Razor’s Edge 8/20
A$AP Ferg – Trap Lord
A$AP Ferg is part of the A$AP Mob. Pretty much everyone inside of the mob uses the prefix A$AP and tack on their own name after that. I was never really a big A$AP Rocky fan but I can’t deny that he gets some really well produced beats to rap over. A$AP Ferg’s Shabba became a summer anthem for some people even though his official album dropped near the end of the summer. The single was burning up the hip hop charts. The thing about the song is that a large majority of people that love the song have no idea who Shabba Ranks is. The only way younger people may know about him is if they happen to be West Indian. Shabba Ranks was a super popular dancehall artist from late 80s to about mid-90s. I feel like his most noticeable song is probably “Mr. Loverman”.
A$AP Ferg falls into the cliché of coming from nothing and having to decide if he’s going to find peace in a neighborhood filled with violence or take over the neighborhood through drugs and violence. I shouldn’t say it’s a cliché because it is very much a reality for some people. To be honest, I only came back to this album because of three specific tracks and the rest of the album is pretty much throwaway material imo. He has a few tracks where he decides to take it slow with his ballads and show that he does have some sensitivity hiding behind the emotional front/armor that he keeps up but by that point in the album. I’m already done and over it. There is an incomplete feel to this album like it was meant to be a mixtape. Maybe one day he'll release the other half of it or on his next album produce a more coherent and cohesive album.
The stand out tracks to me are “Shabba”, “Lord” and “Hood Pope”.