“Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD” Album Review
I don’t understand how Future keeps on doing it, but his iconic voice and melodies over Tay Keith, Southside, and ATL Jacob is a simple recipe for quality Trap music.
Rating: 8.1
Over the past decade, Future has been making hit records with ease. His seemingly minimalistic style has helped create the Trap music sub-genre in Hip Hop we all know today. He’s often been featured on rap songs for hooks like an R&B singer, written for dozens of rappers and singers, and has more than enough hits to be considered a legend in rap.
For the past few years now, though, fans have been questioning whether Future has fallen off. After his famous mixtape run of Monster, 56 Nights, Beast Mode, and his incredible project DS2, fans have criticized that he hasn’t been the same. Some argue that the double album FUTURE and HNDRXX were moments of truth, but collab albums with Young Thug and Juice WRLD say otherwise. Many claim his sound has become over saturated because of his output and lack of variation, something I certainly criticized as well.
To the contrary, however, “Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD” is proof that Future is alive and well. He has shown that he still makes songs that jam with ease, only he’s much more open about himself this time around.
The intro track Never Stop is the most vulnerable he has been in a while. Unlike the rest of the project, the song’s beat is mellow, allowing Future to pour everything out about the stresses of fame and where he would have been without his successes.
I done got rich and it cursed me
Never Stop – Future
Ever since I got successful, they envy
Tryna shake the devil, on promethazine
Tryna show you love but you don’t feel me
From there, the head knockers begin and never settle. Jumpin on a Jet has a beat drop that Southside deserves a lot of credit for producing. Future barely has to do anything to compliment it, just find pockets to flow his verses in.
Most songs on the album have a hook you can sing along to. It’s easy to spot the tracks that will go up in concert like Jumpin on a Jet, “I’ve been popping since my demo b*tch!” on Rocket Ship, and “Diamonds in the face crushed up, I can see it” on Crushed Up.
Two of the most enjoyable tracks on The WIZRD are Tay Keith produced; those being Temptation and Promise You That. Both tracks are upbeat and a bit slower than other album tracks, but Future uses that to his advantage, especially on Promise You That with some very catchy melodies.
A few songs could have been left off the tracklist, but that tends to happen in today’s age of bloated albums. I could have gone without Talk Sh*t like a Preacher since it was so short. First Off ft. Travis Scott felt like a forced collaboration. Future never has featured artists on his project and that track felt like the label suggested it (since both artists are on Epic Records).
The only other collab: Unicorn Purp had so much potential, but it felt ruined by Future’s 2+ minute verse. Young Thug sprinkles in adlibs throughout the verse, then him and Gunna come in on the end with short, good verses, but the beginning of the track drags because of Future.
The reputation that Future has with many rap fans is that he makes the style songs over and over again. His formula is pretty easy to pick up on. He gets a trap beat you can nod your head to, a melodic hook that’s easy to sing, and switches up his flow to add variation. Obviously, not every song follows this structure, but easily more than half of them do.
This new album shows the formula still works after all of these years. Future is still delivering quality music that you can dance, work out, or sing along to. What’s different this time around is that Future is much more open in his verses about what he’s thinking; his mental health, drug addiction, reputation, and personal life are much more out on the table then they have been in the past.
While you can simply enjoy each song for the production and Hndrxx’s flow on them, you can also appreciate what he’s rapping about. On Krazy But True, you hear that he’s rapping about not getting the credit he deserves for influencing this generation of rappers. He raps:
“ I’m god to you niggas
I worked too hard just to spoil you niggasYou need to pay me my respects
Krazy But True – Future
Your socks, rings, and your lean
The way you drop your mixtapes, your ad-libs and everything”
Later in the verse, he mentions his drug habits and using them to take his pain away, finishing his verse with:
“If you look into my eyes, tell me what I’m thinkin’
Krazy But True – Future
I’m smellin’ like kush, promethazine drinkin’
This ecstasy the only reason why my heart beatin’”
These songs peel back a portion of the curtain that Future has had drawn on the public for most of his whole career. He does this on the intro track as well as Promise You That, Ain’t Coming Back, and a few other tracks.
All in all, Future delivers a complete body of work yet again. It seems that he puts a lot more effort into his formal albums as apposed to the collab projects and mixtapes he’s been putting out. He mentioned in an interview with Genius that after this album, he will be shifting into a new direction musically. Hopefully it involves more collaborations with artists, which is always nice to see.
Find a link for the album to your music streaming service here: http://smarturl.it/TheWIZRD
Favorite Tracks: Crushed Up, Promise You That, and Goin Dummi
