Written by: Andrew Kirkpatrick

Almost every big-name rapper is associated with a larger collective that they hope to bring with them into the spotlight. But rarely does it ever work out for the sole reason that there’s usually a clear cut hierarchy; in other words, there’s usually a good reason why one particular group member made it big first. How many members of G Unit do we remember who aren’t named 50 Cent? Or D12 affiliates other than Eminem? Hot Boys other than Lil Wayne?

I could go on, but the point is clear: most promising rappers want everyone in their crew to see the same success they have, but rarely does that work out. There are exceptions to the rule of course, but in recent years I can only think of two. LA’s Black Hippy collective is comprised of four MCs (Kendrick, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, and Ab Soul) who are all so undeniably good and so stylistically disparate that each has earned a devoted following. And though the ranks of Harlem’s A$AP Mob are filled with producers and MCs who are having trouble finding a niche, the crew features not one, but two breakout stars: A$AP Rocky and A$AP Ferg.

Rocky I’ve already written about quite a bit. In short, I’ve loved every single one of his projects; he’s done a fantastic job of taking trending sounds in popular music and giving them an arthouse flair. Ferg, on the other hand, I don’t think I’ve written one word about even though, bar for bar, he may actually be the better rapper of the two. His cadences are always wild and ear grabbing, his flows extremely fast and technical, and as the famous A$AP Mob freestyle on Hot97 from a couple years ago readily demonstrates, he can freestyle like a madman.

But even still, the self-proclaimed Hood Pope is a blunt instrument. Some rappers sound convincing across a wide range of styles, but Ferg’s delivery has all the subtlety of a jackhammer. As such, the young Harlem spitter has always been best suited to turn up trap rap. Within that lane, he’s one of the best there is; his 2013 debut, Trap Lord, was chock full of bangers, and his features on songs like YG’s “Click Clack” and the already-classic posse cut “Old English” put him pretty high on my rap-nerd list of favorite new-school MCs.

Pop culture as a whole seemed just as enthusiastic about Ferg’s burgeoning stardom as he’s become a more or less inescapable presence through a litany of features (including unexpected collabs with Ariana Grande and Haim) and music video cameos (most brilliantly on Chromeo’s “Jealous”).

As could be expected given how surprisingly high-profile he’s become, the build-up to his latest project, Always Strive And Prosper, made it seem like quite the event album. Ferg has been working on the record for almost three years, and in that time he’s name-dropped pretty much every huge collaborator you could think and released quite a few great one-off singles.

Unfortunately, ASAP has turned out to be a pretty bad album despite its huge potential.

The record’s main downfall comes with Ferg’s half-assed attempts to branch out into more introspective and conscious subject matter. I can’t criticize Ferg for the song topics themselves — “Strive” finds him and Missy Elliott rap about placing self-love over material gain, “Beautiful People” is about empowering black communities, and “Let You Go” is a close and honest examination of a breakup. Ferg’s earnestness in addressing these issues is crystal clear, but he doesn’t approach this subject matter with any nuance or cleverness, ultimately reducing himself to a Macklemore-level cornball.

A song like “Beautiful People” calls for impassioned bars, but instead all we get is clunkers like “White, purple and yellow, and all of my browner people / We can be positive, don’t let negativity kill you / First start with your friends, then move a whole town of people.” Same goes for “Let You Go,” which features lyrics that sound like shit my friends wrote in high school: “I’m not dumb, I know what I write / I don’t wanna hurt you and I hate to fight / I’m conscious of everything I recite.” Awful. Just quoting those lyrics is sort of embarrassing.

What makes Always Strive And Prosper an even more frustrating listen is the fact that its middle stretch — comprised mostly of aggressive, chest-beating bangers — shows Ferg to be just as great as ever at making white-knuckled trap music. The atmospheric “Let It Bang,” features stellar verses from Ferg and ScHoolboy Q, and the hook (comprised solely of the words in the title) sticks like superglue. Even better is Ferg’s collab with Future, “New Level,” which features a bonkers chorus and some great interplay between the two; best of all is the Da Honorable C.N.O.T.E.’s stellar instrumental, laced with imposing brass and paranoid, tremolo strings.

Unfortunately, the rest of ASAP sorely lacks good beats. Despite pulling big names like No I.D., DJ Mustard, Clams Casino, DJ Khalil, Cashmere Cat, and Skrillex, the production here is mostly garbage. Mustard’s beat on “Strive” is driven by a gaudy house bassline that reaches LMFAO levels of tackiness. And Skrillex’s beat on “Hungry Ham” is just plain obnoxious, though Ferg and fellow Harlemite Crystal Caine’s melodies don’t do it any favors.

There are a few moments on Always Strive And Prosper that I can’t help but like despite their cheesiness. Late-album cut “I Love You” features an incredibly maudlin, early-2000s R&B style beat and some lackluster verses from Ferg and Chris Brown. But West Coast singer Ty Dolla $ign — continually proving himself to be one of the best new voices in R&B — steps in and manages to find a pocket, making sappiness sound like gangster shit. Meanwhile the album’s closer, “Grandma” isn’t a great track by any means, but what Ferg’s lyrics lack in eloquence is certainly made up for in heart as he raps about wanting his grandma to see how far he’s made it. If there’s one thing I could never fault an artist for, it’s making a song dedicated to their grandma.

And really, I can’t criticize any of what A$AP Ferg is going for on a conceptual level on ASAP. Many of the tracks here have a genuineness to them when a lot of mainstream rap is cloaked in fabrication. The problem is that Ferg is much better at playing an absurd supervillain than he is being forthcoming.

It would seem unfair to expect an artist to stick with a disingenuous style of music just because they’re better at crafting that material than they are more honest work. But at the same time, plenty of trap rappers – Pusha T, $ha Hef, and Freddie Gibbs included — make more cerebral themes regarding their upbringing and socioeconomic circumstances an inextricable part of their visceral songs. Trap music is a lot more dynamic than most people give it credit for, and it’s unfortunate that the Trap Lord himself didn’t come to that realization.