(AllHipHop News) In urban communities across the U.S. there are a host issues due to kids who have absentee parents. Be it that their parents are divorced or separated, in jail, on drugs or just not around, many youth struggle to find their way in the world without the proper family structure.
In this VICE Autobiographies piece with A$AP Ferg, we get an idea of Ferg’s home structure. Fortunately A$AP Ferg had a strong parenting structure at home, but he did lose his father at an early age. Despite the fact that his dad was around, Ferg’s parents separated so Ferg had a limited time with his father before he passed away from kidney failure.
But despite the fact that his father has been gone for some time, A$AP Ferg continues on and has found inspiration through art and music, persevering in the face of tragedy in his own life.
While most people know Ferg for his music with the A$AP Mob, Ferg also has a talent for painting canvases after learning about art and painting as a young kid with his father.
“My father wasn’t there, but he was in my life,” A$AP Ferg told Vice in a new documentary. “He had a lil shop where he had his silk screens and I always had glitter all over my clothes, glow in the dark paints.”
It’s well-known in the Hip-Hop world that Ferg’s father was responsible for designing some of the most iconic logo’s in Hip-Hop including the famed Bad Boy baby logo along with the Uptown Record’s cat logo.
“He never forced art on me, he just let me see what he did. Later on down the line I got into painting on t-shirts and so he taught me the method of how to paint on t-shirts,” Ferg explained.
Now with Ferg’s career in full swing musically, Ferg continues to take time making art on canvases as you can see in this documentary. Take a look below and get to know Ferg’s come up from the streets of Harlem to a lively member of the A$AP Mob.
This episode and the rest of the VICE Autobiographies series will be running on Verizon’s go90 streaming service. Make sure to go check out the rest of these episodes with Vince Staples, Ty Dolla $ign, D.R.A.M., and a ton of others. (Series trailer here.)