Exclusive Interview with A$AP Ferg: Inside the Timberland “Green Juice” Launch Event

Jimmy Jazz was lucky enough to exclusively launch A$AP Ferg’s signature new shoe, the Timberland “Green Juice” Field Boot. In between several impromptu meet and greets, photo shoots, and an exclusive juice bar pop-up, he sat down with us for an interview. In it, he discusses fulfilling a lifelong dream, helping his father through kidney failure, the story that inspired his very own version of an iconic silhouette, and reveals an upcoming project.

The anticipatory tension was palpable as a black Mercedes sprinter van pulled up to the curb outside of Jimmy Jazz’s flagship store in Harlem. But the ecstasy among the large crowd of mostly Harlem locals seemed to be rooted in something far deeper than usual celebrity obsession.

Low voiced, giddy chants of “ASSAAAAPPPP… ASSAAAAPPPP” accompanied by intermittent shouts of “HARLEM!” filled the air, and the feeling, more than anything, was fun. 

A$AP Ferg was returning home to reunite with the city streets that made him. As any A$AP fan is well-aware, Ferg was born and raised in Harlem, NY. It was at this same store where he would once camp out to cop the new Yeezys. It was in this neighborhood where he first met his fellow A$AP Mob members. It was in some of these very apartment buildings where the group would first begin to plan their path toward becoming the genre-bending, boundary-pushing cornerstones of the music industry they are today.

Unlike his longtime collaborator, A$AP Rocky, though, he still lives here. “Lives” is probably a loose usage of the word, as he spends much more time on the road than anywhere else, but the sentiment is clear: he’ll never get too Hollywood for Harlem.

On this cool Saturday afternoon, after a few minutes of unblinking, eye-straining stares, the raucous chants subsided, because the doors on the sprinter van stayed closed. Suddenly, the crowd collectively realized: this car did not contain the person we were waiting for. 

The store manager quickly hurried the mystery vehicle along.

Fortunately, as quickly as this car disappeared, the real deal seemed to arrive, as an identical van drove up. The chants started again with even more fervor, and this time, a fancy fur-hatted, green-haired, iced-out A$AP Ferg, accompanied by some of the more anonymous members of his inevitable A$AP Mob entourage, exited the van to sounds of immense excitement.

But the rap star’s immediate reaction, notably, was unlike that of many young men afflicted with the physical presence of a large, devoted group of strangers. Rather than recoil at the gleeful, manic energy from his fans; upon seeing the crowd, his face broke into a big, genuine, gold-grilled smile. And rather than hustle into the relative privacy of the store’s inside, he went out of his way to ensure that no fan’s hand was left un-dapped. 

Underneath those tens-to-hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of garments and jewelry, it’s undeniably obvious that Ferg still revels in being a hometown hero to Harlem, entirely empathetic to the love his people have for him. So similar to the feelings he must’ve held to one of his childhood role models, Cam’ron, who collaborated with Ferg for “Rubber Band Man”, a Harlem anthem (and absolute banger) from his 2017 album Still Striving.

Perhaps one of these reverent fans will have a similar honor someday.

Upstairs, where the event would take place, he took the time to once again greet everyone in the room, all the while wearing a still engaged and undeniably excited grin on his face. 

Among his many nicknames (Fergenstein, Fergie, Fergivicious, Hood Pope, Trap Lord, and most recently, Flip Phone Shorty), one could never claim him to be a prima donna. Although he certainly has an impressive enough aura to get away with it, if he wanted.

After finishing these two waves of exuberant meet and greets, he sat down with Jimmy Jazz for a short interview to discuss the reason that we were all here, the release of a health-conscious new colorway: his signature Timberland “Green Juice” Field Boot.

Sitting there in a director’s chair, under the hot spotlight of dozens of ogling eyes, waiting for questions, he seemed entirely in control. Although, to be fair, his eyes remained unseen underneath dark lenses for the duration. It’s a visual that makes one wonder: when life looms so dangerously large, perhaps it’s sometimes best seen behind a filter.

Unfortunately, in this public and professional format, I didn’t have the chance to ask him if this was, indeed, the case. 

Instead:

This seems to be one of the rare times a shoe has a genuine story behind it. Can you tell us that story?

“The story actually started off as a song that me and Pharell made called Green Juice, and you guys will get a chance to hear that- well, the world will get a chance to hear that- soon.” 

As he finished his answer, there was a hush in the crowd, as this was utterly new news to the world. And as the room grew quiet, a mischievous grin grew across his face. It’s something he must be quite familiar with, the ability to make any number of people’s day with just a few simple words; yet it was clearly still quite novel for him. Moments later, he gave in to impulse. (or maybe more likely, it was planned all along). The sly smile stayed as he continued.

“Um, me and him got a project coming out soon, so I’m spilling da beans on it. Me and Pharrell have a project, and the song Green Juice is on this album.”

But almost immediately after, his tone switched to be more serious.

“Before then, my father- he died of a kidney failure. I used to do like these Ferg health fairs for him and stuff like that. So, I got really conscious on health and that’s why I started working out more. Cause I seen the pain he was going through: going to the hospital late at night, doing dialysis.

He put me onto like, wheat grass and green juice, and you know, drinking more smoothies and things like that. That’s really where the health aspect came from. So I just thought it’d be dope to flex health. We never really flex health coming out of the Urban communities. You never really hear rappers talk about health, or talk about working out, or eating better on tour. You know, we rap about partying all the time, but we never talk about how to keep ourselves conditioned to keep up with the party”.

