Rap’s Misunderstood Genius: The Story of Future

who is Future well you know who future is he's the fifth most streamed music artist of the last 15 years he's the biggest influence for an entire generation of music artists not just rap but also the entire pop music industry started biting Future Sound but what a lot of people don't realize is that he's also the most misunderstood artist of our time a movie I got just stay focused you know because it's not an art if it's easy to do that's what's wrong right now everybody trying to rap the same style with the uh I don't know who created if it was future Amigos but all them [ __ ] sound the same there's a reason why future not only created the pop trap wave but he also outlived it more than a meme he isn't a trend at all Future's been making music since before I was born over 20 years spent honing the craft of his songwriting in vocal delivery a story that most people wouldn't understand if they only listened to his biggest hits he doesn't just make entertaining songs for future music is a science and his understanding of people in business learned over decades has taken him from a struggling artist with 300 fans to over 50 million monthly listeners so what can we learn from future and how can we follow in his footsteps to create our own meaningful impactful stories I'm Philip this is volksgeist and you're watching the true story of future if you're interested in more of my Creations my new brand spirit world just relaunched our soldout necklace after it's been back ordered for 6 months every necklace is made of full 925 sterling silver with hand painted enamel and in the design of a sun rising over a night full of silver stars they're designed by me and the brand directly supports folks Guist while also telling stories with powerful meaning for every creative person I made the necklaces to be a reminder that whatever your goal is the only way to reach it is to just keep going whatever kind of success you're chasing persistence and belief is the key because there can't be any light without dark there can't be success without struggle if you want to support my work and buy a pendant from our collection feel free to pick up at the link below and shipping is free in the US forever so go to Spirit world. store to buy a necklace now or stick till the end for a discount code that's just for my viewers plus one random buyer from the first 10 orders off this video will have their purchase completely refunded and will get their necklace for free the tricky thing about telling future story is that he hides in plain sight a lot like his lyrics The Lyricist himself can be difficult to understand I don't really let people into my world you've got to save something for yourself you can't just let everybody know everything about you because when you look through almost all of his interviews there are subtle deflections or just plain contradictions in many of his statements it's almost like he says something different based on whoever he's talking to even a journalist like Elliot Wilson who's known future for a long time says that generally he's funny and easy to talk with but as soon as the recorded interview begins something in him changes and speaking with future becomes a chess match but forget Elliot Wilson even future himself said this man the person I am man I can't even really talk about it I can't let a [ __ ] pee me I'm telling you some [ __ ] half of the [ __ ] I tell you might be the truth half but it might not be man one minute he'll say he really is the person in his lyrics but then he'll say this you know what I mean I'm not like super drugged out a drug addict my music May portray a certain kind of image I know it's some people that might be super drugged out and they listen to the music like hey thank you you speaking for me and some people that's not they feel like man I don't have to do drugs I can listen in the future and feel like I'm on something like they don't have to try do it for you to really have to live that type of life sometimes he'll say he doesn't need to change his Persona to appeal to his fans don't be afraid to be yourself if you're doing what you think people might like rather than doing what you like people will see through it make the music that I know that people want I know they want the ret [ __ ] you talk a lot about drugs in your music yeah because I feel like that's the number one thing every talk about so why do we really want to know who future is not because it's a Witch Hunt but if an artist's music ranks as the fifth most streamed of the entire decade it means that there's something in the mixture we relate to deep down even if we don't know it maybe it's the case that something about future is deeply human and good or bad it really does speak to us you don't achieve his level of enduring popularity by just being passively entertaining or a momentary Trend future has had not just a good rap career but one of the longest ones in modern history why and how does someone have what it takes to achieve such an unlikely feet who do you have to be to become Larger than Life with future it's truly hard to say there are so many inconsistencies in his words is the future the world knows now truly him or is it a method and a plan maybe there's also a pain he avoids by blurring who he really is he said in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview you come to this world and you make two lives you got to make the most of your second life I was born nus but now I'm future should I dwell on what nus was supposed to be I get a chance to experience life as something else I wasn't supposed to be like this so before we can understand future we have to meet adus if I didn't meet future when I met him he most definitely wouldn't have been future he don't think the music itself would have ever happened for him you just heard a quote from Rico Wade Future's older cousin but more than just being Future's cousin he was also part of the production Trio organized noise that discovered Outcast and produced their debut album he also started the dungeon family Collective whose members apart from just Outcast included Goody Mob