My walk’s meaner than Cara Delevingne” is the lyric from A$AP Ferg’s song “Dope Walk” that set it all in motion. Delevingne first sparred in a “walk-off” via Instagram video with the rapper, who ultimately opted to showcase his “dope walk” dance in lieu of a catwalk. In this next chapter of the model-rapper saga, A$AP Ferg takes Delevingne on a tour of his New York fashion week experience via FaceTime.
First, I had to keep up with him. Following A$AP Ferg during New York fashion week is a hustle. Though he and his fellow members of the A$AP Mob have caught the eyes and ears of designer friends like Jeremy Scott and Alexander Wang, his priority is always his music. The man, known to friends simply as Ferg, skipped out on several presentations in lieu of studio time, though when he decided to hit the shows, he brought along creative director Harry Bernstein and the artist and director Matt Starr. Throughout the week, they shot a guerrilla-style video following Ferg as he attended shows, presentations, and parties. The videos will be strung together to create a music video for “Dope Walk,” from his Ferg Forever mixtape. We have the exclusive first look at the trailer, below.
“We’ve never met each other,” Ferg says of his relationship with Delevingne. “I’ve never met her before! We have a very cyber relationship. We text and e-mail each other. It’s like computer love.” The computer love continues for the two via FaceTime, where Delevingne lends her own introduction to the video. “She hasn’t been to fashion week since last year,” Ferg later says. “She’s in Bali this year, so in the video we give her a recap of what happened this week.”
The rest of the video is shot entirely on Ferg’s iPhone. “When I spoke to Ferg about the concept for ‘Dope Walk,’ we thought shooting the video entirely on his iPhone would make it feel more authentic,” says Bernstein. Starr adds, “It also allowed for more access. We didn’t have to stick a camera in anyone’s face, and we could sit in the front rows or backstage at the Kanye show. We don’t want this to be seen as another music video. We really tried to do something authentic and real, and tried to capture the experience while having this dialogue via social media, and utilize our relationship with social media and our cell phones to capture that experience.”
“A dope walk is similar to the Harlem Shake. You’re moving your shoulders to the beat,” Ferg demonstrates at Milk Studios. He has just wrapped filming a short scene for the video with A$AP Rocky and Haim (whom he refers to as “his sisters”). The musicians just had a chance encounter, though it’s easy to predict that the most star-studded shots are slated to come from backstage at the Kanye West x Adidas Originals presentation—a show Ferg refers to as “innovational.” Sporting a poncho and tribal face paint, he found himself in an overheated holding room with all the notables in attendance, including Beyoncé, Jay Z, Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber, Hailey Baldwin, Sean Combs, and Russell Simmons, to name just a few. “Ferg, you’re a dope boy,” Kris Jenner told him in the green room. “Is it Kris Jenner or Kris Kardashian?” he later asks me.
He also took time to attend some other presentations. When I cross paths with him the next day at Adam Selman’s show, he has not slept in more than 24 hours. “It reminded me of the cars with the wings on the back, the kind of shit James Dean would drive,” he says sleepily following the show, his face covered in a new paint design. He’s been busy making new music for himself, and talking shop with Missy Elliott, who, after being away from the music scene, has found interest in Ferg’s sound. According to Ferg, after playing “Dope Walk” for her and Timberland, she stopped the song halfway through and exclaimed, “I love his vibe.”
