ASAP Ferg

I used to do design before I was actually rapping. I went to art and design high school.

I might be more satisfied seeing my friends really come up than myself. I'm really happy for my success, but I can't really see it, because I'm myself working. You can see it; everyone around me can see it.

I don't have a problem with how people receive the music. I feel like it's for everybody.

I make music for the whole world, not just one borough.

I'm sort of like Jean-Paul Goude, the graphic designer who used to style Grace Jones and shoot all her visuals, just meaning that I use all mediums in one - music, fashion, and art. I'm hitting it from all angles.

I'm really into simple things - things you could wear every day.

Alexander Wang is a young designer, and his style is so profound. He took sports and street and kind of combined it into upscale high fashion. He made a white T-shirt a luxury.

Jeremy Scott reminds me of Harmony Korine, mixing all worlds and making them into one - you just never know what he's up to.

Rapping can be repetition sometimes. Sometimes you gotta highlight your words in a certain kind of way. So I always was a fan of sing-rapping. It was always funny to me a little bit, and I think that being funny and being able to laugh, even at yourself, is a form of flattery.

'Trap Lord' is basically the writer of the hood. It's the kid that's from the hood, from the trap, who's going to preach to his friends and his homies. Because they're not going to sit in no church. So they listen to me instead of going to a church, because I understand them, and that's really what the 'Hood Pope' is.

When I was growing up, I saw the Aaliyah shirts, the DMX shirts, or the collab shirts with DMX and Aaliyah when they had a single together. Those were the dope collage shirts with their faces all over it. They were doing cool things like that.

Mixtapes are always small scale to me - they never get taken seriously, and they're always short-lived.

I got a lot of fans who are not even into fashion. So they look at me and wear what I wear because it's cool or looks cool.

Chris Brown owns 14 of my belts. Swizz Beatz owns a zillion of my belts. They were supporting me before I was even anybody.

With 'Dope Walk,' I wanted to bring back kids dancing and having fun again. That's how it used to be in Harlem. I remember everybody Harlem-shaking and 'Chicken Noodle Soup'-ing. Those were some of the most fun and memorable times in my life.

I used to listen to 'Ready to Die' around the time I dropped out of college. I was scrambling for work and money.

'Illmatic' was dope.

'Going Back to Cali' is one of my favorite songs because of all the East Coast - West Coast rivalry.

DMX was just one of the figures that I thought no one could ever be better than. I used to look up to him so much. The bikes, the dogs, that's where I come from.

I always shout out my dad. My artistic roots come from him. He had his own T-shirt company and taught me the trade.

I used to be a daredevil on BMX bikes.

I'm relevant because I fill a void for people who aren't doing what they want to do in life.

I was born alone, I'm gonna die alone. I have my own identity. I'm my own person, and no two people are the same.

Me jumping on a song with Ariana Grande is just showing versatility, you know what I'm saying?

I thought I was half white or something because I only know white people as Ferguson as their last name.