A Review of Future's "Future Hndrxx Presents: THE WIZRD"

Coming off an interesting 2018, Atlanta rapper Future looks to start off 2019 right with the release of his album “Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD.” Future had a busy 2018, to say the least, appearing on every song on DJ Esco’s 2018 album “KOLORBLIND,” in early April, as well as releasing a solo project in early July titled “BEASTMODE 2” and finally releasing his joint project with Juice WRLD titled “Future & Juice WRLD Present… WRLD ON DRUGS.” All this being said, with the amount of music put out by Future, the traction or momentum had formed until his joint project with Juice WRLD. Even after this joint project, the momentum was short-lived by Future. Fast forward to the rollout for this album, both singles he released, titled “Crushed Up” and “Jumpin on a Jet” didn’t really gain the momentum needed for Future to once again get back to his peak, the release of “DS2” in the Summer of 2015. With this album, I expect Future to change up his sound a bit in an attempt to win back some of the listeners that have left since his “DS2” days. Now, let’s take a look at the tracklist! “Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD,” is comprised of 20 songs giving us an hour and one minute of new music. Listed on the tracklist are three features, Young Thug, Gunna (who appear on the same song) and Travis Scott. This album will mostly be Future putting his talents on display and making the case for himself to still be looked at as one of the biggest rappers of 2019. Very intrigued to get into this album, so without further ado, let’s get to the review!

Categories

The songs on this album divided into three lanes that are prevalent throughout the project

Introspective

“Never Stop” (1) “Krazy But True” (1), “Tricks On Me” (1)

These songs have Future looking at his life in the past and in the present. In these songs, Future addresses life on the streets, his impact on Hip-Hop and past relationships.

Melodic

“Jumpin on a Jet” (1) “Temptation” (1) “Call The Coroner” (1) “Promise U That” (1)

These songs give us a Future that sings melodies that match the vibe of the beat well.

Super Future

“Rocket Ship” (1) “Crushed Up” (1) “F&N” (1.5) “Talk Shit Like a Preacher” (1) “Stick To The Models” (1) “Overdose” (1), “Servin Killa Kam” (1) “Baptiize” (1) “Unicorn Purp” featuring Young Thug and Gunna (1) “Goin Dummi” (1) “First Off” featuring Travis Scott (1)” Faceshot” (1) “Ain’t Comin Back” (1)

These songs are reminiscent of Future’s breakout album “DS2.” These songs would have a place on the 2015 album as well as Future’s self-titled 2017 album “FUTURE.”

Must Listen Songs

The concept of Must Listen songs are the songs that would give the best overview of the album as a whole. Songs that stand out for reasons to be described in the pending descriptions of the songs.

“Never Stop”

One of the few introspective tracks on the album where Future raps about events in his life such as coming from the bottom to get to where he is today and his battle with his promethazine habit. Future also throws out references to people who turned their back on him and didn’t take his advice. This track over the smooth bass, high hat driven beat produced by Billboard Hitmakers and ATL Jacob. This is a good intro track to the album, showing that Future isn’t limited to just the hype music he became famous for.

“F&N”

One of the things that stick out to me most on track six, is the beat switch midway to through the beat. The beat produced by ATL Jacob, Southside, and Wheezy starts off with a dark vibe driven by the bass and high hats before the second beat comes in. The second beat is a contrast to the first because it has a more upbeat, summer vibe to it. This is created by the background sound that sounds similar to the Tay Keith portion on the “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott featuring Drake. That high-pitched wind chime sound in the background of both songs give each song a “sparkle” aspect.

“Promise U That”

This song highlights Future’s versatility, as he shows his melodies over this Tay Keith beat collab with Kyle Van Riper and Westen Weiss. This is something that is expected from Future, as we expect him to have the chick songs where he’s singing about how he’s going to steal someone’s girl. However, besides this being one of the standout songs on this album, I think it’s important to highlight that this Tay Keith beat sounds different from the usual Tay Keith. Perhaps because he had other producers on this beat, however without the tag I wouldn’t know it’s a Tay Keith beat which is impressive since many people think all his beats sound the same.

“Krazy But True”

On this song, we have Future rapping about “I’m god to you niggas,” and “the way you drop your mixtapes, your ad-libs, and everything.” Future is one of the main rappers to usher in this new era of Hip-Hop and on this song, he reminds us about it on this song over a Wheezy beat made in collaboration with, Distance Decay, Corbin and Frankie Bash.

Final Review

To describe this album in one word it would be, tiring. Future once again puts forth good music, however, the amount of music put out at one time can suck the individuality out of each song. There are thirteen songs out of the twenty songs on the album that fit in one lane. Now when you take into account that this lane of music has been a lane in which Future has been occupying for the lifetime of his career, it can be seen how his music can be deemed as “all sounding the same” even though the music put forth is still better than the average rapper. The use of the features on the album did nothing to help liven the music up because we expect to see Future with rappers like Travis Scott, Young Thug, and Gunna. All this being considered this is an average album for Future, which is a good album, however, I would like to see more growth on his next project.

Scoring

Raw Score: The number of good songs on a project versus the overall amount. Songs must have a +1 or above to be counted.

Quality Score: The total amount of points accumulated over the total amount of songs.

Playback value: The resonance an album is perceived to have if played again in full. Scale out of 5.

Raw Score:20/20

Quality Score:20.5/20

Playback Value:2/5

Go out and listen to Future’s “Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD” wherever you listen to your music. Also, don’t forget to check out OLDMLK’s Instagram page (@OLDMLK) for updates on Oldmlk Essentials: the essential review in Hip Hop Media, The OLDMLK.Com Playlist, The OLDMLK Radar and more!