The Problem with Future

Although the popular rapper Future is not known to take huge breaks in between projects, he seems to have broken his own record by releasing two albums in two weeks. On February 17, Future released his self titled album “FUTURE” followed exactly one week later by “HNDRXX”. Although this can be attributed to Future’s work ethic and will to succeed as a successful rapper in the industry, two albums in one week does not necessarily mean they will both be good.

Future’s best solo album to date was his critically acclaimed “DS2” which released on July 17, 2015, almost an entire year after his release “Honest” in 2014. Following its release, DS2 received an RIAA Platinum awarded to albums that have sold 1,000,000 copies, 344,000 of those being sold in the U.S alone. Although Future is known to be an avid partier, one cannot deny that he clearly put in a lot of effort to produce such a highly awarded album. Although DS2 was followed by two successful albums in “EVOL” and “What a Time to Be Alive”, these were both collaborations with The Weeknd and Drake respectively and generated a considerable amount of hype from these artists. However, as Future gained in popularity, he effectively produced more music in an effort to increase his net worth with his new cult following. However, like anyone who tries to work too quickly, there are always sloppy errors and this is visible in his music(ie.“DJ Esco Project E.T”) that decreased in quality over this period of heightened fame. He became so enveloped in his own stardom that he began producing mixtapes and albums like a machine, constantly creating content, yet with little to no feeling or message behind his actual lyrics. Visible in both FUTURE and HNDRXX, the quality of his work directly correlates to how much time he spent on said project. We know Future is capable of producing high caliber and well respected music as he has done in the past, he simply needs to put in the time and effort.

Conceptually, the development of Future’s albums have been uninspired. While his sound may be unique, which is what prompted his rise in the emerging punk/alt rap genre, it has become worn. Now, it has been a year since his last mixtape, and that years worth of percolating ideas have led to a banal product, and now Mr. Nayvadius Wilburn has been exposed.

Future’s decision to release multiple albums in a cluster belongs to a wider behaviour that more and more rappers are practicing. Young Thug has released 16 albums since 2011, and while Jeffrey was a bonafide trap album, all it becomes is oversaturated in his prolificness. Let’s take Bowie. After his death, his entire life’s work was taken in retrospective, and one of his many defining features became increasingly mentioned: his capacity to reinvent himself. There was never a dull moment with Bowie, but beneath the plastic and glitter was social commentary riding on well written, resonating songs. This is where Future and company have fallen short. He bursts on a somewhat commercially moderate music scene and introduces something new. He was a rapper that used autotune and couldn’t sing, and he wore it as his flag. For many this is enough. They don’t need an artist to keep his or her image lively by reestablishing their image but just remain consistent, and Future has been riding on his fan base as justification to take these artistic liberties. However, as his discography extends, the lineality of his sound becomes compounded by the sheer number of sonically identical projects he releases. Let’s look at HNDRXX.. Here he departs from last week’s album and almost his sound entirely, which is commendable. There is an obvious intention to bring a new, soulful sound to the album, as his delivery and instrumentation indicate. Yet, to return to Bowie the reason for his success was that at the basis of his constant metamorphosis was good music. Future is not lyrical, and he cannot sing. He still raps about seducing girls with nice cars, but his voice, no matter how overdubbed and autotuned, is in no ways attractive. He tried for something, but even then it was so near his comfort zone that the fact that he failed only indicates how incapable he was in the first place.

Future is not necessarily a bad rapper. He brought a new sound to his genre, and has, in fact, produced some good music. But when you shell out two mediocre albums in a week, it’s utter hubris. The two realities are either that Future is exploiting his fan base and keeps making the same formulaic albums, or HNDRXX was a noble attempt to diversify his sound that he had been working on from the past year, but simply failed. Regardless, what makes both FUTURE and HNDRXX all the more frustrating, is that people will buy them and more artists will replicate it, and so far Future’s double release has been perceived as generous, when in reality, it is pretentious.