''Always Strive and Prosper'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American rapper

ASAP Ferg Darold Durard Brown Ferguson Jr. (born October 20, 1988), known professionally as FERG (previously A$AP Ferg ( /ˈeɪsæp/ ''AY-sap'')), is an American rapper from Harlem, New York City. He is a lead member of the hip hop collective ASAP Mob, f ...

. 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. Founded in 2006 by Bryan Leach, Polo Grounds Music is a full-service entertainment company with a focus in publishing, management, marketing and promo ...

and

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

. The album was supported by two singles: " New Level" featuring

Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ex ...

, and "Back Hurt" featuring

Migos Migos () were an American hip hop group founded in Lawrenceville, Georgia, in 2008. The group was composed of rapper Quavo, his nephew Takeoff, and their "cousin" friend Offset. Quavo is from Athens, Georgia, while Offset and Takeoff were bo ...

. Other appearances include Missy Elliot,

A$AP Mob ASAP Mob (stylized as A$AP Mob) is an American hip-hop collective formed in 2006 in Harlem, New York City, that consists of rappers (most of whom carry the "ASAP" moniker; except Da$H and Playboi Carti), record producers, music video directors ...

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. A Pop music, pop and hip-hop-influenced contemporary R&B, R&B musician who works in a variety of genres, he has been called the "Honorific nic ...

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, rapper, and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Griffin gai ...

Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. An influential figure in modern Hip-hop, hip hop music, Rick Ross has become known for his "Wiktionary:booming, booming" vocal perfor ...

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. He began recording in 2007, and released his first two mixtapes, ''ScHoolboy Turned Hustla'' (2008) and '' ...

, among others.

Singles

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

guest appearance The term guest appearance generally denotes the appearance of a guest in an artistic or pop-culture setting. The guests themselves (referred to as guest artists, featured artists, guest stars, or guest fighters, depending on context), are disting ...

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 Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee ...

recording artist

, 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 stat ...

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

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

was released for "New Level" featuring Future. On June 28, 2016, the bonus track "Back Hurt" featuring

, 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, 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 mu ...

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. He met Kanye West as a teenager, and signed with his record label GOOD Music, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings in 2007. He gained popul ...

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, record producer, musician, singer. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he began his career in 2004 as the lead vocalist of the ...

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

Missy Elliott Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott (born July 1, 1971), also known as Misdemeanor, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She began her musical career as a member of the Contemporary R&B, R&B girl group 4 All the Sistas Arou ...

, 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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

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

, 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 Clams Casino (musician) Albums produced by DJ Khalil Albums produced by Mustard (record producer) 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