It was the 28th of October. I was getting ready to watch the Lakers start their season against the Rockets at the same I had my laptop by my side waiting for Nayvadius DeMon Wilburn (aka Future) to drop his highly anticipated mixtape: Monster. I was anxious, I felt like Future owed us. Was his sophomore album Honest a terrible one? No it wasn’t. It also wasn’t as good as it should’ve been. It wasn’t what I expected. Honest received mixed reviews from the masses anx the reviews amongst core Future fans were split. They either loved it or hated it, there was no in between. It did have some high-quality MP3 files like Move That Dope, I Won and Covered N Money though. Yet and still, I needed Future to come through again and do what he does.
While Honest was a decent album Monster was Future getting his wave back. Tracks like: Commas, Throw Away (the second part especially), 2 Pac, Fetti, and Codeine Crazy reminded the FutureHive why they became a fan of Future. He was back in his element. Trap rap, auto tune and Metro Boomin put him there.
Then with an assist from Zaytoven, he dribbled, crossed over, spun and let Beast Mode fly from the three-point line. On that ‘tape it seemed as if Future reincarnated ‘10/’11 waves like My Ho 2 and Like Ohh into waves like Lay Up and Peacoat. Beast Mode continued FreeBandFuture’s spree of making relatable hits. Everyone has goons in the cut they treat just like bruddas. Everyone wants to get that cash and rep their city forever ever. Future speaks from a point of view the masses can relate with under a codeine daze in a way only he could. Zay brought out a different side of Future. Instead of the organized but noisy, booming, banging, party anthems that filled Monster, Beast Mode was had the calm (but hard), smooth, soothing, tuneful gems floating throughout it.
After that Future “Nayvadius DeMon Wilburn” Hendrix unleashed 56 Nights. Perhaps the mixtape out of the three with the most replay value as a project. Saying 56 Nights was an outlook on life through the drugged up eyes of Future would be cliché but that’s the most satisfying way to put it. Brief mentions of real life issues (like on March Madness when he raps: “All the cops shootin niggas, tragic”) also makes calling the mixtape life through the Atlanta alien’s eyes easier too. Produced by the 808 Mafia team of Southside and Tarantino, the ‘tape is Future’s respects to the coolest DJ on the planet: DJ Esco. Esco was locked up in Dubai for 56 nights on their trip to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This is the mixtape where Future is all the way in his bag. He knows it too. “All that old shit y’all niggas still doin man I’m over that”, he raps on Now. March Madness, Trap Niggas and 56 Nights are going to go down as some of the best Future Hendrix tracks when it’s all said and done.
There’s something about Future’s wave this time around. It’s different. Yes, it’s more of Dirty Sprite/Astronaut Status/Streetz Calling as opposed to Honest but it’s still different. It’s fresh. You feel his lyrics more now. Young Hendrix has emerged into a real star in the music industry. It’s different. It’s fresh. It’s separate. In every verse you can feel his heartbreak, you can feel his love for commas and dollar signs, you can feel his love for that purple drink, you can feel his love for his trap niggas and bruddas. It’s different…fresh…separate.
Future stands out in the music universe. He’s a wizard at using his vocals as an instrument and mixing it beautifully with some of the hardest production that our speakers get blessed with. So many artists, established and on the come up, are trying to run with his style but to no avail. This rapper, that rapper and the next rapper all could rap about drugs. But it takes a different type of talent to be able to make the listeners actually feel like they aren’t sober. That’s one of the gifts the Free Bandz leader possesses. Lyrically, he won’t wow you. If you want to be wowed lyrically just go listen to Kendrick Lamar with your internet browser nearby with a tab open for Rap Genius. If you want to hear motivating street spirituals over jiggy-trap production, then listen to Future.
Now it’s the 23rd of June and Future has at least two more mixtapes on deck waiting to be unleashed into the wild (Dirty Sprite 2 and Ape Shit). The Reign of Future Hendrix isn’t coming to a halt any time soon.
