Atlanta's rapper Nayvadius "Future" Wilburn,
originally a member of the Dungeon Family collective,
debuted with Pluto (2012), containing his first hit single,
Turn On the Lights,
followed by the poppy Honest (2014), containing
Move That Dope and I Won (produced by Leland "Metro Boomin" Wayne and featuring Kanye West).
The three mixtapes
Monster (2014), de facto a collaboration with
Metro Boomin, with the first version of the future single
Fuck Up Some Commas and with the career-defining Codeine Crazy,
Beast Mode (2015),
perhaps his best mixtape ever,
and 56 Nights (2015), with March Madness,
completed the transformation into a melancholy pop-soul hybrid.
His best album was DS2 (2015), whose title stands for
"Dirty Sprite 2", containing the single Where Ya At.
This is where his auto-tuned vocals, his sense of melody, his existential
spleen and his trap productions found a classic balance.
Thought It Was a Drought is almost bubblegum-pop,
Rich $ex is his quintessential "banger",
and
I Serve the Base has one of the most creative beats of the genre
(but within a gloom reminiscent of Rick Rubin's productions of the 1980s).
After
What a Time to Be Alive (2015), a collaboration with
Drake that yielded
Fuck Up Some Commas and
Jumpman (another Metro Boomin production),
and the mixtapes Beast Mode (2015) and Purple Reign (2016),
Future released
Evol (2016), containing Low Life (a collaboration with
Weeknd,
again produced by Metro Boomin),
a weaker collection on which he basically tried to copy his own stereotypes
(and succeeded only in Ain't No Time and Lil Haiti Baby)
and
Future (2017).
Despite the low quality of most of the material,
these three albums made him one of the most commercially successful rappers
of all time.
Future refined his skills as a crooner of ballads on
Hndrxx (2017), including the hit single Mask Off
(another Metro Boomin production) and
Comin Out Strong (another Weeknd collaboration).
But all these sprawling albums have an incredible amount of fluff.
They could be condensed in three or four song EPs.
The 20-song The Wizrd (2019) contains another elegant take on
trap, Crushed Up, and 19 fillers.
The seven-song EP Save Me increased the dose of dejection to
begin sounding like Lil Peep
but also modernized the production, secreting a much more interesting
synthesis on which to build the foundations for the
ballad
of the future
(Shotgun, XanaX Damage and Love Thy Enemies).
I Never Liked You (2022), which debuted at the top of the Billboard charts, is another shallow and bland parade of trite trap stereotypes.
Puffin on Zootiez is the standout, while collaboratios with Drake
(I'm on One) and Kanye West (Keep it Burnin) feel redundant.
