This decade has produced few artists more polarizing than Future. To the legion of millennials that rush to download his seemingly endless stream of releases, he’s the perfect mix of lyrics, emotions, melodies, trap beats, mumble raps and rock star antics (drug use, celebrity relationships, etc.) to be crowned one of the icons of their generation. To Hip-Hop purists he represents everything wrong with this era, glorifying drug use, taking a quantity over quality approach to releasing music (dozens of projects in the last five years) and not making any attempt to force listeners to hit the rewind button with witty wordplay or memorable metaphors.
Explaining Future’s appeal to those uninitiated into the world of “Trap Music” is not an easy task, his heavily auto-tuned rap/sung flow and sometimes unintelligible lyrics are definitely an acquired taste, but one thing that cannot be denied is that while Future is one of the most successful musical artists of the decade, he doesn’t make traditional “songs” as much as “feelings” as most of his tracks are much better at eliciting emotions than garnering a “I can’t believe he just said that!” from listeners.
When an artist releases as many projects as Future there are inevitably going to be highs (“Dirty Sprite 2” and “What a Time to Be Alive” with Drake) and lows (the tepidly received “Honest” and “Evol”). To kick off 2017 Future Hendrix is releasing two separate seventeen track albums in the same week, the self-titled “FUTURE” and the nickname inspired “HNDRXX.” While both albums will appeal to avid fans, it’s hard to say how each will fare with less dedicated listeners.
FUTURE
“FUTURE” is pure, unadulterated Future for Future fans. There are no guest artists and with the exception of a few more melancholy tracks at the end (“When I Was Broke” and “Feds Did A Sweep”) it’s a pretty standard collection of Future songs that will appeal to longtime fans but not offer much to anybody else.
HNDRXX
Taking inspiration from the legendary guitarist, “HNDRXX” sees a slightly more adventurous Future taking a few chances thematically and features pop stars like The Weeknd and Rihanna. While this collection will not win any new fans either, the different sound and collaborations give Future his best chance at Top 40 Radio play since his collaboration with Drake two years ago.
FUTURE HNDRXX
Releasing two projects in one year is not a new concept in Hip-Hop, releasing two full length projects in one week for an artist of Future’s acclaim is fairly new territory and for anybody except Future fanatics 34 songs of his unique brand of Trap Music will be a lot to swallow in a single week. While he attempts to become this generation’s Jimi Hendrix with this project, he does a better job of proving he’s the 2010’s version of what Busta Rhymes was in the 90’s or T-Pain was in the 2000’s – an artist that can inarguably add value to a single or a collaborative track, but whose full length albums (or double albums) will only appeal to the most dedicated fans.
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