ASAP FERG

TRAP LORD (ASAP WORLDWIDE/ POLO GROUNDS/ RCA)

15/20

You won’t learn much more about ASAP Ferg after a listen of Trap Lord. This debut record from the  24-year-old is almost a masterclass in how to be a foreboding character at a time when there are more caricatures in hip-hop than ever. Trap Lord is by no means a perfect album, but it showcases a beast that’s been hidden in the underbelly of major label hip-hop for too long.

The production on this LP is probably its greatest asset. It captures the haziness  of the Clams/ Rocky sound perfectly, but given a new lease of terror. Even the largely upbeat tones of Hood Pope are underpinned by an unmissable sense of menace and growing alarm. The whole album has a gothic severity which is best demonstrated on tracks like Dump Dump. The misogynistic, unpalatable lyricism which some say is eating away at rap music’s reputation is taken to new levels of irreverence in a way that’s so frank it’s almost backwardly invigorating.

It’s the more generic Lex Luger-esque moments of Trap Lord that let Ferg down ever so slightly. Work features spots from Trinidad James, French Montana, Schoolboy Q and ASAP Rocky. It’s a who’s-who of molly-infused twerk-rap. It isn’t a bad song, but when it’s up against the demonic production and dark-dancehall stylings of Cocaine Castle it feels like seeing the freakiest kid in your year performing in the school play. Fortunately, the appointment of Waka Flocka Flame for Murda Something shows Ferg is a far more ominous light and sees Flocka at the most feral and dangerous he’s sounded in a while. Make A Scene is a guest-free effort which has the most absorbing production of the album, a perfect demonstration of Ferg’s shadowy interpretation of dancehall melodies.

At the end of opening track Let It Go, Ferg ad-libs about the success of ASAP Rocky before asking “What’s next? Trap lord.” Whether it’s intentional or not, ASAP Ferg has delivered one of the most riveting and intriguing rap albums of the year. The ASAP Ferg sound is an exciting one to have around. If you can forgive the cliched feature-spots and occasionally predictable lyrics, this feels like a record from a man who loses sleep over excessive behaviour and has some seriously unhinged prospects lurking in his subconscious. You’ll probably finish Trap Lord with more questions than answers, but Ferg coveys an overwhelming message that keeping him at an arm’s length might be a wise move. Rap’s underworld might have found a budding Hades.