A$AP Ferg Talks Working With Timbaland

Do you think there’s a track on the EP that is underrated?

“Hummer Limo.” It’s produced by Timbaland. Timbaland is one of my favorite producers, and I really want to reeducate the world on Timbaland. He’s one of those guys that did so much for music. He changed the sound and pushed new sonics. I feel like Timbaland is a very similar artist or producer to Pharrell. Pharrell has used his platform to do different things though, like movies. He [Pharrell] really expanded and Timbaland really kept it to music. Everyone has their own path, but I would love to reeducate the world on Timbaland, because he’s such an amazing producer. One of the biggest.

Were you able to get in the studio with him at any point, or did “Hummer Limo” come about through the internet?

Timbaland actually helped me curate the album set list. We spent time in the studio in Miami, working together. Initially I heard the beat on Instagram, and I was just like, “I need that” and he was like, “it’s yours.” I’ve been reaching out to Timb forever, but I guess it was just time. When I got to Miami, I flew out to mess with him, we went to the studio for a week straight.

So there’s a lot of Timbaland and A$AP Ferg collaborations stashed away?

Not a lot. We spent a lot of time talking and built this little brother; big brother, thing. I would just call him talking about shit that was going on in the world. I asked him what he was thinking when he did certain songs for Missy, or certain songs for Ludacris, where his mind was when he did this, how did he come up with this certain idea, what is he inspired by right now, or what can we revisit making music going into the next project. That’s what we talk about.

That actually leads me into my next question, you’re a member of A$AP Mob, and that group and its affiliates have become synonymous with fashion. I guess you can talk to music about this as well, but how important was it for you to have a collective around you to help push you to where you are today to find where you can push boundaries? 

It’s very important that I have my community around me because I wouldn’t know what’s hot really. Sometimes you can second guess it, if you’re making music by yourself, you can be like, “oh this is dope,” but you love to see your counterparts move to it the way you move to it, as this basically validates what you’re feeling.