Pursuit of Happiness: For Fergie Baby, Honesty is Next to Godliness

When I ask Fergie Baby about the current state of his first step, he’s cheekily honest. “I gotta stretch, I'm a little older now,” he tells me of his pre-pickup basketball rituals. “But we gon’ rock out.” It’s more or less the same with his mind state. 

For years, the Harlem rapper has conditioned himself to move fluidly through his emotions while pursuing the things that matter most. At the moment, one of those things is leveling up his rap career. Based on the success of tracks like his Ferg-assisted single, “Good Day to Be in Harlem,” he doesn’t have a lot to worry about. Ditto for his Cam’ron-assisted new single, “Harlem River Drive.” Both tracks are city-pride anthems that have the whole block repping even harder than normal. He’ll only reinforce that momentum with his forthcoming project, God Was Born in Harlem. 

He’s coming up, but a lot of that involves staying up mentally, too. For the latest edition of Pursuit of Happiness, Fergie Baby breaks down how he does just that. Tap in for yourself below. 

Fergie Baby: When I’m having a bad day, I just go live and experience the real world. I tap in with my bros. I go make music, listen to music and play video games. Just live. The Internet is the Internet. We really them in real life, so we do real-life things. It's gonna come with that. It comes with the game, but we don't dwell on that.

I also go play basketball. Basketball has been a thing for me since I was a kid. I always loved basketball. I don't know if it goes to like me being a Leo or just me being an alpha. You run the game, you analyze the game, you break down the game as a point guard. I could play the one, I could play the 2, I could play the 3, it don't matter. Whatever’s [needed] on the court at that time, I could be that. So when there's something bothering me or if I just need to let things go and release stress, I go play ball. I just feel free. I'm in one of my elements. 

Me and my bros communicate. We attract people like that. When we have problems when it comes to communication, we sit down as men. It's never to the point where it taints our friendship. It's just being honest with one another, and I think that's the same with all of my friends. That's why we stay close-knit. We're trying to get to it, and it's bigger fish to fry. 

At the end of the day, we're human. Things happen in our lives, but we gotta be blessed with what's going on. When I can't control things, I let God handle it. That allows me to be like, Let's keep it going. Everything is going to happen for a reason. What's not meant for you will not happen. As long as I have that mentality, everything is gonna work out as it's supposed to. I don't really expect much. In my household, my mom is like that, my father is like that. We don't stress because you know we're blessed. Everything is gonna be better.