At it’s peak, trap music, a sub-genre of hip-hop, has ascended alongside the most popular genre’s of music in the U.S. With multiple songs dominating the Billboard Hot 100 and several of the famous namesakes selling hundreds of thousands of album copies, the growth has been inescapable compared to the fringe mixtape beginnings of years past.
At the top of the helm is Nayvadius Wilburn, better known as Future, a superstar hit-maker with a variety of styles. After 2015, when Future dropped two platinum albums in a span of months with “DS2” and “What a time to be alive” along with Drake, his star seemed to hit a crescendo.
His lackluster 2016 releases appeared to affirm that notion, as his commercial mixtapes “Purple Reign” and “EVOL” under-performed and oversaturated his sound. The rapper found himself at odds after a down year and the rise of a young cohort of Atlanta rappers, namely Lil Yachty, 21 Savage, Migos and Young Thug.
With other artists along the country capitalizing on a wave he helped popularized, Future responded with what is in essence a double album in “Future” and “Hndrxx”.
The two albums are not officially listed as a double album, but the fact that they were released within a week of each other with a contrasting duality makes the effort fairly obvious. Judging the bodies of work as one project is a lot easier and actually rates them better.
For one, the contrast in styles is perfected on the two efforts. On “Future”, the rapper brilliantly aims at his adversaries over nimble yet distinct production, talking brashly along the way. It’s produced, what seems to be, future hits, no pun intended, in “Mask Off” and “Draco”. Future is as fun is he is dark on the self-titled work and fans of his early, more aggressive work should be thrilled at his delivery on the album.
On the flip side, “Hndrxx” is Future’s “Take Care”, a brutally honest project bearing the artist’s flaws, successes, highlights and lowlights on display for the world. He touches on recent media outtakes, like his divorce and resulting fallout with Ciara and his affair with Scottie Pippen’s wife Larsa Pippen. The album shows Future’s acceptance of his celebrity with a bit of remorse for his actions, delivered with passionate melodies and verses.
Overall, the two albums are the best releases he’s put out since “DS2”, with “Hndrxx” potentially being his best work ever. With his back against the wall, Future bounced back admirably.