Killer Mike and a ton of other legendary Atlanta artists Rico Wade is so influential on his own that some people have called future an industry plant just for being related to him future describes Rico as a father figure and he agrees that he wouldn't have ever even made music seriously let alone succeeded without Rico's influence Rico is like uh like my my cousin but he took me in he more played like a father role for fig he was just always dead support for the most part but just being related to Rico Wade doesn't make future a nepo baby like some people seem to think the real story is like all real stories just a bit more complicated than that future was born nadus Deon Wilburn in the winter of 1983 Wilburn being his mother's last name because his father wasn't even around to sign his birth certificate looking back at an interview from 2016 we know that Nas's first ever dreamed job as a kid was to be an architect or a doctor but as we know now he was gradually pushed down a different path because future grew up poor in Atlanta one of the city's hardest hit by the crack epidemic of the ' 80s and the90s when future was just a kid in elementary school the world around him was suffering his mother who worked full-time as a 911 operator was opposed to drugs she even went on to cut ties with him later in life after finding out that he was selling drugs on the street but despite his mother trying her best almost everyone else around nadus was involved in crime and drugs I had multiple aunties and uncles that were on drugs when you grow up in something you don't even know if it's bad or good you just know that's how it is when you realize that's the kind of life you're born into a career like being an architect or a doctor can seem imposs possibly far away and before long future was swept up into a powerful tide and started dealing drugs to make money in a place like Inner City Atlanta there's often no other way during this time in deus's life he was often driven to school by a junkie named Fred whenever his family couldn't and while he was at school his grandmother would handle drug transactions with his customers at her house he was later shot in the hand at the age of 16 and dropped out of high school without finishing the 12th grade at the age of 17 around the year 1999 or 2000 nadus managed to meet his famous producer cousin Rico Wade for the first time but Rico sent him away thinking he was just a hustler or a scammer from Kirkwood pretending to be his cousin for clout but months later they met again at the funeral of a shared uncle and Rico Wade realized that they were actually cousins I needed him to be right beside me cuz I want to know who is my Uncle Bo said that's my granddaddy who who is my Uncle Willie I want to know all about my family they all got locked up when we were young that's my dad and I wanted the more I know about him the more I'm going to know about me the tradeoff was he was a stop he was already rapping before I met him but now he got a chance to see it's real and since he my family it was like I'm going give you I'm going to give you the game I'm going to give you everything I know really meeting and starting to get close with Rico Wade gave nus the hope and motivation for a good life that previously seemed impossible for someone like him I'm coming from the hood and I go straight to Rico house he got maids and I never even ate her at a good restaurant until I went with Rico you know what I'm saying I never knew nobody was legal that made money into my cousin Rico someone who had actually achieved their dreams and dreamed and they came life one day like I actually I I never still took it for granted I never was like I just always was a cousin you know what I'm saying I never feel like I was future then but before he found success he almost threw this chance away first time I went to the dungeon my uncle died I went over there but I did a song it like one verse in a hook but I really was shy away from it because it was so many people in the studio and they acting like oh was just his cousin just trying to claim trying to get the fame come around they didn't really want me here so I just never came back to the dungeon then my other uncle died like 3 months later so I just thought I like man forget what they even thinking about me how they look at me I'm going still just come over I ain't never going back to kurtwood so I just standed over there I ain't go back for like a year I just stayed over his house I never left if they look at me crazy or anything I just still just like man I'm not leaving this time I ain't leaving everyone else there was about 10 years older than him and The Story Goes that at one point a dungeon family member called g-rock offhandedly said man you're the future and at that moment a casual joke about his age gave birth to a future musical Superstar who would far outgrow the success of everyone in the room generally a lot of people assume trap rappers might not be serious artists or businessmen just because of their loud flashy personas but I'm always reminded of the time 19-year-old Young Thug gave insightful marketing commentary on a Reddit thread like 10 years ago within 30 seconds of you rapping how often do you mention [ __ ] clubs expensive cars and booze nothing in the first 30 seconds everyone knows you want to wait until the 45C Mark dick and I've never mentioned an expensive car in anything for what it's worth I make product for a certain audience and I'm good at it supply and demand simple economics I don't do this because I love the attention I do this because I have a certain skill set that allows me to get paid without the threat of doing Federal time and similarly today there's a perception of future being a larger than life cartoon character who doesn't have a deeper story or technique Behind the Music He makes but that couldn't be further from reality it took future a lot of practice and knowledge to get where he is now this is what he said in a 2014 interview only the ogs they know that the Young kids they don't really understand they just hear what they want to hear but it's all good I know the people that understand music they