On his 2013 mixtape-turned-debut-album Trap Lord, A$AP Ferg was ahead of his time. Even among the region-defying ranks of his (apparently former) A$AP Mob affiliates, Ferg’s debut stood out as truly weird. His voice and bravado were unmistakably New York, but singles “Shabba” and “Work” pulled as much from Lex Luger’s maximalist aesthetic as they did from Dipset’s uptown swagger, forecasting the stranglehold Atlanta trap would have on rap for the rest of the 2010s. Seven years later, on his latest project Floor Seats II, Ferg’s music no longer sounds avant-garde.
In his defense, Ferg has settled into a comfortable rhythm since 2017’s lively but low-stakes Still Striving mixtape. His insistence on familiarity tracks within our current cultural climate. The coronavirus is still raging across the world, with the United States in particular still struggling with its first wave. Ferg recently told Complex that Floor Seats II is “music to take people’s minds elsewhere, and off what’s happening in the state of the world right now.” The project’s loose concept is geared around sitting courtside at a basketball game, with its loaded tracklist representing the celebrities you might see at a game The Knicks would currently be losing at The Garden if it were open. If anything, it makes me miss the scent of beer and rage that floats from The Garden into Penn Station below every game night.
The concept doesn’t really suit the boisterous nature of Ferg’s music, which can make you feel like you’re milly-rocking at the top of the George Washington Bridge at its best. If there’s one thing Floor Seats II doesn’t lack, it’s energy. You can feel the velocity of songs like “Dennis Rodman” and “In It,” with Ferg’s flows lighting him up like the Human Torch; even his trademark barking and cooing adlibs happen faster. On “Move Ya Hips,” he feeds off of Nicki Minaj and MadeinTYO’s energy, building on his established chemistry with Minaj without recreating their 2017 hit “Plain Jane.”
Ferg takes a few risks on Floor Seats II, and some pan out better than others. The penultimate song “Hectic,” co-produced by TGUT and Ferg himself, opens with a glitchy electronic beat before a mid-song switch reveals a tribal stomp that sounds like Clipse’s “Grindin’” in a wind tunnel. Ferg transitions effortlessly into a verse calling American racism to task: “I lost battles for my peace/Take those shackles off our feet/And we got diamonds in our teeth/But we’re still a nigga to the police.” Ferg’s passionate story of his come up and his claim to the A$AP legacy on closing song “Big A$AP” is softened by a posh piano run almost as silly as the one on Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige’s infamous duet “Now Or Never.” Both “No Ceilings” and “Aussie Freaks” are anchored by Brooklyn drill beats, and while Ferg gives it his all, it would be a stretch to say he sounds natural over this skittering production. It’s one of the few times Ferg has chased a trend instead of trying to set one.
Even with the added variety, Floor Seats II often cedes too much time to its guests. Tyga dominates the first half of “Dennis Rodman” with a forgettable verse before Ferg blows him out of the water on the back half. The flex of inviting Diddy to monologue over “Hectic” isn’t worth listening to his motivational-meme posturing in between verses. Ferg works well with guests, which is why this project exists, but not when they start eating into the runtime.
On the hook for “Value,” Ferg briefly resurrects his Trap Lord persona. It briefly provokes nostalgia for the moment when invisible chains and random merch giveaways on Twitter were the height of cool, when putting Waka Flocka Flame and B-Real on the same album was considered fresh and forward-thinking. This is not that time. Floor Seats II is a fun but familiar distraction where Ferg seems content to ride the wave, for better and for worse.
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