This time last year, Future had just let go of one of his most deliberate tapes to date. Beast Mode was a fiercely delicate album with an ethereal aura and a codeine-coated heart. The OG Dirty Sprite and the coveted-Astronaut Status were also gifted to us regular civilians during this prestigious month, in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Meaning, Future has been leaving splashes of pink promethazine all along his path from pop star to monster™. He’s been etching “FBG” into the tree bark on his recent pilgrimage, hoping we notice. But we’re scandalous heathens only interested in finding out where he’s headed, and not in enjoying the moment. All this to say, Purple Reign probably means more to Future than it does to us. And that’s okay.
It’s okay if Purple Reign isn’t as good as Dirty Sprite 2, or if it feels like more of the same. It’s okay if he flew too close to the suffocatingly hot sun and ended up having to amuse Drake for a week. #ItNeverHappened. It was the illuminati. And it’s okay because Future’s now back to give us what we need, even if it’s not what we want (to quote another messiah). In this case, it turns out to be a stimulus package. A return to form of sorts.
This tape comes out of a period of assumed celebration that was inducted by the “victory lap” What a Time to Be Alive. But in the public forum, people wavered instead of riding the WATTBA wave, and on the personal front, Jewish lawyers became a thing of reality and not rhymes because Future Jr. still isn’t free.
Before Beast Mode dropped, Future had just dropped his best project to date. Monster was a savage rebuke to the Tinseltown anchor he had just shed. Therefore, Beast Mode — although coming at a time of great internal strife (some of which understandably leaked into the tape) — was allowed to be a celebration. Purple Reign isn’t allowed the same luxury. There are still moments of celebration but they’re dark and saturated with dissonance. “I’m drippin’ on em baby, how u luv that” sounds as depressive as it does menacing. But more in an “I hate it had to come to this” sort of way than anything else. He’s not afraid to be confrontational — he’s already got your main bitch on the side like…
It’s as if he’s choking up on the thought of “toastin’ up” in spite of her, trying his best to convince himself that it’s what he deserves, and eventually accepting that premise and falling in love with his new “girlfriend.” Whether or not his drug addictions are “real,” which I feel silly for addressing in the first place, the music is very visceral and very captivating. Future’s narrative often verges on the brink of a modern day Greek tragedy. Especially when we get a “Codeine Crazy” or, this time around, the title track “Purple Reign,” out of him. Future went from a romantic, with his fiancee in his arms under the moonlight rain, to a cynic with a bottle of xans mixed with, presumably, cyanide pills, standing alone under the flashing storm of a purple downpour. This tape is the epitome of “I choose the dirty of over you.”
He’s trying to take his victory lap but, but his addictions keep crippling his run. He guilt keeps weighing him down. And clearcut conflicts like this are what continue to paint Future’s narrative in different shades of the same color, freshening up a dulling landscape. His festering guilt versus his open exuberance, the cynic versus the romantic, his addiction versus his enlightenment. They all consistently fight for their place in Future’s world. The former, in all cases, just so happen to be the victors on this tape.
He’s served his auntie a hit, but he’s “thankin’ God today that she don’t smoke it no more.” He missed another aunt’s funeral, and he just hopes she’ll forgive him. He’s slowly coming to terms with his past, while his future (our present) is ripping at the seams. He’s gonna hit an island “like Gilligan,” and he’s drippin’ on every Instagram model you can think of while fronting them obnoxious amounts of xannies for “no charge,” but is still writing oddly perverse odes to his styrofoam cups. He wants to be free but masochistically keeps him self shackled, and it’s got him “actin’ like a Freeband Gang Terrorist.”
If anyone doubts the direction of this tape, just keep in mind that recently Future has apparently shot the DeLorean so far into the past that he’s actually coming back around to the future, and can be seen in interviews talking about already living in 2017. He knows they want to see him “make the wrong move, bite the bullet,” and he knows just what he needs to do to prove them wrong. Meaning, he knows what Purple Reign needs to be.
This tape needs to be a testament to his arsenal, but still needs to start shaping the new (hoverboard) wheel (even if it doesn’t reinvent it). It needs to double down on his turmoil and his narrative, not his fictional victory laps. Because there’s still work to be done — people still think Drake is a good rapper and he lacks lyricism. It needs to be an invitation to join his 2016 run before he swerves off with the bright lights shinin’ all bright on the Bentley. Before you miss out again.
And that’s just what Purple Reign is. Underneath all the guards it puts up, there’s still new depth to be found and new sounds to be heard. And it’s all pretty “wicked (way oh way oh way oh way).”
Notable Tracks: Drippin’ (How U Luv That), Inside the Mattress, Perkys Calling.
Honorable Mentions: Never Forget, Purple Reign
Rating: Strong Fire Marshall Future to a light Super Future.
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The only scope in which Purple Reign is a failure is through the fisheye Young Thug probably sees the world through. Young Thug is the only one in Atlanta giving Future a run for his money. Made dramatic by the world’s most heartbreaking twitter feud, during which Future took some strays as well (Tito? ouch), there is most definitely an unspoken exchange of blows taking place between these two titans. Unspoken maybe because it’s an imaginary feud in my head. But still. Maybe it didn’t exist when Future kicked off his run with the holy trinity, and Thug was limping by with Barter 6‘s controversial rollout. But something definitely must have festered by the time Slime Season 1 rolled around. However, Future was still firmly in the lead in this hypothetical boxing-match-turned-footrace I concocted in my head. Then WATTBA (never) happened. Future got too showy. And then Slime Season 2 dropped, and things got spooky.
And now, with Slime Season 3 coming so so soon, Purple Reign could be in the dangerous position of getting gobsmacked and lapped. Except there’s still Beast Mode 2…and Monster 2….and…Ape Sh!T.
And Hy!£UN35. Or MetroBoomin’. Or MetroThuggin?
There’s no end in sight…
And, holy shit — I just realized Kanye, the well-to-do, well-intentioned, father of two, has no fucking idea he’s just step down into a civil war in the trenches. I hope he’s in it for the long haul.
#PrayForYeezus
-Narsimha Chintaluri (@Narshh)
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