A$AP Ferg Wants to Make a Movie
"We need more BLACK MOVIES." Kareem and Ferg continue on the train and talk about music videos, cowboy boots, Ferg's dog Crash, animals generally, feeling lost, the group chat, Kareem's suit, glizzys, Kareem's rock n roll music and other stuff. Credits Host: Kareem Rahma Creators: Kareem Rahma and Andrew Kuo Camera: Anthony Di Mieri and Willem Holzer Editor: Tyler Christie Mixer: Dale Eisinger Associate Producer: Ramy Shafi Artwork: Andrew Lawandus Theme Music: Tyler McCauley
Summary
A$AP Ferg's got cowboy boots airbrushed like old-school Timberlands, and he's here to talk Black cinema. "We need more Black people movies," Ferg tells Kareem, rattling off classics from New Jack City to Norbit and explaining why Tyler Perry can't be the only one carrying the torch. The conversation bounces between Ferg's half-million-dollar "Green Juice" video, his wild dog reunion story (Crash went missing for three and a half years before cops found him in Connecticut), and why he'd rather talk to animals than speak every human language. They get into Ferg's group chat called "sewer sounds," the religion of "seism" that believes in "everything and nothing at the same time," and whether humans have lost their divinity. Ferg's convinced his life is already a movie. Kareem's rocking a Matrix-meets-Vampire-in-Brooklyn suit situation. It's all over the place, but that's the point.
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Full Transcript
So what's your take? My take is that we need more Black people movies. 100% agree. More Black people, more melanated people. 100%. I mean, Tyler Perry can't be the only one.
Nah, 'cause his movies is cool, but it's like, it's like we need to shake things up a little bit more. I agree, man. They, they, but he's a billionaire with—I mean, that ain't got nothing to do with it. Like, he can't be the only one. Like, when I came up, it was a lot of Black movies. We had New Jack City. We had, uh, what else? We had do the right thing. Do the Right Thing. What? Uh, New Jersey Drive. Friday. Friday After Next. Barber Shop. All of that. But I'm talking about even before that. The Nutty Professor. Nutty Professor. The Players Club. Belly. Vampire in Brooklyn. Oh, that shit's fire! Come on! Eddie Murphy. Coming to America. Norbit. Norbit. Norbit was lit.
What do you think happened? Why did they make all the movies white? I don't know, bro. But like, I'm about to make a movie. That's a good idea. I mean, my videos be costing the prices of movies, so might as well just make a movie, right?
What's your most expensive music video? My most expensive music video is half a million dollars.
Half a million? Yeah. Look at Green Juice. Hold up, up, up, yeah. That video was a half a million dollars. Wait. I think this is a nice pivot for Ferg. I mean, I, Ferg the filmmaker. I don't even really look at it like we've been making movies. My life is a movie.
So my life is a movie too. Look at this. Exactly. I'm going to train cowboy boot, man. Yo, tell me about the boots. This is very interesting. Look, 'cause this is kind of a Timberland vibe.
Yeah, it's a Timberland vibe, but with the cowboy boots. Yeah. So this is my boy. Da airbrushed on the side. We used to airbrush our Tims back in the days, so I just airbrushed the cowboy boot. So it's good. You said "Tim"? Very New New York. So this is the new shit. You think? It's like, really me paying homage to my pops and his friends and my uncles. They used to throw cookouts, and you know, you don't want to get your sneakers messed up in the grass in the dirt, so they used to wear boots, dungaree boots, cowboy boots with shorts. So that's where I got the vision from.
I mean, it's fresh. Yeah, it's very interesting. Yeah, I'm an interesting cat. You are an interesting cat. Oh, speaking of cats, you just got a dog.
I've been had a dog. His name is Crash. Crash. He just wasn't with us for about three and a half years. He was not with you for three and a half years? Yeah, he wasn't with us.
Was he locked up? He did a bid? I was just messing with you. Uh, we left him with the dog sitter and he ran away from them.
Wait, I need to know that. So you had a dog three and a half years ago? Yeah.
And you left him with the sitter? Left him with the sitter.
He was only a few months years old? And he ran away from the sitter.
He ran away from the sitter? And you recently got him back? The cops found him in Connecticut walking around. 'Cause whoever walking around... So he ran away from the dog sitter, and then somebody must have picked him up and took him to Connecticut, 'cause I can't imagine him walking all the way to Connecticut.
I mean, he could have in three years, right? But then he must have ran away from whoever had him or was just walking around in Connecticut where the cops found him. And they said, uh, we got a call. You have an Australian Shepherd. His name is Crash. 'Cause he had a chip inside of him. Wow. Yeah. You couldn't believe it, huh? When they called you?
