To be perfectly honest, I don't even know where to begin with this album. I hope I'm not shattering anybody's world view here, but Future is terrible. He talks (I can't really say raps or sings) about the same old cliches, and yet manages to do it with little to no skill. His flow, if you can call it that, is most of the time some prepubescent yelping, and the subject matter somehow is even offensive by rap standards (or do I need to remind everyone of the 'Karate Chop' incident last year? Granted Lil Wayne said the line in question, but when it's on your album, you can accept some responsibility. Obviously, you thought the line was genius). To top it all off, he filters his repugnant non-rhymes through the worst sort of Auto-Tune I have ever heard. I might actually have to agree with T-Payne of all people that Future doesn't know how to use Auto-Tune. That warbling, constantly off key, malfunctioning robot sound does not give Future a personality. In fact, if another talentless hack like 2 Chainz got filtered through Auto-Tune, you couldn't tell the difference. The fact that you've never heard his voice unfiltered speaks to the probability that Future himself has nothing to offer.
That is not to say T-Payne is an example of voice effects done right. Look to the Bon Iver track 'Woods' for that. I honestly have no idea why Future angers me so much. It's probably that people, even paid critics, think this lazy, annoyingly bad sound is good. Seeing praise for this album makes the bile rise in my throat. And I haven't even got to the individual songs on this sorry excuse for an album. I already said all that needs to be said on 'Karate Chop', which is included here as a bonus track. His terrible yelping flow, along with bragging about paying a quarter of a million dollars for a hand job is fully displayed on the aptly named "Sh!T". Sums up the whole album, really. The fact that you're a famous rapper who needs to pay some one 250k to touch you is not something to brag about. It means you're pathetic.
His attempts at R&B fall flat, mainly because he can't carry a note, even with Auto-Tune. I'd rather hear Ol' Dirty Bastard sing. And the plethora of guest verses only reinforce how bad Future is by comparison. When Wiz Khalifa is rapping circles around you, it's time to hang it up. While we're on 'My Momma', since when is screaming one sentence repeatedly acceptable as a chorus? Did I miss that memo? It may even be possible that Future is actively sapping the likeability of other artists too. Pusha T's nose pun was cringe worthy, and Pharrell here was terrible. You don't have to rhyme racial slurs with themselves multiple times. We get it. You're black. You're just looking for something to fill up space because you ran out of things to say in the first two bars.
Maybe I'm being too hard on this. But honestly, I can't seem to find a redeemable quality in this mess. I'm not going to pull a Pitchfork and try to extract some meaning that clearly doesn't exist. That would involve giving Future some credit, and assuming he didn't just slam his hand in a door, yelp obscenities, Auto-Tune it, and release it as an album.
I can't even be bothered to rate this. Though, honestly, you need to hear this. Know your enemy.
Check back later when I review the much better Death III. Haven't heard a note of it yet, but there's nowhere to go but up from here.
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