After somehow managing to escape the very long line outside of Tattoo (special thank you for Tattoo staff being the most organized and nicest of the fest so far!) I waited while the crowd got more and more amped up to see A$AP Mob member A$AP Ferg play. A$AP Twelvvy was the DJ for the night, and when he managed to get all his gear plugged in he warmed the crowd up with vicious anthems from Pusha T and Kanye West to great avail. When Ferg finally came out the small venue crowd pushed their way up while he managed to give high fives to a large portion of his adoring fans. Ferg announced that he loves playing in Canada (he showed off his geography knowledge later by saying Toronto fans are better than Montreal and Vancouver, stroking our egos the whole time) but that he always has trouble getting across the border due to his past legal problems. He started a chant of “Fuck the past, have a blast” to everyone’s delight.
The set started out with Dump Dump a song off his debut album Trap Lord. Ferg was wearing two rows of gold teeth that he proudly showed off whenever he could, like Paul Wall does with his grills. With him on the night was newest Mob member Marty Baller who, while was small in stature, was big on energy providing Ferg with the perfect hype man (even if he didn’t need one with the wild crowd eating out of his palms). During points in the set Marty would launch himself into the crowd, much to Ferg’s personal bouncer’s disapproval.
Knowing his crowd likes to get ‘turnt’ he commanding people to start a mosh people and throw themselves around. “We’re at about a 7/10 here tonight, and I want it to go up to 1000!” When introducing “Work” one of the crowd favourites he asked the middle the split up. Ferg walked in the middle of the parted sea and when the beat dropped requested everyone run back in like they were going to battle. Marty played a few of his solo stuff that I didn’t recognize, but afterwards Ferg busted out Mob leader ASAP Rocky and Skrillix combo “Wild For The Night”. The dubstep fit in perfectly with trap beats that had been rumbling loudly all night.
Near the end of the set Ferg asked if there were any local rappers in the crowd, and after an unfortunate fake out a real artist came up. Ferg handed him the mic and got him to freestyle while asking the crowd to give a hometown boy some respect and go ratchet. After the song, Ferg was so impressed with the guys’ performance he did what he has never done before and let the local boy have a second go at it. After it was done, Ferg had his arm around the exhausted and stunned kid who probably had his world changed for the better because of it. Ferg announced he had no more songs and thanked the crowd before dropping his mic and walking off stage. The crowd started chanting “Shabba!”, Ferg’s hit that he neglected to play. He came running back out invited all the ladies in the crowd to join him on stage for his hit song about dancehall legend Shabba Ranks.