Hell, no. I... What did that feel like? What did that feel like when they called you, bro? I'm still surprised. Like, I feel like it's a God thing. I feel like my dad's spirit is working some type of way. I don't know. Like, it's just, it's unable... like, it's just crazy.
You could make a movie about that. Yeah, I want to. Oh, I need help. Like, I need... I need Disney to holler at me or something. Disney holler, or your boy Ferg?
Yeah, I want to do like a, um, like a Pixar vibes. That's sick. Yeah, that's dope. Like, the adventures with Crash or something like that.
Adventures with Crash is a great name. Yeah. I like that. Because I would like to talk to him to understand, like, where the fuck was he? Where were you, bro? Would you rather be able to speak all the human languages of the world—Arabic, Spanish, Italian, French—or would you rather be able to just talk to animals? I would talk to animals.
So you would speak English? Huh? Are stupid as fuck. I would want to talk to the whales. I would want to talk to the gorillas. Because if we pay attention to the animals, we all know what we divinely supposed to do as humans. Like, we got pots and pans and shit like that. Like, we made that. Like, God ain't put that here. We made that. We supposed to be divine the way the animals are.
Do you think that humans have lost their divine soul? I don't think they lost the divine soul. I think we still have the soul, but they lost divinity. Yes, we lost divinity for sure. Everybody's lost, including myself.
Are you a little lost? What are you feeling lost about these days? We just don't know. We don't know where we come from. We don't know what we here for. Like, we just don't know. Like, what the fuck we doing? We all trying to figure it out. Everybody's a different religion. Like, everybody's looking for a purpose.
Yeah, everybody's looking for a purpose. Do you feel like you found your purpose? Yeah, I think my purpose is just to reflect what's going on in the world.
Oh, and be the light for the dark. What? Why he did it? That's that's magic.
Do you have a group chat? Yeah, I am in a group chat.
Is there an A$AP Mob group chat? It's not an A$AP Mob group chat. It's like an old one. It's like on the old phone. We should reactivate it.
We should? Who's in your favorite group chat right now? The sewer sounds. It's called sewer reism. We follow seism. That's our religion. Seism.
Seism, which is the label? Yeah, SE, Sewer Sounds is the label, and seism is what we believe in. And so that group chat is your favorite group chat?
Yeah, it's my favorite group chat. We sending memes in there? Yeah. Hunter is in the group chat. Hunter is my cousin. He's an artist on SE Sounds. Oh, dope. Toting big life, toting. Let's go. Let's fuck go. Are you in the group chat?
Oh, yeah, I'm in the group chat all day. Who's the best memer? Who sends the best memes? Who sends their fire there? Got to be, she throw the funny stuff in there. She does. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What else is going on there? Just ideas, creation, division. That's what goes on in there, and philosophy. That's why it's called seism.
Seism? Yeah. Y'all believe in Ninja Turtles shit? We believe in everything, and we believe in nothing at the same time.
Everything and nothing? Yeah, like the pyramids of Egypts. Everything and nothing. Like everything and nothing.
You do yoga? I do not. Sometimes I do yoga. I do not. I do. Yeah, I do sometimes. I haven't been doing it lately.
I feel like you're, you're like really like you got your heads in the clouds. What that mean? Like, like you're really thinking about not this. You're not on this spiritual plane. You're in a different spiritual plane.
I'm on a Soul Plane. You're on the Soul Plane. Bring back Black movies. Bring back Black movies. Hashtag bring back Black movies. Eddie Murphy Gang. Yo, Eddie Murphy is the best. Why don't we get him to call you? Let's do that. Tell the label. You got the suit on. The fit. What do you think of my suit? Rate my fit. I think you handling business. I like that. I like that for you.
You like this fit? You look like a Matrix character. That's dope, right? Or you like, you could be a character in Vampire in Brooklyn, like your eye might fall out or some shit behind the glasses.
Like, no, no, no. Like, and you got to pick up your eyeball on the floor? That's funny. Oops, I'm sorry. That's my friend. Your safety is important to us. Please stand away from the platform, ma'am.
You're a pescatarian? No, I'm a vegan.
Oh, you're a full vegan? Yeah. How long have you been vegan? Seven months. I mean, I got Lea on... Oh, that's not please. We, we still working on that. We still working on, like, like, some things you just can't get away from so fast. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm growing into this space. But you want to be a vegan?
I just want to be me. If one day I want to eat like...