A$ap Rocky ( Asap Rocky ) ALWAYS STRIVE & PROSPER

If A$AP Rocky seemed the young, punkish member of the A$AP Mob, A$AP Ferg always seemed the elder, referencing veteran icons like Shabba Ranks on his singles and bellowing like an East Coast, fashion week-friendly version of UGK's Bun B. Not only that, his hit single with Future, "New Level," landed not only after Drake had already recorded a whole album with Atlanta's version of "what's next," but also after Taylor Swift had made a consumer electronics television commercial with their hit "Jumpman." Then this sophomore LP arrived as a complicated, winding, and weaving effort that's identifiably post-Kendrick Lamar, and it seems the man prefers to chase rather than lead. Still, Always Strive and Prosper is so stimulating and so eclectic that Ferg could be nominated as hip-hop's truest maverick in the already free and freaky year of 2016. Here's the man who walks like a brute but talks like an edgy art magazine editor and acts like an enigma cloaked in a riddle and wrapped in a trap bea