Fergie Baby is the Latest Member of Harlem’s Fellowship of Fly

It’s not easy to become a somebody in Harlem, where being fly and flashy is a local bylaw. The area comprising a 45-block patch of northern Manhattan isn’t even its own borough, but its rich history is vast enough to deserve the nickname “Harlem World.” It’s where foundational Black writers and musicians lived and socialized in the ‘30s, and the Black Panthers once had headquarters. And later on, as Paid In Full depicts, the span of 125th Street was filled with hustlers trying to outdo each other with furs, Dapper Dan-designed outfits, and European cars. That kind of competition is why seemingly every other prime Cam’ron verse had bars about stunting so hard on the block that “even the cops in the plain clothes said I crushed it.” 

Just walking outside in Harlem is being onstage, intentionally or not. Fergie Baby is one of those “somebodies” for the new generation, and he captured that inimitable energy in the music video for "Good Day to be in Harlem,” a breakout single that feels like a culmination of 8 years of grinding through the New York rap scene. 

Fergie says he ideated the track as the Harlem version of Ice Cube’s "It Was a Good Day" with no violence, just “Henny punch, 80 degrees” and all the good vibes that come with that setoff. Fergie sat with the Kajun Waters-produced beat that became “Good Day…” for over two years, resolving not to record until his song idea matched the momentous production. The original track debuted on his Summer League Series, Vol. 1 mixtape last July. He dropped a FERG-featured remix and music video in January. The simple treatment consisted of Fergie and Hartwell going through their favorite Harlem spots, including the Beauty Cave hair salon and Big Russ barbershop. 

“Let's show Harlem. Show the essence of it,” he says of the video theme.

Resting on a hill on Harlem’s West Side, The Bakery HNY fashion boutique, where I meet Fergie, is one of those places that show up in the video. I’m admiring the Bakery sweatsuits and other colorful pieces along the wall before Fergie Baby swoops in, wearing a black leather jacket to beat the late winter chill, black sweats, and a black t-shirt. He greets everyone in the room and takes a seat in front of me at the back of the spot.

He’s pretty energetic and alert for someone who just pulled an all-nighter in the studio, crafting tracks for his upcoming debut album, God Was Born In Harlem.  He’s about 65% through the project, which he expects to release sometime in May. He’s dropped eight projects since he began rapping in 2018, but says he’s carrying a deeper “intentionality” into his first studio album, and is focused on “giving people what they want from New York right now.” He’s previously gone viral with the 2022 “Suburbans” and 2024’s “TRUEYS, BBs, and CANES.” And after the success of “Good Day to be in Harlem,” he’s in more demand.

Kicking back, Fergie tells me Harlem artists like Jim Jones and Dave East frequent the store, which often hosts ciphers and pop-up events. “You too!,” interjects store owner Cheo Da Don, sitting behind the nearby register counter. We all laugh, but I feel the weight of Cheo’s subtle stamp: Fergie can put himself on that list of rap dignitaries. 

Fergie had a traditional Harlem upbringing focused on fashion and sports. He started party promoting from an early age; he tells me about once overbooking an event at a community center and having almost 1,000 teenagers spill out into the streets. After graduating from high school, he went to Penn State Hazleton, a commonwealth campus of the Pennsylvania State University. He says he played on their basketball team, but he he admits, “I ain’t get no minutes.” He pursued a degree in criminal justice for a multitude of reasons. 

“One, because my mother inspired me to go down that field,” he explains. “She currently works in that field. The second: just being a Black man from Harlem, I [just] wanted to know the other side of the law to have two sides of the world…never hurts to acknowledge that.”

He and his friend Wayne were the only Harlemites at the school. They brought the hometown vibes there when Fergie started promoting on-campus parties. “Harlem dudes gonna make a statement wherever,” he assures. As such, he became known for his skills as a rapper. At first, he rapped for fun, but realized he had a knack for it. At his friends’ behest, he saved up for studio time and recorded his debut single “Bleachers.” 

Fergie’s path to rap success feels fated. His manager and publicist, Jasmine Jones, DM'd him shortly after he released “Bleachers”; they’re still locked in 8 years later. He worked three jobs in the legal sector. But each time, both he and his employer realized the 9-to-5 lifestyle wasn’t for him, and he was let go. Circumstances landed him a studio assistant role at EMPIRE, where he aided Kajun Waters, already his go-to producer. They had ample time to record in between Waters’ other sessions. And when everyone left the office at night, he’d sneak into their film studio and shoot music videos. Eventually, EMPIRE’s HR found out and informed EMPIRE Chief Operating Officer, Nima Etminan. 

 Etminan’s reaction was the best news Fergie could’ve gotten. 

“He goes, ‘F**k writing him up, who is this?,” Fergie recalls. “We're not writing him up, sign him right now.”

Fergie’s signing was revealed in February of 2025, the same month of his Harlem River Drive mixtape, where he walks the line of lyrical precision and mass appeal. It’s hard not to feel a Dipset influence on the 15-track project, where Fergie gets busy on a soundscape of flowing, time-stretched samples and thumping 808 drums. He’s talking to the women on “What You Need” and “Friday Night,” and getting on his braggadocious Harlem shit for the eponymous track and “Harlem Is Heaven.” An artist can pigeonhole themselves steeping their sound in local nostalgia, but Fergie sidesteps that trap with a willingness to take on a wide variety of beats. Alongside the classic New York sound is the Jodeci-sampling “Tonight” with B Jack$, which shows his potential to jump into the sexy drill lane.

His last mixtape, Summer League Series, Vol. 1 is similarly ambitious, jumping from the Ludacris-channeling “Fantasy” to “Coke Raps” with Rome Streetz and Smoke DZA. And then he went viral with “Don’t Tell Me (9 to 5),” a true-to-life song about quitting the workforce that evokes a revitalized version of “the Old Kanye.” Fergie says he doesn’t want to be boxed in, viewing himself as someone who could jump on a track with another spitter, R&B singer, or even “go mess with a country artist.” For him, the vibes are driven by production. 

“The beat gotta tell me something, it’s gotta tell a story,” he says of his songwriting process. “From that point on, I’m just an extra layer to it. It’s two parts of it: 50% beats, 50% myself.” 

That’s the formula he’ll be bringing into God Was Born in Harlem, a project crafted in a post “Good Day…” period when he says he’s experienced “more bookings, more money, more success, more love.” He’s dropping the Cam’ron-accompanied remix to “Harlem River Drive” as a single this Friday. “This is also a testament to what we've been doing for these last 7 years,” he says of his recent success.

Now, he’s focused on the next seven and beyond. He tells me he wants to parlay his acting debut in FERG’s FLIP PHONE SHORTY short film into more on-camera time. When I ask him how ambitious he would get, he lauds Kendrick Lamar’s 2018 Power appearance as a model: “What if I was a Harlem crackhead?”

Fergie tells me that he’s also pursuing fashion, his other passion, with several upcoming collaborations. “I love fashion. It got to a point where it was either music or get dumb fly. I always told myself, ‘Let's worry about music,’” he says, “'because I’m already dumb fly.’” 

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