FERG illustrates his growth in the industry and in life with his latest project, DAROLD.
DAROLD Proves to Be FERG’s Most Vulnerable Project
The self-titled album was released on Friday (Nov. 8) and fans have already heralded it as the rapper’s most personal album to date. FERG spoke about the importance of being so vulnerable on his latest album in an interview with Hypebeast.
“I think helping my people is my purpose,” he explained. “And what better way to do that than by using myself and my stories as an example?”
“I’m getting – I won’t say older, but I’m getting wiser – and I’ve lived a lot of life. It’s okay to grow up, and that’s what I want to show my community on this album.”
Throughout the 15-track record, FERG details his feelings of self-doubt and struggles with identity as he looks to progress and mature as an artist and a man. On ‘Pool,’ he discusses his battle with sexuality and toxic masculinity after an incident that occurred when he was a child.
“As a kid, all this guilt laid up inside of me / Couple ni**as called us gay ‘cause we was designing things / I was triggered, and that shit really bothered me / Toxic masculinity was building up inside of me / So I had to have women in variety”
FERG Believes He’s Up There with Kendrick and Cole
Yet in the midst of painting a portrait of his progression into manhood, FERG is still able to muster up his signature Harlem bravado and cement his place in the hip-hop world.
The former A$AP Mob member went as far as to throw himself into the upper echelon of rappers in the game today alongside the likes of Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole.
“Who the top rappers, hmm? / Kendrick, J. Cole, any list, I’m on that,” he raps over airy, ominous production from Kash Beats, Powers Pleasant, Tweek Tune and Manny Laurenko.
The Harlem-born rapper once praised the two hip-hop icons for their impact and reach on the community as a whole in an interview in 2018.
“At the end of the day, I feel like the biggest artists are the ones who are actually saying something that you can hear and put towards your life,” he explains. “You know like, Kendrick, J. Cole…I think those guys are huge because their music is medicine. Like, people can use it—they take it like a pill.”
