''Always Strive and Prosper'' is the second studio album by American rapper ASAP Ferg. It was released on April 22, 2016, by A$AP Worldwide,

Polo Grounds Music Polo Grounds Music is a hip hop and R&B record label distributed by Sony Music's RCA Records. Polo Grounds Music is a full-service entertainment company with a focus in publishing, management, marketing and promotions. Founded in 2006 by Bryan ...

and

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. The album was supported by two singles: " New Level" featuring Future, and "Back Hurt" featuring Migos. Other appearances include

Missy Elliot Melissa Arnette Elliott (born July 1, 1971), better known as Missy Elliott or Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She embarked on her music career with R&B girl group Sista in the earl ...

, A$AP Mob, Chris Brown,

Ty Dolla $ign Tyrone William Griffin Jr. (born April 13, 1982), known professionally as Ty Dolla Sign (stylized as Ty Dolla $ign or Ty$), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He first gained major recognition in 2010 for his feature on Ameri ...

, Rick Ross and

Schoolboy Q Quincy Matthew Hanley (born October 26, 1986), better known by his stage name Schoolboy Q (stylized as ScHoolboy Q), is an American rapper. In 2009, Hanley signed to Carson-based independent record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) and in late ...

, among others.

Singles

On December 18, 2015, ASAP Ferg released the album's first single, titled " New Level". The song features a

guest appearance In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other ...

from

Southern hip hop Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memp ...

recording artist Future, with the

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

that was handled by Honorable C.N.O.T.E. On January 19, 2016, the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

was released for "New Level" featuring Future. On June 28, 2016, the bonus track "Back Hurt" featuring Migos, was sent to urban radio as the album's second single. The following day, the music video was released.

Promotional singles

"Let It Bang" featuring

, was released as the album's

promotional single A promotional recording, or promo, or plug copy, is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as ...

on March 24, 2016. The following day, the music video premiered for "Let It Bang" featuring Schoolboy Q. "World Is Mine" featuring

Big Sean Sean Michael Leonard Anderson (born March 25, 1988), known professionally as Big Sean, is an American rapper. Anderson began his music career in 2007 and gained popularity in 2010 with his third mixtape '' Finally Famous Vol. 3: Big''. He then s ...

was released as the album's second promotional single on April 1, 2016. The official video for the song was released on June 26, 2016. The audio for "Hungry Ham" featuring

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...

and Crystal Caines, was released as the album's third promotional single on April 7, 2016. The audio for "Strive" featuring Missy Elliott, was released as the album's fourth promotional single on April 14, 2016.

Critical reception

''Always Strive And Prosper'' has received generally positive reviews. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received a score of 74 based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Commercial performance

In the United States, the album debuted at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling 35,000 units in its first week.

Track listing

Notes * "Rebirth" and "Psycho" features background vocals from Nikki Grier. * "Beautiful People" features background vocal from Nikki Grier and Lauren Pardini. * "Grandma" features background vocals from

Sid Sriram Sidharth "Sid" Sriram (born 19 May 1990) is an Indian Carnatic musician, music producer, playback singer, and songwriter. He is an R&B songwriter and has been working in the Tamil ,Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi and English musi ...

, Ajanee Hambrick and Malik Spence.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2016 albums RCA Records albums ASAP Ferg albums Albums produced by DJ Khalil Albums produced by DJ Mustard Albums produced by Lex Luger Albums produced by Honorable C.N.O.T.E. Albums produced by Stargate Albums produced by No I.D. Albums produced by Cashmere Cat