Future

About Future

Barely a season goes by without new music from the rapper born Nayvadius Wilburn in 1983—whether it’s a mixtape, a solo album, or a collab with Drake, Gucci Mane, or Metro Boomin. But prolific isn’t the half of it. Druggy, raw, slick, and surreal, Future’s sound—crystallized on highlights like 2014’s Honest, 2015’s DS2, and 2017’s HNDRXX—helped to redefine 2010s street rap as something strange and almost avant-garde. Imagine trap as modern psychedelia, though still naggingly melodic. As with 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. “The biggest thing is just being yourself all the time,” he told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in early 2017. That unwavering self-assurance continues to define his work as he settles into middle age: Rather than mellowing with the years, he remains outspoken and unapologetic about his rock-star lifestyle. Observe 2022’s I NEVER LIKED YOU, which takes us on a guided tour of his high-drama adventures as a bachelor. And the fact that Future can still command cameos from Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, and Travis Scott means that he has lost none of his heavyweight status in the years since his groggy, grandiose breakthrough.