HE CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT!
I promise this applies to Future. Just bear with me.
Every year of elementary school I befriended the baddest kid in the class.
My teachers would always pull me aside and lecture me on how I didn't have to be friends with someone just because we stayed near each other, but what my teachers never understood was that the baddest kid in the class was always one of the smartest. So if they got me in trouble a few times, it was always worth it for two reasons.
One, getting in trouble with the bad kid was more fun than I would have with anyone else in the class. Two, the bad kid had the best stories.
One particular story always stuck with me.
After winning an award for "Student of the Year" and hearing the teacher brag about his turnaround from problem student to star student, my friend explained to me how this wasn't his first time doing a 180 — in fact, it was a cycle he performed yearly.
He would act out, get labeled as "the bad kid," change his behavior to whatever his teacher and parents wanted, then he'd get rewarded double for his rapid improvement, only to repeat the whole process once his behavior was taken for granted again.
It was a genius cycle that made the most appreciated student in every class.
Watching Future go from FUTURE to HNDRXX to tracks like "HATE THE REAL ME" on BEASTMODE 2 to THE WIZRD to Save Me to High Off Life confused me until I heard the standout track of Future's latest album, and I realized Future had been executing the cycle to perfection for years now.
"Accepting My Flaws" is the highlight of High Off Life, and it's the reason the album is hard to praise.
The track is honest, introspective and personal. It's everything that Future chooses not to display for a majority of the album.
Its production wails, as Future does the same, rapping about several topics that would make for a much more gripping album than the caricature the album portrays.
How far into his public relationship does Future have to get with Lori Harvey until listeners stop entertaining his lines about sex with dozens of women and begin to want more? Pregnancy? Marriage? Three kids and a colonial-style home?
Either intentionally or ironically, Future hints at this himself with the opening sample saying, "They're there to see all of the real raw shit that you ain't sayin'."
Within 30 seconds of rapping, Future says everything he wasn't saying in the previous 15 songs and introduces topics far more interesting than the car colors or crimes his friends commit. From struggling to break his addiction to relying on his partner for emotional support to figuring out what real love is, Future flies through universal themes that could easily cover their own individual songs.
Instead of going in-depth on these themes, Future dedicates entire songs to Coranvirus-like solitaire diamonds and the difficulty of choosing one woman.
He even wastes a feature from one of the best trauma rappers, NBA Youngboy, on an early 2010s sounding track about becoming a trillionaire. Adding insult to injury, Future hints at a deeper subject in the song itself rapping, "Wish I had a cure on sickle cell, hate to see my sister suffer (Got you), You can never put a price on how much I love her".
But, as the cycle has proven, dense tracks like the aforementioned help meaningful tracks like "Accepting My Flaws" and the drama-filled "Last Name" get more recognition.
And causing trouble is fun sometimes.
As great as getting rewarded for improvement is, make no mistake, the cycle has its enjoyable moments throughout. In terms of the misbehaving best friend, his behavior made for the funniest moments and placed him near the top of the class social ranking.
The same principles pretty much apply to Future, as his toxic lyrics have inspired timelines everywhere and launched him to his highest first-week numbers of his career.
Despite rarely saying anything new, several tracks make for an enjoyable experience. The best of these experiences comes from "Too Comfortable".
Future effortlessly flows through the Southside and Vou production to deliver an on-brand toxic message that actually sounds applicable to his present-day relationship, making it hit even harder.
"Posted with Demons" was another standout mostly because of how far Future was willing to take it. He raps lines like "I'm casually pimpin' these bitches, I don't give a fuck if the bitch is Catholic, I give zero fucks, You can worship the devil, bitch, just drop me these bricks, I got the preacher's daughter, Sellin' pussy, bitch gon' make me rich". The extremely dark verses are perfectly matched with a hook of "Came off the block, I was posted with demons, You ain't did the shit I did".
Other tracks like "Trapped In The Sun", "HiTek Tek", "Touch The Sky" and "Ridin Strikers" are solid aux listens, but the lack of depth or differentiation makes it hard to see any of them getting much play into June.
Final Score: High 5/10
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