Ferg Explains Why He Decided to Write About Being Molested as a Child on “Pool”

DAROLD, the latest studio album from Ferg, marks a new level of vulnerability from the Harlem rapper, especially on the track “Pool” where he opens up about being molested at the age of 9.

“It was an incident that happened in a pool when I was a young kid and everybody’s around and everything like that,” the 36-year-old said during his appearance on The Breakfast Club. “For me, it was weird and it was one second, but I was like, why?”

“At ten I was drowned and touched when I was in the pool/ All the breath left my body where I couldn’t move/Violated, hand on my private by a bigger dude,” Ferg raps on the song.

Ferg said he did not want to speak on the incident too much and preferred to let the song do most of the talking. The rapper disclosed that he was groped or touched by an individual who was “way older than me.”

He first told his cousin before telling his mother after attending a premiere of the 2009 film Precious where people shared their own stories. His mom was surprised and apologetic, but he did not blame her for what happened to him.

Ferg confessed it took him eight years to write “Pool.” He previously penned the track “Innocent Child,” which featured three different stories about three different people, but the last one was his.

While he kept trying to refine the song, a friend noticed he was “inching towards” telling his story and “scratching the surface” on “Innocent Child,” but he felt as though Ferg needed to “dive in it and go crazy.”

“Everywhere, I feel like this shit is going on and people are not just gonna talk about it,” Ferg said at the 18:28 mark. “I’m like, ‘What am I talking about?’ I didn’t make that happen to me. That shit ain’t mine to be tryna hold inside.”

Ferg believes “Pool” can serve as a piece of art for his own kids and other children that proves the things that happen to you do not define you.

While admittedly worried, Ferg believes his vulnerability on DAROLD would help him stand out among the pack. “In your music, you have to be honest,” he said at the 11:43 mark. “Because if you’re not saying some honest shit, I’m just gonna look at this dude’s [Instagram] Story and like, he’s not even rapping but this is more interesting.”