know where it's coming from at that time he was turning 31 and his second studio album had just dropped but since the age of 18 future has been working on the craft of songwriting and even production non-stop learning not only from his cousin Rico Wade but also everyone else who came through to work in Rico Studio from a young age he got to watch legendary artists at work people like Andre 3000 Goody Mob Killer Mike even Trey songs Snoop Dogg ludicrous TI at this stage obviously he was just a fly on the wall pretty young not too confident didn't even try to network or say too much but he was learning the whole time the dungeon family artistic ethos was to give people what they wanted but to still be as creative and different as possible every dungeon member had a different style irar I think that maybe is what helped everybody have different style because if you came you around you w going to get those features like you w going to be able to Fe and be on each other's album you had something different and future took notes you can hear it in his influences yes he's always been a rapper but he's taken more than a little inspiration from other music Styles as well artists like Barry White Anita Baker Marvin Gay Curtis Mayfield even as a kid future has talked about being enamored by hearing his grandmother sing Amazing Grace at the house I know the essence of this [ __ ] I studied Melody songs like amazing grace and the pain of it he says before humming the chorus it just feels like pain it feels like struggle I recognize pain pain through Melody and it naturally comes out of me at times some of you might not even believe me when I say that Future's favorite song of all time is I Will Always Love You by Whitney [Music] Houston he's talked about always being drawn to Melodies that are simple yet deep and affecting in one of his later songs he had the line all this pain I can't even rap it sometimes I feel I want to [Music] sing learning this about Future's backstory completely changed the way I see his techniques as a rapper knowing that his signature madic rap style wasn't born as a calculated business move to be trendy or to innovate music it becomes a pretty powerful story his style began as the human impulse to sing comforting Melodies to himself through his struggles ever since he was a kid alone it makes future make a lot more sense but as we know it took future a long time to merge these ideas effectively with his own voice and find the confidence to become a star his first ever song was from 2003 called Belly of the Beast yes [Music] 2003 and when we open UPS get and it's kind of shocking that all the way back then in 2003 future who used to go by Meathead when he was rapping sounded almost exactly like Andre 3000 and as he kept practicing some of the dungeon family members he was around noticed that he was getting good at coming up with hooks and Melodies and in 2004 he had his first songwriting credit for the hook on ludicrous song Blueberry Yum [Music] Yum yeah that's right future one of the most popular rappers alive in 2024 has been working in the music industry for over 20 years if you're 20 or 21 years old watching this video Future's music career is older than you are but despite his growing talent and the significant industry connections before he saw any success future first had to go through 7 years of failure starting at the age of 20 Future's music career went through 7 years of failure no matter what he tried he was stuck obviously he made a lot of songs but none of them ended up being released some songs were lost to his cousins work for bigger artists since Rico needed the money and future needed Rico to keep growing and learning so I'm working on something he might have an idea I said we going to use de for Luda he's like cool not man you taking my song oh cool to be a great leader you got to be a great father but other songs and I mean potentially life changing songs were lost to just bad luck I got a dungeon Vault now old Andre 3000 record and when he came by the studio to do the song with you that verse he put He never put it out but the hard something you said you said it to 3,000 face he said my cousin was so this is him talking about me I he was I was so excited 3000 put that verse down he was going to change my life I'm going to get di so we put this song out [ __ ] never came out this phase of Future's creative growth was so devastating that he developed a fear of recording in any basement Studio from all the times he was let down and his career was stalled in the dungeon family basement Studio I don't really even record in a basement no more because when I was in the dungeon it felt like when I was making music and the bottom it never came out so I always like to record at the top now but the bad luck went outside the studio as well Rico ran into trouble with the IRS and lost his house and future had to go back to Kirkwood and resume drug dealing to stay above water he then got arrested multiple times it's hard to imagine yourself in that position sitting in a jail cell over and over always wondering why you just can't catch a break you have the skills you got some opportunities you even met some musical Legends but despite getting so close to life-changing success you're still back at Rock Bottom life was not letting future forget where he had come from don't nothing smell the same your food don't taste the same [ __ ] you can't even eat right over 21 and you looking at all the mistakes you made and that [ __ ] balling up in you like [ __ ] man I done [ __ ] up so much and get myself to this point where I'm just in life [ __ ] feel like you ain't nothing you know what I'm saying so I done been to that point where like man any chance I get I can't never see that person because I know I ain't built for that I'm built for greatness you know what I'm saying and that shit'll tear you down at a certain point Future's present became too painful to bear and the future seemed like the only place where his hopes for a good life were possible but then 2010 came nadus future whoever he was at the time was going to turn 27 years old but he had zero music releases and zero