Rap’s court jester A$AP Ferg returns with the follow-up to last year’s underwhelming Always Strive and Prosper album, which featured some questionable collaborations and stylistic diversions that never really worked for him. Still Striving is a return to the form that enabled Ferg to call himself a Trap Lord back in 2013, and with the increased prominence of the genre Ferg is back to reign supreme.

Ferg’s appeal has always been his ecstatic delivery and infectiously ignorant personality, and this combination contributes to an improved, but still very inconsistent project here. Still Striving plays into Ferg’s unique skill set very well at times, as he displays a surprisingly impressive flow, but too often falls back into disjointedness and trap cliches.

The project starts strong, as “Trap And A Dream” hits on everything that Ferg does best. He one-ups Migos on the triplet flow, going completely all-out and never stopping to take a breath. Perhaps his closest contemporary in Meek Mill appears to deliver some energetic bars alongside him. The two are both keeping the antiquated art of punchline rap alive, and they drop some pretty good ones here. The beat is provided by relative unknown Frankie P, but it is easily the best on the whole project, with two separate rhythms overlapping and intersecting overtop of what sounds like Drake’s “Energy” melody on steroids.

Ferg can drop some lines that are very funny, but not in a conventional sense. There’s something about his delivery and unique choices in what he references that he can make anything sound quotable. Why is it that I smile when he puts emphasis on the wrong syllables in “Rubber Band Man”, with a gleeful “Running this s**t, you can call me u-SAIN Bolt”? I’ll never know.

Ferg’s flow is a lot better than you would expect on quite a few occasions, effortless flipping between triplets and standard flow for some pretty complex rhythms. His voice is almost like a human hi-hat, providing those oscillating trap rhythms himself. He quickly drops two completely different flows on his first two lines on “Aww Yeah”, smoothly dropping in and announcing his presence.

“Plain Jane” is another standout track, as Ferg turns his sing-song flow to the maximum and offers some nice multisyllabic rhymes. Plus, I can always appreciate a good Get Out reference. “One Night Savage” is great for the same reasons, and it just makes me wish Ferg played to his strengths more often on this project.

Still Striving is very reliant on features, and almost none of them try to steal any spotlight from Ferg. There’s a reason why “Plain Jane”, one of only 3 featureless tracks, stands out as one of the best. Ferg is so far in his own lane that there are quite a few people who are hard-pressed to complement his style well. The inclusion of someone like Lil Yachty on “Aww Yeah” just kills the energy, as his laidback style clashes with the more boisterous beat.

It seems like Ferg is aiming for some trendier features here that don’t really work – Playboi Carti’s contribution to “Mad Man” is so empty and antithetical to what Ferg does that I’m surprised it wasn’t cut. There is certainly an increasing trend of presenting ambivalence in trap music, and appearances from these individuals as well as people like Nav and MadeinTYO don’t do any favours, frequently just making the tracks a lot more boring than they need to be.

Lyrics can often be a downfall as well, which just shows a need to cut the album down a bit more. Ferg has more than enough ability to craft engaging lyrics for the entire duration of an album, but as it stretches on and he starts relying more on shock value and unnecessarily vulgar lyrics you can feel him running out of ideas. There are a few too many tracks here that don’t turn up the energy as much as a Ferg track really should, and it draws more attention to these lyrical discrepancies.

This lack of polish is quite evident over the course of the whole project, and it starts to make me wonder whether most of these are throwaways that didn’t make the similarly titled parent album. On tracks like “Nasty (Who Dat)”, the hook seems to be tacked on as an afterthought. Ferg’s Auto-Tuned wails might have been better left in the hands of Quavo, who is right there on the same track, and they just kill all the rest of the track’s potential due to how awkward they sound.

Ferg has been an inconsistent figure for a while now, whose genuine talents can be dragged down by his facade of ignorance. It makes for some spectacular feature verses on others’ work, but improvements are still necessary to carry a full album. The potential is there.

Favourite Tracks: Trap And A Dream, Plain Jane, One Night Savage, Rubber Band Man

Least Favourite Track: Nasty (Who Dat)

Score: 6/10