A$AP Ferg's 25 Favorite Albums

When it became clear that A$AP Rocky was a full blown star, we started looking at his crew, the A$AP Mob, to see who might be next in line. There were many suitors (we see you Twelvy and Nast) but two tours, one group mixtape, and almost a year later we have a definitive answer. That answer is A$AP Ferg. Riding the wave of two back to back street bangers ("Work" and "Shabba"), Ferg officially dropped his debut album Trap Lord this week.

To celebrate, we had the Young Lord himself come by the Complex offices, sip on a little something, and tell us about his favorite albums. The list is pretty representative of where Ferg finds himself musically. It's full of New York superstars (a city he proudly calls his own), tride and true hip-hop legends (something he's hopes to become), and artists he feels excelled by stepping outside of the norm (something his debut album most certainly does). Oh, and he's also got Selena's greatest hits on there. Check out A$AP Ferg's 25 Favorite Albums.

Also check out A$AP's Tracklist Episode on Complex TV below.

As told to Max Goldberg (@goopygold)

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Mary J. Blige, What's The 411 (1992)

Label: Uptown/MCA

A$AP Ferg: "I grew up around that album. My father used to play it at his house in Jersey, and my moms used to play it when she was getting her hair done. That was one of the first R&B albums I got introduced to. Puffy mixed in that whole hip-hop sound with R&B and that was a new, fresh sound to me.

"It was different from like Xscape or straight up R&B, it had the bump to it and featured hip-hop artists. But then they had Jodeci on some songs. It was just dope. Just thinking about that project back then, I want to know if they knew that they were making history. It was just so crazy."

Onyx, Bacdafucup (1993)

Label: Jam Master Jay Records/Rush Associated Labels

A$AP Ferg: "Them niggas are raw as fuck. I grew up listening to them bringing that raw style. I feel like I'm the new version of them. I'm birthed from them, so to get them on my album was dope as fuck."

The Notorious B.I.G, Ready To Die (1994)

Label: Bad Boy

A$AP Ferg: "I was depressed at the time when I was listening to that. I remember first seeing the album cover when I was younger and liking it because of the baby. I always used to just see 'B.I.G,' I never really knew what he looked like, I just thought of the baby. I didn't even know if he was a singer or something, I didn't know who he was. Soon, my father started playing his music around me and I knew who he was.

I was on sleeping on the train, listening to that on my headphones. Everybody else was a blur to me at that time.

"I used to listen to Ready to Die around the time I dropped out of college. I was scrambling for work and money. I was just going through life's triumphs and obstacles so I felt what he was talking about in it, like, getting kicked out of his house or going through stuff with his girlfriend on 'Me and My Bitch.'

"I related to it. I was like, 'Damn, what if I robbed a train like him. I need money right now! Gimmie the loot!' He was real hungry, and that's how I was feeling at the time. I was running around, wearing my 40 Below Timbs, with my lumberjack shirts. I was on sleeping on the train, listening to that on my headphones. Everybody else was a blur to me at that time."

Da Brat, Funkdafied (1994)

Label: So So Def

A$AP Ferg: "I remember watching the videos from Funkdafied, and seeing a girl with her style do it for the first time. She was crazy, it was something you've never seen. It was even before Missy. That for me was another innovative moment in hip-hop, where someone was changing the game and opening doors for females to come and do it."

Nas, Illmatic (1994)

Label: Columbia Records

A$AP Ferg: "Illmatic was dope. I remember I got put onto that by my uncle who also put me on to Reasonable Doubt. Nas was just the fly, cool, smooth nigga. Like, him and AZ on "Life's a Bitch," the beat on that song is stupid and their flow is crazy. They were ahead of their time and they were just doing whatever they wanted to do. It wasn't traditional rap, they came with the style, they came with everything. The worldplay on that album too."

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, E. 1999 Eternal (1995)

Label: Ruthless/Relativity

A$AP Ferg: "I remember when I was younger, those cats just were so different to me. I thought they were from the West Coast but they were really from [Cleveland]. I remember thinking, 'Damn, these dude's sound is so crazy.' They didn't sound like Snoop Dogg or any of them but they looked like them. They had the harmonies, they were rapping fast.

"That was when I first saw a different way that you could approach hip-hop and that's why I love that album. That's why it's so crazy to have them on my album. It's fucking phenomenal to work with your idols. For me, they were innovative to hip-hop. They brought a new style. They were double-timing, like Three 6 Mafia were doing double-timing but they were doing harmonies with it. Plus, they all called themselves Bone Thugs and I had just never seen anything like that done."