fans age 27 was when jimmi hendri died a legend and was remembered for eternity future was still a nobody his Legend didn't even exist yet but for some reason 2010 was the year something changed he ended up recording every single day no matter if he didn't make anything no matter if he didn't complete a song he spent every single day in the studio and he never stopped until his dreams came true I've been going to the studio like every day straight for like 10 years even if I have a show I still do some music something find a way to record and I just don't know how to not record you know what I'm saying it's just hard for me to get away from the calmest place I can be is a studio and I stay in there cuz I know when I come back out it's back to reality if you're angry all day man stay in the studio after having lost so many opportunities to mistakes and Misfortune future got one more chance in 2010 when a popular local rapper Roco took an interest in him and featured him on his mixtape after its released future did notice some people really liked his verses in short he had around 300 fans but being paranoid of staying stuck forever he immediately rushed to carry the momentum from this window of opportunity and dropped his own mixtape 30 days later my first reaction listening to this era of Futures music in 2024 was shock in one music video you can see future driving around an ugly Bas model Camaro wearing a really terrible looking fake blinged out watch either way though Future's lyrics Persona and visuals are kind of the same but also very very different from what he does now 14 years later but then I heard the song statistics and it surprised me even more this isn't the kind of writing you would think of when you hear the name future the song starts out with a spoken word poem by dungeon family member big rubbe then future comes in with the hook the streets is where I got respect that where I got my stripes in Wikipedia can't check that these mixtapes aren't exactly amazing but future was definitely starting to figure out his [Music] formula [Music] swag before long he got a feature on YC's track racks it spread like wildfire from clubs to forums to radio eventually it even peaked at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 Rax was basically a breakout hit obviously both of these artists were excited to have a hit but future wasn't EX ly happy he wanted more he had waited a long time for this opportunity and wasn't going to let it go especially because as the featured artist he wasn't getting a lot of Buzz he ended up deciding to make his own mixtape in under a month and put racks on that project to capitalize on how much potential his verse had in the next 30 days he completed the dirty sprite mixtape and released it immediately and as racks continued to blow up even more it led to a commercial release as Future's first real official song from having 300 fans in May of 2010 to now now trending on National charts Future's dreams seemed closer than ever Rax gave future a glimpse of mainstream success but to avoid being a one- hit wonder he needed to build a foundation and for future this core Foundation ended up being strip clubs you ain't no rapper all them statistics don't mean [ __ ] a regular Street [ __ ] don't give a [ __ ] about how many times you went number one like how many white people listen to your [ __ ] cuz they don't even think that them [ __ ] the farthest they think is the club who's selling this club out that's who they think is the biggest [ __ ] in Atlanta the strip club that launched the most hits was Magic City and Futures music did great at Magic City they kept playing him all the time the more they played him the more fany got soon he was crushing the underground music scene and within a year he was offered a deal from major label Epic Records he became an overnight success at the age of 28 after 10 years of failure but what kind of music got him there future committed to this idea of making his music more gritty pretty hard don't know do or dirty in the official music video for dirty sprite it starts off with his girlfriend warning him not to drink lean he has to hide it from her to keep drinking but at the end of the video she starts drinking it herself as the demented piano in the background and Futures lulles Melody honestly makes it a pretty weird atmosphere but years later in a 2016 interview with rolling stone future began dismissing his own involvement with lean at first it wasn't something I loved it wasn't until I discovered what I loved about it some people take drugs and they don't understand the high they take it just to be high it started making me more relaxed I don't feel like I ever abused it I used it for what I felt was needed and future really changed the game he came out with a new style that was at first weird and unheard of yet he didn't leave anything to chance when he didn't gain instant traction he just kept pushing forward he dropped a total of nine mixtapes from May of 2010 to January of 2012 in that time he went from an unknown 27-year-old who never released a project to one of the biggest names in Atlanta but after being signed by a major label and given access to a bigger budget would futurist sound change in the pursuit of mainstream success how would he go from a strip club rapper making lowbudget music videos using loud cheap instrumentals to one of the most iconic artists alive 10 years later at this point in his career he had achieved step two or three on the career List have some local Fame get signed to a label but he was looking for step 10 become a star but still as future had learned after so much bad luck and Misfortune back in Atlanta success is never guaranteed what would he have to do to find step four five and six until he got to the top on 19th of September 2011 8 days after the release of streets calling and 10 days after signing his first major record deal future released his first official single and the first major moment of his career a song called Tony [Music] Montana turn my my over the street sometimes being called the first ever Mumble rap song He later said that he was so high in the recording booth