With The Wizrd, he’s done that - and just might be rewriting the book on Future in the process anyway and moving onto something new.įirst things first it’s important to remind those listeners, as he boasts on “Rocket Ship,” that Future has been “ poppin’ since my demos.” To that end, he spends the entire, hook-less intro, “Never Stop,” reframing listeners’ expectations. While nothing here is especially groundbreaking, Future has rarely ever set out to upend the status quo - he just does his best to bare his soul and connect with listeners. The response within an hour was overwhelmingly, resoundingly positive. Yet judging from the instant reactions from fans in rap’s ultimate snap judgement debate arena, Twitter, he needn’t have worried.

He told Genius that the anxiety of a potential backlash prevented him from admitting to his fans that he’d long since given up the habit of drinking lean. Going into his latest release, The Wizrd, he peeled back the layers of that facade, both in illuminating interviews and with the release of the album’s companion short film of the same name.

While he was originally tabbed one of trap rap’s smartest innovators, a spaced-out, gravel-pitched crooner of luxury lifestyle and grimy drug game chronicles, since his breakup with Ciara and subsequent run of R&B-tinged, druggy trap soul, he has become something of a deity to his “ Future Hive,” who project their hopes, dreams, nightmares, victories, and failures onto his carefully curated persona of the anguished hustler whose icy exterior hides a heart of gold. Future may not have wanted to be the voice of a generation of brokenhearted rap fans, nor the avatar for their anxieties, insecurities, and pettiest fantasies, but for the better part of a decade, that’s role he’s been designated to play.

Future the wizrd vinyl