Go backstage with The Music and receive FREE:

  • Exclusive members-only editorial, charts
  • Our subscriber-only newsletter
  • Members only competitions to win tickets, experiences and more
  • Access to our street press archives
  • First access to our exclusive limited edition vinyl variants

Thank you for being a part of our community! Enter your email address as verification and you'll be taken backstage right away.

Please ensure that you provide a valid email address.

Album Review: A$AP Ferg - Always Strive And Prosper

James d'Apice
StarStarStarStar

"Tonal missteps aside, 'Strive' is defined by restraint, subtlety, nuance."

More A$AP Ferg A$AP Ferg

Ferg remains the strongest member of the A$AP Mob.

This album is further proof. Psycho is compelling. Beautiful People combines the rage of a slave's descendant with the approachability of swelling strings and instrumental bleep bloops. World Is Mine is compact, neat, exquisite; a macaron, not a Snickers bar. Only saccharine lead track Strive is tone deaf. When someone as sophisticated as Ferg sings earnestly, "Get of your arse and create your life 'cause you're wasting opportunities," it comes off as sarcasm. And if the track's a bit of a joke, Missy Elliott's guest verse is the punch line. Tonal missteps aside, Strive is defined by restraint, subtlety, nuance. In the main, it is a triumph.