he couldn't even open his mouth and when he heard it again the next day he didn't even know what he was saying but it ended up being a hit anyway and the label needed a remix to boost Future Lil Wayne offered to get on the song but future didn't want to get overshadowed on his first release by someone so big instead he went with a fellow Rising rapper a 25-year-old Act from Canada who is quickly breaking into the rap game but looking back they're a lot like two sides of the same coin going through an Interlink Journey riding the wave of Hip Hop's rise to become the new pop but like anyone who was destined to change the game future was also already facing mockery from critics especially for the unintelligible lyrics on Tony Montana to the extent that he constantly had to explain his artistic and strategic choices in every single interview he did right now you know it's a time time where you got to dumb your lyrics down and cuz people ain't that patient and and they you got a short attention span you got to catch their attention real quick cuz they going to be going on to something else 0 babies man they crackheads future would say you know you want to make music to change the radio not music for the radio but resonating with the mainstream was also what he needed Future's debut album Pluto was commercial but it also wasn't I wouldn't say he was chasing the radio I would say he was waving at it and it worked this project had his first three hits Tony Montana magic same damn time flight overnight the album even debuted at number8 on the billboard 200 which is nothing to laugh at the production was a big leap forward from his mixtapes too it's full of futuristic synths and electric guitars that range from distorted power cords to high-pitch psychedelic riffs at the same time it has small easy to miss references to his real self that come so quickly and almost doesn't register in the larger atmosphere [Music] bad got way I I just [Music] know listening to these tracks now in 2024 made me feel for future it has to be a really isolating feeling to have these raw moments in your music where some hidden pain spills over for everyone to see but people don't even notice and keep saying future doesn't show himself in his lyrics or you're not supposed to pay attention to his lyrics at all if Tony Montana is your biggest hit but you're also dropping bars about the darkest moments of your life it's a difficult position to be in as an artist it makes me wonder whether the grimy hard drugged out mixtapes were just what he did to get his name out there he did say in a 2022 interview that what comes most naturally to him was writing soft melodic songs I make those in my sleep but I had to make a certain kind of music to go along with my career and everything that was going on at the time I was capitalizing off different moments and creating from whatever was going on at the time in in the world and my personal life I was taking the energy from that and making music but those melodic songs I make those easy even easier than I can make a rap song So now after all of that did Pluto make future the star he needed it to it turns out Pluto did its job perfectly from getting your first major songwriting credit on a ludicrous song to having him as a feature on your own track 10 years later Future's Buzz was electric it even traveled into mainstream pop when he got featured on a Miley Cyrus song as a songwriter too he was pretty sought after he wrote and featured on Rihanna's 2012 song Love Song and he also wrote body party for Sierra in 2013 which was her biggest commercial success since 2004 and apparently he even originally wrote an early version of Beyonce's huge hit Drunk in Love Back Then he wasn't credited but the genius page for the song does list him as a [Music] writer that's how you [Music] feel so in 203 all the fiends are running to get futures cracked they don't want t p crack no more t p crack got too much cut on it and that's just all it boils down to Future took over with t pay's trap one of the most common descriptions of Futures work at the time was most rappers talk about drugs but Future's music makes you feel like you're on them and as early as late 2013 people were talking about noticing his style popping up in other new artists as well a reporter asked some of your signature techniques now pop up all over rap and pop radio are you happy to see the ways you've mutated rap become the mainstream how do you respond to copycats and then in 2014 journalists from Rolling Stone were less subtle following Future's example hip-hop radio has turned into a cyborg parade you can hear his influence on young MC's like Rich homi Quan tidals sign kid Inc and Young Thug fetty [ __ ] seems to have gotten his entire style from Futures 2012 song Turn On The Lights but despite all of the success it was still almost like no one respected his methods people at Pitchfork were even saying that future would probably fade away just as quickly as he came up future may soon flame out but his current status as rap royalty is one of the best things in recent memory to happen to a genre that has almost wholly succumbed to sucking the singularity out of its pop stars so could future jump into the mainstream and secure a career for good or was his style a brief Trend it's a difficult position for an artist to be in after trying so hard and for so long to break through in early 2014 his doubter predictions almost came true his second album Honest was trash future kept saying he never chases the radio but honest was at the very least jogging towards it and that's not the Fatal flaw though what's worse is that it sounded confused and Bland it almost felt like someone forced future to make this record even Ben's friends with Andre 3000 was forgettable and it feels like future basically wasted a super rare feature listen to the song Blood Sweat and Tears For [Music] example at best this song sounds like hay Soul Sister mashed up with imagin Dragons what is this supposed to be a song for high school graduations music for weight loss reels you can hear Future's love of singing and Melodies but it's still just not quite there years later