For Atlanta rapper Future, 2015 was a year that most rappers could only dream of. His highly anticipated album, Dirty Sprite 2, received high praise from critics and earned him the number two spot on Complex Magazine’s Best Albums of 2015 list. It debuted at number one on Billboard’s top 200 and has sold over 344,000 copies. Later that year, Future collaborated with Drake on What a Time to Be Alive, a mixtape that earned him his second number one on Billboard’s top 200 and helped him build up his stratospheric level of popularity.
Two months into this year, Future released EVOL, an 11-song album that took some of the elements that made Dirty Sprite 2 so popular and built on them. When producing it Future stuck to the recipe: a druggy aesthetic, intoxicating beats, syrupy lyrics, lethargic vocals, dystopian imagery and captivating hooks. EVOL is Future’s second major commercial project, released only a couple of weeks after the release of Purple Reign, a surprise mixtape that has some enjoyable tracks on it but overall seems rushed and unfinished, on DJ Khaled’s Beats 1 radio show.
On EVOL, Future engages with mostly the same themes as he did on Dirty Sprite 2 and Purple Reign: sex (this is obvious upon reading the album’s tracklist — see “In Her Mouth”), drugs that most of us probably haven’t even heard of and, overall, hedonism. In engaging with these themes, Future achieves the same drugged-out aesthetic that made Dirty Sprite 2 such a success. However, in focusing his songs on indulging in debauchery, Future left out some of the themes that made Dirty Sprite 2 so relevant. Love, hate, heartbreak and self-loathing are almost nowhere to be found on EVOL. In tracks like “Lie to Me” and “Low Life,” Future attempts to evoke feelings of longing and passion but doesn’t really pull it off as well as he did on tracks that dealt with similar emotions on Dirty Sprite 2.
On “Lie to Me” Future openly states that he is still dealing with some of the issues and insecurities that he addressed on previous projects: “I got way way too many issues/Some are coming out on the internet/Baby girl sayin’ that she miss you/Is it too late for a comeback?” These declarations are underscored by thematic discrepancies throughout “Lie to Me;” for the majority of the track he describes himself as a giant and a boss and only briefly touches on some of the song’s more candid lyrics.
“Low Life,” the album’s standout song, does a better job at emoting. With the help of Abel from The Weeknd, Future is able to captivate listeners with a catchy melody reminiscent of The Weeknd’s “Often,” stellar production and classic Future lines (“I turn the Ritz into a lean house” and “Roaches everywhere, like we forgot to take the trash out”).
Before the album’s release, Future noted on Twitter that EVOL is love spelled backwards, (symbolizing a rejection of love); this would be consistent with the album’s rejection of all things that are not related to sex, drugs and money. This album isn’t really about Future’s emotions; it’s about how Future feels as he sips on dirty sprite and embarks on his gaudy nightlife escapades. That being said, I believe that an album doesn’t need to be introspective to be good, or that an artist needs to go into long rants about his feelings for an album to be emotive. An album can also be good because it’s fun, enjoyable and well crafted — three things EVOL most definitely is. Even though EVOL lacks introspection, because of straightforward lyrics and consistently vain themes, it is still a remarkable project from a remarkable artist who is at the peak of his career.
One of the most attractive things about the album was its production; Future enlisted some of Atlanta’s best producers (Metro Boomin, Southside, Zaytoven and DJ Spinz, just to name a few) to create an eclectic sound that elevated the album’s hard hitting beats through complex melodies and intricate instrumental layering.
Take “Fly Shit Only,” a track produced by DJ Spinz that uses an 80s sounding guitar riff sample and melds it with a trap drum sequence to create a trap heavy hitter, or “Xany Family,” where Future invites listeners to partake in some semi-illegal activities to the melody of a hypnotic and illusory beat. On “Maybach,” Future raps “They wasn’t lying on me/I get better and better with time, don’t I?” Although this may not be necessarily true when comparing EVOL to Dirty Sprite 2, it is certainly true when looking back to his earlier projects. Future’s music has come a long way from his Honest days. His themes are more decadent, his beats are more striking, his lyrics are more evocative, his flow is tighter and his overall persona has become a thing of legend.
Future’s lack of sonic and thematic ambition on EVOL resulted in a lesser Dirty Sprite 2. The album is a testament to the anarchic and decadent life of a rapper enjoying the spoils of a successful year, but the arrogance implicit in those themes makes Future miss the mark that made Dirty Sprite 2 such a great album.
Future’s success in the past two years has been one for the history books. EVOL is Future’s third project in 15 months to hit number one on Billboard’s top 200. By now Future’s fame is almost unparalleled, and his title as king of Atlanta hip-hop is uncontested. In the long run, EVOL’s release probably won’t be a pivotal moment in Future’s career, but it’s a welcome escape into the world only a rapper riding on the coattails of his last success can know.
Future will perform in Atlanta at The Tabernacle on March 4.
