Always Strive And Prosper
| Asap Ferg
Always Strive And Prosper
Always Strive and Prosper is the second studio album by American rapper ASAP Ferg. It was released on April 22, 2016, by A$AP Worldwide, Polo Grounds Music and RCA Records. The album was supported by two singles: "New Level" featuring Future, and "Back Hurt" featuring Migos. Other appearances include Missy Elliot, A$AP Mob, Chris Brown, Ty Dolla $ign, Rick Ross and Schoolboy Q, among others. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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The New York Times
“Always Strive and Prosper” is a chaotic, buoyant album, moving at varying speeds and with different textures. But uniting it all is an almost pervasive feeling of warmth, a sense that its creator comes from a world where he’s surrounded by care, even if he doesn’t always return it.
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COS
Always Strive and Prosper doesn’t play to Ferg’s strengths. It feels more like album made by a big label committee, carving up a talented rapper piece by piece and stripping away everything that makes him special.
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Pitchfork
Despite the strong production and features including Missy Elliott, Ty Dolla $ign, and Rick Ross, Ferg's latest is mainly about his wise observations on family, fame, and what comes next.
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Sputnik Music
In the strive for prosperity, little victories count.
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The Guardian
He may yet be condemned to the time-honoured role of doughty lieutenant, but Always Strive and Prosper – eclectic, smart, skilful, occasionally experimental – is strong evidence that it would be a terrible oversight.
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DJ Booth
There's some filler, but on the whole this is an album I can play for those who doubt Ferg, and even if I can't manage to convince them, that's fine. I'll still be here, listening.
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HNHH
Always Strive And Prosper has the storyline and contained concept of a perfect album, but the flow and pacing of a major label mishap.
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Rolling Stone
If the rapper wants to empower people as much as he promises during this song and elsewhere on Always Strive, he’s succeeded. Hood Pope, indeed!
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The Line of Best Fit
A$AP Ferg’s Always Strive and Prosper is arena rap in jet-set dance-pop drag.
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All Music
Always Strive and Prosper is a diverse, free, ambitious, sonically stimulating, often infectious, and surprisingly big example of how to get away with it on a major level. Luckily, Ferg ain't that rapper, and with this solid album, he ain't the A$AP Mob's second banana anymore, either.
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Subjective Sounds
Always Strive And Prosper is a thoroughly enjoyable Hip Hop album that grows on you the more you listen to it. A$AP Ferg has his own unique style that works extremely well and while skits are nothing new, I find that I’m torn with regards to their inclusion.
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Sputnik Music
Dlways Strive and Prosper is an extremely personal and jiggy record from Ferg.
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The Guardian
Diverse, dynamic wordplay.
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XXL
A$AP Ferg is on a new level of ambition on Always Strive and Prosper. That title is the rapper's motto for the project and he accomplishes both. Not only does he strive to become a better, more diverse artist, he definitely prospers in more ways than one as he continues to make a name for himself as one of New York's biggest talents.
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Empty Lighthouse
It's an exceptional body of work.
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Odyssey
Generally speaking, this album was a huge step up from his debut. I like Ferg as insane as possible, but this is often a surprisingly subdued album and one that really highlights his storytelling abilities and the larger mission driving his music-- to reach back and help his family and those who grew up with him.
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Pretty Much Amazing
Always Strive and Prosper is certainly a slippery album. Throughout ASAP Ferg is just trying shit out; some of it sticks and some of it sucks.
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The Bulletin
Ferg combines sentiment and inventive rapping on “Always Strive and Prosper".
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Pop Matters
With Always Strive and Prosper, we now know about Ferg’s family, his faith, his ambitions, and his past, and his story is more beautiful that anyone ever expected.
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Treble
Always Strive and Prosper cements A$AP Ferg as one of hip-hop’s most creatively brave and earnest artists, and it might just make him a star.
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Complex
Whether Ferg has created his own version of A.L.L.A. or simply improved his artistry alongside Rocky, the result is sure to please his fans.
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Exclaim
Even with its minor hiccups, Always Strive and Prosper represents more than taking risks — it represents finding newfound freedom in familiar territory. (ASAP Worldwide/Polo Grounds/RCA).
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What Went Wrong With
Listening to some of the lame features and some of the mediocre production, the album would be better titled “All These Contrived Imposters”.
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Spin
Always Strive and Prosper is a misfire that presses to be greater than the sum of its parts. As A$AP Ferg continues to search for his voice, his aesthetics are becoming so disparate that a streaming algorithm wouldn’t even sequence them together as a playlist.
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Beneath the Lyrics
Everything feels half-assed as a result. Ferg’s rapping is embarrassing. The instrumentals are sub-par. The hooks are incredibly lazy. I think, if Ferg actually focused on a genre and refined this record, it could have been good, but, as it stands, this couldn’t be further from that. Bummer.
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