future admitted that this album wasn't true to him he said on honest I wasn't being honest but somehow things got worse just 3 months after the birth of his son with his fiance carara Future's public celebrity relationship came to an abrupt end after she caught him cheating she went on to say that she couldn't grow anymore while being with him and the backlash hit him hard online hate mockery people telling future that he was washed up a seist rapper his career was over I was scared as [ __ ] I was one step away from being married and I feel like I failed publicly in relationships then you want to go back to doing music to what you know and if the people didn't accept you again the one thing you feel like you can fall back on it walks away from you you start to feel like it's over yeah that's right the future we know today the human embodiment of misogyny was about to get married back in 2014 he she belongs to the streets especially with carara going on to say things later about how her new man that she married just a year later made her feel like this he's an amazing father like watching him with all of our kids is like it is one of the sweetest things it's one of the sexiest things to be honest with you but what hurt future the most was realizing that people cared more about celebrity gossip than his music I had got to a point in my life where my relationship was bigger than my music and it really just like killed me I was like man don't even care about my music no more they care about if I'm on the red carpet the next din a date that's not who I am it's just I've been creative I've been saying Trends I've been saying music so I was just like man I wanted to get back into that lane and was just like I'm not doing no interviews so I can explain it I want people to think whatever they want to think about me and then I want to make music and then I want my fans to be able to connect with me he ended up disappearing from the public eye he moved overseas to be alone avoiding interviews and doing what he knows best recording recording and more recording the humiliation and rejection that he felt the real possibility of losing everything future took all of that and he made music with a darkness that no one expected maybe not even him now almost a year later this is how his new mixtape starts [Music] [ __ ] boy from the first minute the darkness is immediate his vocal tone sounds almost unrecognizable from any of his soar songs a calm yet demonic gurgle before booming base attacks your ears the cover art shows a disgusting Beast that just happens to look a lot like future himself disfigured Beyond repair most of all it's completely different from what anyone one expected the song Monster also takes it to another level the old future was [Music] gone in a 2016 interview when talking about making monster future said I embraced what I thought people were going to hate about me he was opening up and it wasn't pretty throwaway starts off like any other song But at the 2-minute Mark there's a beat switch that makes it an entirely different track [Music] bab [ __ ] that [ __ ] get it over go [ __ ] that [ __ ] get it [Music] over that [ __ ] get it got my dick suck I was thinking about I was [ __ ] on the [ __ ] I Wasing when [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] the tone shifts to abrupt Sadness the come down after your high wears off it feels like a flashback with all of his memories overwhelming him reminding him of the person who he used to be and the life and everything else he lost on his destructive path carara had moved on with a new man meanwhile future was in a state of denial anger and heartbreak the track starts off with future calling someone disposable but it ends with him realizing he's the one who feels like a throwaway abandoned by his old life and love whatever pain he went through he's here to repeat the cycle and inflict it on someone else but you can't sit and stare at your wounds forever the rest of the album besides this really heartbreaking track for the most part shows future as nothing but an absolute monster there's one lyric in particular from my Savages that tells a lot about future [Music] story for future DJ Esco was a crucial friend he was actually one of the top DJs at Magic City a few years earlier when future was first making his own name before he ever had any mainstream success he also became really important musically for Futures albums thanks to the guidance and motivation from people like Esco after Monster future was back on track to become a star keep in mind I don't really have that big of a face out there I was purposely being behind the scenes because Future's in front of the scenes and I ain't want to be up there like I'm trying to get you hadn't done the dance so I was trying to be like I'm in-house I'm in-house produc I'm get the bass I'm DJ on the road I'm DJ of Magic City still like but I wasn't doing being on videos I'll always be like no I'm cool I'll be right in the back behind you behind the camera on the side of the camera but there was a problem 22 days after the release of monster while future and his team were traveling around for a small tour DJ Esco was arrested for marijuana possession in the United Arab Emirates mind you a strict religious monarchy without laws for due process you would expect in the US he ended up locked up in jail with no expected release date with the hard drive with every single song future had recorded in the past 2 years years in the possession of the police they don't give you no water no food for like the first couple days you don't you never know how long you going that the justice system doesn't work like you get to countdown your days cuz that that would ease your mind if you knew how if they would have told me you going to be in jail 56 night then I can put my brain into a mode of and count at the end they don't tell you when you getting out so every day is another Wonder of when you're going to get out it's people that was in there for 3 4 years and they still ain't got a court date future couldn't get in touch with Esco he didn't know what was going to happen to one of his closest friends but