Makaveli, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996)

Label: Interscope/Death Row

A$AP Ferg: "Yo, Pac is my idol in more ways than one. That guy, he was just iconic, he was himself. He had the whole package as an artist. With "Hail Mary," I wonder if he knew he was making history at the time because that song is so crazy. It seemed like you felt all his music but that song used to give me the creeps in a good way. Like, it would actually make the hair stand up on the back of my neck, I used to think about Candyman or some shit. I remember growing to understand it, and then absolutely loving it. That's what I get from 'Pac."

Jay-Z, Reasonable Doubt (1996)

Label: Roc-A-Fella/Priority

A$AP Ferg: "I got put up on that by my Uncle Dion because he used to work at a company where you used to get mad free CDs. He used to just put me up on all the old shit. I remember he played that album from beginning to end for me and I remember thinking, 'Damn, this nigga Jay was fucking ahead of his time.' He had the knowledge, he had the style, he had the skill. "Dead Presidents" was my shit, "Coming of Age" was my shit. The whole dialogue between him and Memphis Bleek was amazing. Every song on there was a perfect song. That was a perfect album."

Notorious B.I.G, Life After Death (1997)

Label: Bad Boy

A$AP Ferg: "'Going Back to Cali' is one of my favorite songs, because of all the East Coast West Coast rivalry. It was showing that he was above all the madness and that he was bringing the coasts back together. He was trying to be the bigger man in the situation.

"I remember it being a good time in my life, just as a young kid listening to music. I remember being in my father's Benz, I was passenger side just bumping to the Biggie album. There were mad songs on there. You had 'Kick in the Door.' I love that song because they sample Screamin' Jay Hawkins for the beat. The way they chopped it was so dope.

"I like 'Beef' because that song really sounds like he was going through something, like getting the death threats and stuff. He was going through real shit at that time. Everything on Life After Death was truthful, he was speaking about his life. That's why I respected that album."

DMX, Flesh of my Flesh, Blood of my Blood (1998)

Label: Ruff Ryders/Def Jam

A$AP Ferg: "The album artwork was dope as fuck. That's an iconic cover to me. DMX was just one of the figures that I thought no one could ever be better than. I used to look up to him so much. The bikes, the dogs, that's where I come from. Listening to that album reminds me of that era, when I was on some Ruff Ryder's shit. We used to have crews in Harlem called Ruff Ryders and they used to ride bikes and shit. That's all we used to do, listen to Ruff Ryders."

Cam'ron, Confessions of Fire (1998)

Label: Untertainment/Epic Records

A$AP Ferg: "Confessions of Fire is my shit. I don't know about the cover, but the album was crazy. I felt like he was the Black Eminem, or he was just him, or even Eminem might be the White Cam'ron! He said, 'When I get mad, I piss in my auntie's orange juice/And ask her if it's tangy when I'm angry.' Who says some shit like that?! He was just going off. You could tell he was all about the music back then.

"That's the Cam that I was missing. The 'Oh Boy' Cam was dope but that was the dirty Cam that was running with Big L and Bloodshed. He was coming from that school of rap and that was the Cam I fuck with. And he put his moms on his album! He had his moms rapping on that album!"

Ruff Ryders, Ryde or Die Vol. 2 (2000)

Label: Ruff Ryders/Interscope

A$AP Ferg: "My favorite song on there was the Twista song where Swizz Beatz said, 'Get ignorant!' and then they went faster! That was the chorus and then Twista just started going off when Swizz Beatz came out of nowhere with the, 'Get Ignorant!' I remember I knew every singe word. It was crazy to me because I never heard anybody go slow with the beat and then sped it up like that. 'Holiday' was on that record too and that's my favorite Styles P song."

Beanie Sigel, The Truth (2000)

Label: Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam

A$AP Ferg: "That album was so hard! I haven't heard an aggressive rapper spit like Beanie did until DMX. It was another type of aggressive rapping, it was just a boss hogging the beat! Beanie Sigel made the beat wait for his flow on that album. The production is crazy on that album too. Kanye West [produced] 'The Truth,' that song was stupid."

Jadakiss, Kiss The Game Goodbye (2001)

Label: Ruff Ryders

A$AP Ferg: "I remember I went on a lousy ass trip to Disney Wolrd with my family. You're supposed to have fun going to Disney World but it was just so lousy. I bought this album to make me happy because I was a huge Ruff Ryders fan at the time. I didn't cop albums before that, but I copped his. I remember listening to 'Jada's Got a Gun' over and over again. [Raps entire first verse of 'Jada's Got A Gun.'] He was going in."

Cam'ron, Come Home with Me (2002)

Label: Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam/Diplomat

A$AP Ferg: "That shit reminds me of when Cam came back out! That's after Dipset had it for a minute. They kicked down the door with the compilation and then Come Home With Me came through. It was basically just like him living on the album. You see the whips and the chains and you know what he's about. Plus the album cover of him and his son where he's wearing the Coogi jacket, that shit was dope."

