

Still, Future’s throwaway images are crushing and vivid. Future still talks about women in a way that makes it hard to not taste bile in your throat sometimes: “Real fine mixed-breed, I can’t wait to hit it,” he says on “Goin Dummi,” while “Temptation” subjects you to the line “She gave more head than a tumor.” These moments are reprehensible without being compelling, which is another problem Future runs into every few years. Part of this problem is that if you’re playing a depraved heel, you had better play it to the hilt-a half-hearted villain is just an everyday asshole. There isn’t anything like the divisive, nervy little “la-di-da-di-da” mouse-squeak he tried out on “ King’s Dead.” He is running some of these routines back for the tenth or the hundredth time, and there are a few moments on The WIZRD where he sounds downright bored: “Jumpin on a Jet” is a pretty rote rundown of his spoils, a song he has made countless times, and it’s hard to hear any investment in this version of it. What you won’t find on The WIZRD is the sound of Future stretching or surprising himself. If you are content to live inside this lonely little world Future has made, he is still keeping it nice for you.

The production is muted, minor-key, and consistently beautiful, conjuring the familiar Future Moods: rain-streaked neon signs, drug-induced stupors inside of clubs at 3 a.m. Over the album’s 20 tracks, we are offered top-shelf or near-top-shelf versions of a variety of Future staples: The grinding and amoral banger (“Baptiize,” “Faceshot”) the strangely melancholy anthem about how lonely it feels to customize your Bentley (“Ain’t Coming Back”). But it is one of the first moments you could be forgiven for wondering when rap’s remorseless current might finally leave him behind. But all that lavish praise must begin to feel suspiciously like someone throwing your retirement party for you.įuture Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD, Future’s first full-length studio album since 2017’s dual chart-toppers FUTURE and HNDRXX, isn't the first time you sense the relentlessly productive and innovative artist might be treading water. It’s a difficult corner to fight your way out of: There is no obvious adversary and you are still revered around the world.
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in 2007, Kanye West in 2015-where, as far as their public is concerned, their hero’s story is concluded and they are free to cede the stage. Many rappers before Future have faced this moment- T.I. But the minute you’ve peaked, rap music starts waiting impatiently for you to disappear. He’s still popular, still relevant, still scoring hits, and rap, as it exists now, has been remade in his image, with at least three artists on the Billboard charts making their name out of repurposed bits of his style.