on top of that he was concerned about losing the momentum generated by monsters release since all of his music was locked up in a foreign country beast mode along with monster offered future fans two new sounds they had never heard before it was another hit mixtape just two months after his last one 2 days after beast mode was released DJ Esco got out of jail after spending 56 days in a Cell Esco insisted that the next mixtape include one particular song from the confiscated hard drive he had been listening to the song on the flight to Abu Dhabi and it was also what he hummed to himself throughout his time in jail the mixtape was finally ready it was named 56 Nights the song Esco mentioned was March [Music] [Applause] Madness the producer of this song Tarantino said that future told him not to send him any trap beats instead he asked for beats that didn't even sound like future style Tarantino was supposed to make new beats as if he was making them for another artist and it's easy to notice how it sounds nothing like monster beast mode or any of Future's other records the drum Groove is definitely trapped but the ambient soundscape is synthetic like you would hear in EDM future was creating forward-thinking trap songs and hits at the same time these releases pushed trap forward and it revived Future's career simultaneously and it might not have happened if Esco didn't go to jail the pressure and Desperation brought out a new level of creativity in Future's work I would never made 56 nights if he would and went to jail I would never made beast mode if he went went to jail dirty sprite to would never been an album like his sacrifice just is like a big sacrifice for me to go to the next level was Esco getting locked up future was finally ready for his third album the record that would not only become his best project but also be considered one of the most important albums in modern rap history it was time for Future's grand entrance to the mainstream as the wave of mainstream pop trap was beginning to rise with artists like Metro boomman the Migos and Young Thug he wasn't going to get left behind but he still needed a masterpiece to make it happen dirty spr to was the Perfection of his sound and it came at the perfect moment the first song thought it was a drought starts off with an intoxicating menacing instrumental you can hear him shaking the cup of lean just like you could on dirty sprite back in [Music] 2011 dirt s [ __ ] Le white girl iced tea fully load a but in the 2011 song he sounded like a man flirting with Darkness in 2015 he becomes Darkness the beats are dark and looming his flows flip from aggressive to laid-back it all adds up to become a trap Masterpiece containing tons of sounds and styles I serve the Basse has a demonic distorted industrial sound I can't change to make a PO and made AER with my [ __ ] looking through the track list you can really see how influential future became by releasing this album groupy Blends distorted bass and heavy drums with pios and even Sirens while future raps with the vocal tone of a literal monster showcasing a technically skilled fast flow he talks about sleeping with groupies but it isn't sexy the music sounds like a man losing his Humanity slick talk is so toxic and egotistical that Michael Phelps later admitted to listening to this song on repeat to get in the Z zone for the Rio Olympics remember in Rio when I made that face that ended up all over the internet I was in the zone with Futures track stick talk blaring in my headphon he's been on an the tracks Freo and real sisters show traces of what we'd later hear in Playboy card's style Yeet as well from the strip club bounce in their drums to the 8bit video game sounding instrumentals theame [Music] SC later on in the album there are much mellower more introspective deeply personal lyrics Blood on the money has an ethereal Japanese folk sounding Melody with the feeling of someone having remorse and flashbacks from getting tired of all the destruction they've caused the lyrics see future flexing vaguely but also talking about his misdeeds like he's shaming himself there's a sense of hopelessness like he knows he can never change and go back and how being betrayed in love destroyed him the final song know the meaning is also the most emotional and maybe the most personal future song ever Dro monster tape and had to go to Europe best thing I ever did was fall out of love skull came me said they think you wased up you need to go back in show the [ __ ] who the want we going back in soon as we get off tour he had my hard drive on he doesn't even try to be subtle he just starts talking in the middle of the track about the exact troubles he faced on his path to securing a good life through music he starts off by talking about some of his family members a lot of whom are dead then he mentions some glimpses of his childhood than the troubles he faced while DJ Esco was in prison and future lost his friend as well as all of his music the song puts you in his shoes looking back at everything he had to do and endure to finally get to a good place in his life his career was cemented he's got enough money to not fear going back to Poverty but at what cost his Humanity had been traded for survival a lot of the time that's the true cost of manifesting your goals losing everything to get the one thing you always wanted are you even capable of enjoying this good life after losing so much to gain it maybe it seems like peace just didn't suit future anymore maybe life for him had become a Perpetual battle if all that you know is overcoming obstacles you won't know what to do once you're done with DS2 future officially became a legend an entire generation of artists started borrowing his production Styles his autotune rapping what they said in their raps their adlibs their subject matter and even the way they behaved in public and the craziest thing is it's only gotten bigger since then because future kind of quietly became a superstar ever since DS2 9 years ago he's been releasing albums and mixtapes almost constantly without ever dipping in popularity with nine albums 24 mixtapes and over a 100 singles I'm