be tryna take the crown from early Kanye ish nahmean. Even the Chuck D spoken word in the beginning made me think I was listening to some Late Registration goodness, especially since Ferg has an exceptionally Kid Cudi-type sound when he decides to sing or go spoken word-like. Then the drums come in...I've been to a few hip-hop shows that had live drummers and kits, and they always sound dirty good ya feel me. Recorded on an album where they are some of the only legitimate, physical instruments being mic'd up? No dice. It almost makes the contrast between real instruments and computer generated noises on the song more apparent. The hook is kinda meh as well. I ain't tryna throw shade towards Ferg for this track, I'm just not adding it to the "Gettin' Swole Playlist 2016" anytime soon ya heard?
Let You Go: 9/10
I love this song. Y'all better call in to your local radio stations to hear this track pumped for me since I don't support radio with my time, so you need to take up the mantle on that side of things. A song about the broads can sometimes be off putting, but this one strikes just the right tone. A smooth hook and easy going verses is what I vibe to namsayin? You can't tell me you wouldn't mind sparkin a blizzurnt to this and enjoying the next 3 minutes and 16 seconds. I wouldn't believe your trifling ass. I can even see you attempting to convince that's not the truth through the screen right now g. YO DENIAL AIN'T JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT YA FEEL ME? This song would make Ahmadinejad admit that gays exist in Iran. This song would make Putin apologize for Crimea and admit to a litany of human rights injustices. AKA this song would get you to smoke a blurnt...legally speaking of course...But I digress. Ferg writes this song from the point of view of the bird that gave Ferg the ultimatum of her, or rap. Obviously, we the listeners won that battle. She know she tryna be the early bird and suck Ferg's worm until the bread rain from the sky and she couldn't even wait until he put out a second album? He already had Trap Lord and Ferg Forever! What more could she want? She wanna be so selfish she can't give us more Ferg? Pfft...no words and no point in Freudian analyzing that mind, shits wildin' b.
World Is Mine 7/10
This song is straight OK. Even though he brings Big Sean - generally a great addition to any Kanye song - on the scene, I just ain't feeling that putting this song over the top. Don't get me wrong, Ferg goes hard on these verses, probably some of the best rapping on the album from a technical point of view, but again...why does that mean the bottom of the song, the meat and potatoes so to speak, have to be weak? I guess the only good part of the this song is that it's a cautionary tale to all you youngbloods out there who might let your head get a little too big a little too quick
I Love You: 6/10
It's a lady song. which some people will fuck with, but I'm comfortable with my lacking ability to get laid so I'm not gonna say this ish is bad but it's just unlikely that I'm going to be listening to this while I'm picking shit up and puttin' em down at the gym nahmean? Listening this song frequently is like going down on the ladies, you don't tell your homeboys how much you like it. Chris Brown offering up his thug-poser ish on the chorus/hook/vagina line of the song about loving someone...just have a hard time buying the shit he's slingin namsayin. I mean the dude goes from singing about settling down to tryna throw out bars about how he hard as concrete. The only type of hard I think of when I think about Chris Brown is some carbon fiber 1988 Honda Civic 'performance' hood that has an exhaust system that makes it sound like someone about to drop the browns off at the super bowl after a particular bad burrito at Moe's ya feel me? And again with the drums being the only real instrument on the song...made it known earlier in this piece of my feelings on that sort of ish...maybe it's only slightly saved by the fact that there are real pianos being played? Maybe...
Grandma: 8/10
I dig this song, although I can't say I share the extensive feelings Ferg has for his gam-gams. Very minimal instrumentals laying the bottom layer of this song, with some sick rhymes bruh. Could deal without the crooning with the whole "talking bout my grandma" as the chorus, but y'know, listeners can't be choosers. Unless this is Kanye's Life of Pablo, then we very much can be the choosers. The power of being twats on twitters. All the powers. Powers to reign in Yeezus and demand that he make another My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Over 9000 level shit bruh.
Don't Mind: 8/10
Why is this a bonus track? You bring the ruckus on the beat and convince Fabolous to provide you with some auxiliary fire power? I mean I understand you tryna get that extra 5 basis points on the extra $2 you get on deluxe edition CD sales from Best Buy...but who fuckin buying CDs from Best Buy anymore? Hold on, Ferg, lemme hit up the local Tower Records I need to grab a disc and a VHS that just got released SMH. Disregarding the blatantly consumer-gouging economics of 'deluxe' editions of CDs, this song is dope. Doper than a lot of the songs on the normal cut. Luckily French Montana has minimal words to be spoken on this track so the damage he can do is marginalized, but Ferg and Fab straight tear it up on this. It's almost silly, but somehow not silly enough namsayin. I would give this a high score than an 8, but being a bonus track takes it down a notch for fuckouttahere-complications.
Back Hurt (Son): 7/10
Yo. Migos is the greatest hip hop group out there right now who legitimately make zero sense with the words they speak. I'm positive that Harvard or Columbia or some other whitebread liberal arts safespace should do a phonological study to figure out what the fuck Migos is talking about. Go listen to "Pipe It Up" and come back. I'll wait... .... ... After listening to that song could you say that you had any fucking clue what they were piping up? What's in the pipe? Why when you walk in the club, people look at your dab and call it the 'pipe it up'? What the fuck did I just type? Getting back to the song, this song is fuckswittable. You know that when websites list your lyrics as [?] it's gon be good bruh. I enjoyed the Migos, southern twinged baseline getting the Ferg Forever treatment. I mean...when yo back hurt because you carrying too much bread on you, there's not a whole lot to complain about in life, amirite?
Final Score: 7.14/10
To wrap it all together tighter than a 90 year old egg roller at Dim & Sum FastFast Chinese, this album is dope, don't get me wrong, it's just a little more filler than I'm willing to cram into my earholes. My times important, son, I don't care if you spend 10 years creating your opus magnus, I'd listen to it and be grateful for you taking your time to not waste my time on some weaksauce vibes with Chris "duh doo-doo- Brown. The highs are high on this album, but their too many nexts namsayin. Looking at what the others of A$AP Mob are putting out *cough*Rocky*cough* they make wholesome discs ya feel me. Call me selfish, I'm just looking for dessert every single song namsayin. I ain't waiting through a first and second course of this meal, I want sugary bass and glazed hooks and creme-de-la-taco-bell-apple-pie drizzle for my ears...they don't get cavities.
Stay A$AP sukkas