Ferg Recounts Taking Kendrick Lamar Around Harlem: 'He Was Protected'
Ferg gave Kendrick Lamar a tour of his borough during an off-day on The Big Steppers Tour in 2022.
Kendrick Lamar got a close look at Harlem living while touring the borough with rapper Ferg as a guide.
The rapper, formerly known as ASAP Ferg, recalled the day during a recent visit to The Breakfast Club. Ferg's girlfriend, photographer Renell Medrano (who shot the Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers artwork), was documenting Kendrick's The Big Steppers Tour, when Kendrick's manager, Dave Free, reached out.
Around the 32-minute mark of the interview below, Ferg said that his "anxiety was through the roof" before Kendrick's Harlem visit, calling him one of his "favorite rappers."
"That was cool. That was some cool shit. N****s can’t do that, and he was protected. Nothing happened on my watch," Ferg recalled.
Ferg attended Kendrick's show the day before, and when the "Not Like Us" rapper told him that he was available on the following day, Ferg offered to take him and Free around Harlem. Both agreed to it, and it happened to be on the same date as designer Dapper Dan's birthday.
"I had to put a whole itinerary together. It randomly happened to be Dapper Dan’s birthday that day," Ferg continued. "He didn’t even know I was coming to see him, and I brought Kendrick to [restaurant] Melba’s, and then we went to Dapper Dan’s [place]. I brought him to my hood."
He added, "They don’t [have fire] hydrants open in [Los Angeles], so he’s like touching the water and shit. I was like, 'This n****’s acting like that’s holy water.' I thought it was cool, and I [saw] the kid in him."
Ferg referenced the experience on the title track of his new album, Darold, where he raps, "I brought K. Dot to my block, n****, I'm really outside / N****, how T Ferg lost to them pullups against Kendrick Lamar?"