not going to cover his entire discography it's not possible but in the last 8 years or so what a time to be alive with Drake love backwards future hris Beast Mode 2 high off life I never liked you the wizard and now we don't trust you with Metro boomman these have all been massive releases future just keeps getting bigger for a long time he held the record for the most ever Billboard Hot 100 entries over 120 and he's achieved eight number one albums across a period of 10 years that's not even to mention the ridiculous number of hits from Tony Montana back in 2011 to Jumpman mask off life is good wait for you his feutures on heroes and villains and now like that with Kendrick Lamar being the biggest rap song debut in four years Futures on longevity is Once in a generation he's kept growing a lot even since the late 2010s a lot of his music in this second half of his career is his best work even beyond the hits he still makes Soulful emotional atmospheric songs as well as bangers and it's been a winning formula I never liked you was one of my favorite albums of 2022 deep Cuts Like Voodoo chickens and Affiliated they're hard to beat Hendrick still sounds fresh to me to this day solo is one of my favorite songs ever artistically he's one of the most influential rappers alive the modern rap f family tree would fall over without him he massively influenced the rise of artists like the Migos Young Thug 21 Savage Gunner Lil Baby the way he breathed new life into autotune was nothing short of gamechanging but what does it all add up to is future a pop rapper without depth who found a good way to make sales or is he a master of his craft who changed the game who really is future a lot of people don't regard future as particularly special but I think that's a big mistake if I had to sum up Futures artistic ethos as concise as possible it would be be smart but don't look look smart with most people assuming that he's just an artist who makes Simple Songs it seems like more of the case that he portrays a mysterious Persona to let people project themselves onto him when he talked about wanting his music to feel like drugs when even he doesn't use them anymore it became obvious the kind of game future is playing more than anything the work ethic is undeniable he spent years in the dungeon with his cousin Rico Wade studying songwriting and studying Melodies to find out what works without getting anything out of it for himself working with Andre 3000 as a teenager writing for other artists and even struggling for years to get put on in the industry without any success it's pretty clear that he loves it everything from his unique vocal texture to his songw writing to his Melodies it's a result of passion for music he made good mixtapes he made bad mixtapes then he made good ones again to a point where now 20 years later he's arguably a top five rapper alive back when he was standing around in front of a fake Camaro wearing a fake Rolex that didn't seem like it was ever going to be the case sure it seems easy to be where he is now but it happened over a period of decades the same way it would happen for any one else watching this video it takes years to find success years of sustained effort without giving up but still critics call Future's music easy but it's only easy to replicate it was very hard to originate there's no lack of people trying to be like future but almost none of them can just copy and have the same emotional impact but I guess that's what many people call the Paradox of creativity the best work appears so obvious and clear that people don't understand the effort it takes to get there but no matter what future is more than a meme he's the embodiment of an era of culture and he got there by manifesting what he wanted through his entire life you don't get to where he is without living your goals and putting up with whatever it takes to get there so who is future I think we all know who he is at this point he's the Misunderstood Genius of our time but he never would have gotten there if he didn't have a good work ethic the main reason why future manifested the success he wanted so bad was because he didn't give up that's something I always want to remind all of you watching these videos there's nothing different between you me and future the fact is he worked and kept going and found his dreams they don't just happen to you you have to keep looking and that's the meaning behind the spirit of creativity the solid silver pendant I designed from my new brand spirit world the recursive Wings the blue gemstone eyes it tells a story about pushing forward it represents the Journey of an artist or a student or an entrepreneur looking for success and finding their own path it embodies the idea of working to achieve your goals even when it feels impossible to keep going because that's when it actually matters creativity and art isn't easy meaningful art doesn't get made without meaningful work behind it we're all sitting here watching videos about successful artists and people who have changed the world because I want to motivate all of you to pursue your own dreams and never give up because the only thing crazier than chasing dreams is not chasing dreams the spirit of creativity is an emblem of that story it reminds us of what we're all capable of and gives us the strength to get there and it's the same story with the darkest night and the brightest day our other pendant that tells a story about persistence and determination showing a vibrant sun rising over a night of silver stars that's finally back in after 6 months of being sold out so if you want to support my new brand and invest in highquality silver jewelry that represents something real you can go to Spirit world. store and get both of our pieces right now and as always feel free to use the code vks gang for a discount supporting this brand makes vks guys possible and I appreciate all of you doing that I'm philli this has been volksgeist and thank you for watching

Channel: Volksgeist

Views: 773,872

Keywords: volksgeist, future, philip damico

Id: NZ105XlGPus

Length: 46min 18sec (2778 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2024