A$AP Ferg

In a 2020 interview with Apple Music, A$AP Ferg described a couple of recent tributes he’d made for a couple of very different people: one for the former Bulls forward Dennis Rodman, and one for Marilyn Manson. But were Manson and Rodman really all that different? Both were flamboyant, both were unconventional, both seemed to like getting in hot water now and then. “I like people that are risk-takers,” Ferg said. “I like people who’re glitches and vortexes.”

A member of Harlem’s A$AP Mob, Ferg (born Darold Ferguson Jr. in 1988) represents a generation taking Pharrell and Kanye West’s lead in expanding rap into a kind of curatorial art, where juxtaposition of style, reference, and mood is nearly as important as lyricism and flow. Not that Ferg doesn’t have conventional rap sense—if anything, he was one of the first New York MCs to embrace the revolution of trap (“Shabba,” “Work REMIX”). But part of the excitement of following his journey is watching him stretch the boundaries of hip-hop, absorbing influences from high fashion, underground and internet culture, and whatever else catches his discerning ear.