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FUTURE: DRINK DEEP

What’s most interesting about Future’s third studio album Dirty Sprite 2 is the series of moves the artist has made in recent months to create this week’s big sales response; the new set is currently on track to sell a whopping 125-135K with an SPS total of 145K.

By deflecting more mainstream maneuvers as Chief of Features for pop superstars like Rihanna, Pharrell and Lil Wayne and wisely resisting all outside drama or social-media gossip in association with being Ciara’s Baby Daddy, while laser-focusing his music back to the sweet spot for his core fans, the artist who calls himself “Future Hendrixshould deliver a #1 album debut for DS2 that blows all forecasts away.

The A1/Freebandz/Epic rap superstar had a very specific strategy for building his fan-first foundation. “It was much needed,” he explains. “I was in a show-and-prove situation. My better judgment is to make the music that I know the people want. I know they want the ratchet shit from me. I know they want me to say the most disrespectful shit because I came in like that.”

The backstory is, over the past eight months Future has released 30 songs— spread across three hugely successful mix tapes that, along with producers Southside, Metro Boomin and Zaytoven, among others, took him right back to King of Trap Music glory. Monster dropped in October of last year and contained the aspirational get-money anthem heard everywhere on the radio today, “Fuck Up Some Commas”; the mixtape has racked up more than 176k downloads.

In January 2015 he dropped Beast Mode, followed quickly by 56 Nights in late March—inspired in part by the harrowing Dubai incident with his partner DJ Esco (who was jailed for marijuana in a country where drug possession carries a death sentence) and featuring another complete banger that has since become another anthem with more than 6 million YouTube views, “March Madness.” But because all these projects were released for free, the impact wasn’t felt on any traditional charts.

DS2’s title refers to Dirty Sprite, a codeine-laced party favor; much like the “drank,” this album packed a punch. No one saw this giant wave coming—like taking a sip of the Dirty from that Styrofoam cup, instant euphoria ensues.

“I know music; I’ve studied the game. I’m not telling you this—I'm showing you this shit,” Future insists about why his blueprint will work. “I came back and dropped nothing but street records with the mix tapes and gave them away for free, after I had already achieved a certain amount of success in the industry.” The goal, he adds, was “to come back to my core fans, and deliver something that they can accept and live with and feel great about and accept me as one of their own—like I never left.”

Incidentally, the new documentary, Like I Never Left, is a compelling examination of Future—who gave very few interviews until recently— and reveals his considerable thought processes behind the release of the three preceding mixtapes up to DS2.

Future discusses everything from his relationship to Ciara (including being distinctly uncomfortable with the press circus that surrounds her) to what makes him unique as a rapper and how he chose to carve that lane, and shows a thoughtful, extremely savvy artist who is completely aware of his status in the game and the work ethic and confidence needed in order to maintain it.

Although the critical response to DS2 has been mixed—with many expressing disappointment that the album does not measure up to being the “Trap Opus” widely expected from him—by going back hard underground and keeping it 100, Future has managed to convert the masses into one of his most spectacular debuts. Now that’s trill.

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