The Diplomats, Diplomatic Immunity Vol. 1 (2003)

Label: Roc-A-Fella Records/Diplomat Records/Def Jam Recordings

A$AP Ferg: "That album came out around the time people were throwing paint on their own shirts, getting bandana print shirts made, putting a bandana on their Burberry Timbs and all of that. They just brought a whole culture to hip-hop and made it fun.

"That was when Cam was in the pink phase, he had the pink range and the Jeff Hamilton jackets. This album just reminds me of that era. Whenever I listen to that music, it reminds me of wearing Genesis jackets and the basketball team jackets, 6X tee's with the big ass fitteds."

Jay-Z, The Black Album (2003)

Label: Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam

A$AP Ferg: "The Black Album was dope because everybody thought he was going to leave. He really did leave on some Jordan shit and it was perfect. The fucking name was perfect, the whole aesthetic, like how the album looked, was perfect. I remember watching the documentary Fade to Black of him doing the Garden, and just thinking, 'Why the fuck is he leaving?'

"'Threats' on there by 9th Wonder, which was my joint. There was the Pharrell joint, 'Allure,' and that was amazing. Fucking 'PSA,' 'What More Can I Say?' that was dope too. That album was just crazy. I remember I was printing shirts and the time and while I was doing it I was just listening to the album front to back."

Selena, Greatest Hits (2003)

Label: EMI

A$AP Ferg: "Man, 'Dreaming of You,' I love that song. Whenever I play shows in Texas, I always play 'Dreaming of You' during my set as a tribute to Selena."

Lil Wayne, The Carter (2004)

Label: Cash Money/Universal

A$AP Ferg: "That was when I was a Lil' Wayne fanatic. I remember I was watching the Lil Wayne documentary every day, where he put the lean in the Vitamin Water. He was just unstoppable to me at that time. I felt like there was no other rapper that could beat him. He felt that way too and that's what was really happening."

Kanye West, College Dropout (2004)

Label: Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam

A$AP Ferg: "Back then, Kanye reminded me of the saying, 'Out with the old in with the new.' His fresh sound was just so fresh. The skits were hilarious and the music just sounded like he put his all into it. I had never heard bands playing violin on a rap record or a rapper put that much emphasis on instruments. That's what I got from that album."

Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreak (2008)

Label: Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam

A$AP Ferg: "Kanye was just trying to break the barriers, and he did it. A lot of people hated him for it, he lost a lot of fans from it, but he gained more. It showed his versatility. I was with it right away. Before 808s I was a Kanye West fan and then right when that album came out I was like, 'Yeah! He's on the same shit that I'm on, I fuck with this.'"

Kid Cudi, Man on the Moon: End of Day (2009)

Label: Dream-On/G.O.O.D Music/Universal Motown

A$AP Ferg: "'Solo Dolo" is one of my favorite songs. I remember him not being like the traditional rapper, or artist, and him not caring about what was socially hot. Him just being himself as a person. That shit was so dope to me."

Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

Label: Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam

A$AP Ferg: "That was dope! The whole visual that he did, the 'Runaway' film, was amazing. I remember everybody waiting up on MTV to see that. I remember him marching with the whole Michael Jackson shit in the movie, it was dope. Plus, 'All of the Lights' is fire."

Kendrick Lamar, good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012)

Label: Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope

A$AP Ferg: "That shit just reminds me of some old, The Chronic type shit. It has the perfect skits, it's true to his life, it's true to his story, he's got all his friends playing the skits. The album flowed together very well and he was crazy lyrical on it. That's one of the new comers that I listen to on some lyrical shit that I respect."

A$AP Rocky, Long.Live.A$AP (2013)

Label: A$AP Worldwide/Polo Grounds/RCA

A$AP Ferg: "I respect it because I know where Rocky came from with Live.Love.A$AP, and Love.Live.A$AP is just that to the 10th power. Live.Love.A$AP was kicking down the door but then Long.Live.A$APwas like, 'I arrived.' He got the ill production from Danger Mouse, Skrillex, just crazy dope songs.

'F***in' Problems' wasn't my favorite at first but then it grew on me.

"As a collective album—like musically and sonically—it was different from anything that I've ever heard. It just has a lot of bangers. 'Fuckin' Problems' wasn't my favorite at first but then it grew on me.

"'Long Live A$AP,' the first song, is my probably favorite joint. When he played that, it reminded me of an old school No Limit or Hot Boyz beat by Mannie Fresh. He co-produced that with Jim Jonsin so to know that he had his hands in it, to know that he crafted it and molded it to something great himself is great."