Before the next question, among intermittent audible cell phone vibrations coming from the crowd, he took the chance to calmly create a more professional environment.

“Could y’all do me a favor, like, everybody put they phone on mute. If y’all could be quite a little bit”.

Of course, the affirmative response to his request was immediate. He settled back into his chair and waited, once again. The rest of the interview proceeded unperturbed.

I’ve noticed that you seem to be well aware of your personal impact and personal legacy. In that same vein: what impact do you hope this shoe will have?

The impact is just spreading the word about health. It’s like, you know, it’s called Green Juice. So kids, they might think it’s a cool name, but if they do research on Green Juice and google it: Green Juice pops up: what’s in the green juice. You got cucumbers... avocado in some of them. You have lemon-lime. You have broccoli, celery, green apples. So it’s like all of these things that is actually good for us that we don’t really know about. So, it’s like, bringing awareness.

So, is it safe to say that you would like to be known as a health-conscious person?

Upon hearing this question, he was almost taken aback, as if this was perhaps too limiting a label for a man as diversely invested and ambitious as himself. In retrospect, it probably was. 

“I’m not tryna be known as a health-conscious person because I still dibble and dabble in stuff that’s not healthy. I’m a human being. I just want to show the world everything. Like; I’m three-dimensional. I’m not… just healthy. I’m gon’ turn up later. I gotta be healthy early on today because I might turn up with my friends at a party and be drinking later. So you know, it’s all about balance. Like, we not tryna over-do anything. We just showin’ people what we’re actually into.” 

Translation: “Man, what kind of rockstar would I be if I didn’t also rage?” 

Then, of course, he manages to relate it back to repping his hometown.

“And also, like, this is what we do in Harlem. This is a Harlem boot for me. Like, growin’ up, the field boot team was very prominent in Harlem. I used to collect em. I used to have the pink and the black ones. I used to have the black with the navy blue ones, the grey with the red inside, the beef and broccoli that everybody know about, the potato and broccoli. 

So l always said to myself, if I was able to design my own Timb, I’d create the craziest colorways and the funkiest colorways. When I grew up, I seen Supreme do some of the craziest field boot Timbs, and I thought they were so ill for that. So when I was going into the mind frame of designing these, I just wanted to top everybody’s Timbs. And that’s really what I want to spread. I want to spread great design. I want to spread Harlem culture.” 

He then discusses how Juice Bars, in general, have become a part of Harlem culture.

“We hang out in Juice Bars in Harlem, we drink something called “Goo-Gong” in Harlem. 

(Apparently, as he goes on to explain, this is quite niche. I mean, I literally couldn’t find a single explanation of it on the World Wide Web).

You know; this is very unique to a place like Harlem because you go anywhere else in the world and they don’t really do that. Like, you could go to Portland or China or wherever. You could go to L.A., but ain’t nobody really hanging out with the Rastaman at the Juice bar and meeting up with they buddies and they friends and just hanging out. So that’s really somethin’ that was invented in Harlem. It’s a nuance.”

Why’d you choose Timberland and Jimmy Jazz specifically to help sell this boot?

“I chose Timberland and Jimmy Jazz because I’m a huge fan of both! I grew up waiting on line for shoes at Jimmy Jazz. I had my chair outside with everybody else when the Yeezys dropped. I was definitely on the line.

You know, Timberland; it’s a dream for me to do a collab with Timberland. I remember like, I used to do custom T-Shirts, I used to paint on T-shirts. I used to do special colorways to match people’s Timberlands. Shirts they didn’t have print in the shop. I used to do customized T-shirts for the Timbs.

This is like a dream come true, I spoke it into fruition, and I worked toward it. Me and Timberland was supposed to work on something a long time ago through the A$AP Mob: Rocky had designed a boot. And I was so mad that they didn’t come out, like, I was always tellin’ em like, bro, ‘why y’all ain’t come out with that Timb?’

So I just made sure that when I got into a position [to design a boot], and me and Timberland spoke, that we actually came out with the boot, no matter what it took.”

I know you already touched on this, but what goes into your Green Juice?

“What goes in these Green Juice, these Timbs, is love. It’s design. It’s 31 years of experience. It’s running around Harlem and seeing the old drug dealers with the Timbs on and the 7 jeans. It’s like, summertimes in Harlem with shorts and jeans. I feel like we only do that in Harlem, with like, boots and shorts. Man, my uncle Psycho (presumably the same one who was ‘in the bathroom buggin’, from ‘Plain Jane’), was army fatigue. Whole suit on, he had racks of Beef and Broccoli in the closet. And me seein’ this icon boot, and being like, damn, it’s somethin’ special about these, cause he got like four pair of these same boots in his closet. So I’m kinda like: this is tatted on my brain, this image of this boot, forever. 

Like, yes, we all love to construct, but like, this Field Boot Timb? It’s specifically, not the high one, but these ones, it’s my favorite Timberland boot”.

For this final question, I was actually attempting to get a small soundbite for a short promo video on our Instagram. You know the deal: “I’m A$AP Ferg and this is what goes in my Green Juice” type stuff.

But as his answer shows (and he did emphasize his inflection on “these” to point out the deflection), he wasn’t all that interested. Or at least, he had a better idea. So instead of simply spouting off a list of fruits and vegetables, he created an opportunity to tell the story that he wanted. It’s something he’s been doing his entire life. Because nobody gave him the tools to get here. He took what he’d been given, twisted it, and turned it into something far more compelling.