The one album that changed A$AP Ferg’s life: “It was all my vibe”
A$AP Ferg was exposed to a bunch of different music when he was coming up, thanks to one album that changed the way he thought about everything. In 2001, when the Harlem rapper was just a teenager hanging out with friends in the neighbourhood, he came across N.E.R.D’s In Search Of… that resonated with him more than anything he had heard before.
“The album that changed my life would have to be the N.E.R.D album In Search Of…,” he told Complex. “As a young teen, those sounds were so fresh. It was the soundtrack to my life. That album changed my life because it verified my thoughts.
“It felt like N.E.R.D was talking my talk and walking my walk. From the musicality to the way they dressed, the visuals, mixing hood, BMX, and skateboard culture, it was all my vibe. Their music brought everyone like us together.”
N.E.R.D’s debut album In Search Of… was released in 2001, combining elements of hip-hop and rock. Many creatives have cited the album as influential over the years, most notably Tyler, The Creator and the late Virgil Abloh, who said the project “described a whole generation of young black kids and artists who have since been determined to be themselves and jump through that door that was opened by Pharrell.”
A$AP Ferg spoke more about the impact N.E.R.D had on him during an interview with Hard Knock TV, revealing In Search Of… was the starting point for him to listen to music outside of hip-hop.
“These were the only guys you saw that were black but had white girls in their videos … They had all the flyest clothes on that nobody knew about, well from my hood in Harlem,” he said. “I, as well as my crew, identified with these guys because that was us in our neighbourhood. People would look at us different because they didn’t understand where our style came from.”
He added, “I think, at the time, we didn’t even understand where our style came from, we just did it ’cause it was the natural thing to do. We wanted to be different, we wanted to be pioneers of our own fashion, of our own culture.”
A$AP Ferg collaborated with Pharrell in 2021 on ‘Green Juice’, which was also produced by Skateboard P and Chad Hugo as The Neptunes. On the song, Ferg talks about bringing P to the place he grew up, rapping, “Top down, Zonda scream, ‘Hallelujah’/ I’m the king, I’m the ruler/ Got Pharrell up in Harlem/ Chillin’ on the crate with a block of shooters.” Ferg previously recorded another song with Pharrell titled ‘A$AP Girl’ alongside A$AP Rocky, A$AP Nast and A$AP Twelvyy, but it never saw the light of day.