
Very much in line with contemporary trap styles, some of which he pioneered, Future excels at the stretching of word sounds which creates both a melodic structure and an effortless feeling on “ Fresh Air” and “ New Illuminati,” while on the latter, it brings an emotionality to his “catch no feelings” disposition in similar ways as Young Thug’s Jeffrey. He buys the woman in question numerous wealth signifiers in exchange for her in turn becoming a signifier of his own masculine dominance and virility. Throughout the album, Future juxtaposes wealth and ‘hood signifiers, especially on “ Lookin’ Exotic,” where women get lumped into the category of things. Hndrxx showcases all of what Future does best in his traditional form as a trap star “f*ck boy.” It includes the typical trap drum sequences in almost every song and sing-song autotune flows that anticipate the beat drops in his hype-up collaboration with The Weeknd on “ Comin’ Out Strong” and the ‘90s-reminiscent “ Damage.” Future presents a disillusioned tone to his usually slurred vocals in both the strip club-esque “ Fresh Air” and the condescending “ Hallucinating,” on which he asserts that his perception, even while on drugs, is the ultimate, only perception. In contrast, there are more than enough rhythmic and melodic changes in the sounds of Hndrxx to keep our attention and give us a spaced-out soundtrack to show out to. However, without his signature singing juxtapozed against the hard, quick flows, the songs on Future seem to all melt together in a relatively uncompelling and somewhat boring collection.

This separation makes the albums quite different from each other Future is chock-full of quick flows and expressions of street dominance, while Future rap-sings catchy hooks and melodies on Hndrxx. In each case, the value of the trap star is directly correlated to his possession of or rejection by women, putting this music squarely within the discourse I refer to as “f*ck boy consciousness.” Interestingly, Future’s most recent releases present somewhat of a bifurcation of these modes, where Future represents the flex, the excess, and Hndrxx its emotional underside. and Post Malone) as the twin modes of trap music: flex and disillusion, in which a song either narrates the trap star’s thrilling excesses or memorializes their emptiness. In addition to the sheer amount of music he produces, Future’s reign lies in his mastery of combining what I’ve discussed in previous reviews (of T.I. And, lucky for us, 2017 is apparently no different, as he released the self-titled Future on February 17 and Hndrxx, its counterpart, only seven days later. Part of what has cemented such a status is the prolific nature of his releases. And that’s the greatest thing about this: It’s me being myself.Future is arguably the king of today’s trap music. At the end of the day, you can be able to look at the person and be like, You know what, I know I’m being myself I’m not being anyone else.

“When you try and be yourself all the time, everyone’s not gonna like it. “The biggest thing is just being yourself all the time,” he told Beats 1 host Zane Lowe in early 2017. Like fellow Atlantan and collaborator Young Thug, Future has a way of bending his voice (often using Auto-Tune) into soulful, often sad shapes, half-rapped and half-sung-the sound of a crooner stuck in space. Druggy, raw, slick, and surreal, Future’s sound-crystallized on highlights like 2014’s Honest, 2015’s DS2, and 2017’s HNDRXX-has helped redefine 2010s street rap as something strange and almost avant-garde: trap as modern psychedelia. Barely a season goes by without new music from the rapper born Nayvadius Wilburn (in 1983)-whether it’s a mixtape, solo album, or collaborative project (with Drake, with Gucci Mane, with the producer Zaytoven). Had he even eaten? Don’t worry, Future said-he himself hadn’t left in a week, either, and someone was bringing in Wendy’s from up the block. The engineer hadn’t left the studio in a week. There’s a good anecdote that Future recounted in an interview-about getting into an argument with a guy who was worried about one of the Atlanta rapper’s engineers.
