Ohthony Notano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of the new Future album, The Real Me.

This is the 10th full-length studio solo album of Mr. Future Hndrxx, game-changing rapper, songwriter, Atlanta's own. He is someone who has had not only an eventful career, but an eventful past couple of years. Though for a minute it did seem like he was getting to a place in his catalog where he was more or less resting on his laurels and enjoying the spoils of being a massive influence on this new generation of rappers.

I mean, he certainly wasn't taking many, if any, risks on 2022's I NEVER LIKED YOU, and love em or hate em, tracks that this man developed well over a decade ago at this point, have clearly had a ripple effect that essentially set the boundaries for this new rage style that a lot of rappers are chasing after these days.

But in 2024, there was kind of a bit of a shake-up, if anyone remembers, Future took part in this very large collab release that he did with producer Metro Boomin, which was really the first domino to fall in what would become the biggest rap beef of all time pretty much at this point — Drake v Kendrick Lamar with the "Like That" verse, a track that Future obviously was on as well, which is significant even if Future wasn't the one firing the bulk of the shots on that track, because for years he and Drake were not just on good terms, but were frequent and very successful collaborators, making some of the most celebrated and beloved tracks in hip-hop's mainstream throughout the 2010s.

And even if they didn't like each other for some reason on a personal level, you would think the fact that fans love hearing these two together would be enough to prevent a fracture like this.

But this year, with little in the way of any announcement, Future actually ended up being one of the many features on Drake's latest full-length LP, ICEMAN, on the track "Ran to Atlanta." He even went on to tweet, "Me and ICEMAN back by popular demand." So, even with all of the beef and the tension and the hatred being thrown back and forth by both sides, and the social dynamics of hip-hop as we know it for the foreseeable future being just radically changed, these two seemingly have buried the hatchet out of nowhere, just because, I guess.

And now, just over a month later, we have this new album, kicked off with a pretty agreeable lead single that is the song "Radio," a track whose hook says the song is not for the radio, but it is obviously one of Future's most radio-friendly sounding singles ever. I get it. But still, this track says little to nothing about what this album is seemingly pitching itself as: some potential fourth wall break, or Future baring his true self in a way that that he never has before, which is kind of strange framing considering this man has had no shortage of emotional moments here and there throughout many of his records.

But also on top of that, I feel like Future is an artist who tends to benefit from at least a little bit of mystique. You know, it's rare that he gives a very lengthy, in-depth interview, and it's also rare that he digs too far beyond the codeine-guzzling, womanizing persona that he often portrays on most of his tracks. Because being too real and too human and too emotional, I think would kind of, you know, crack that mask.

So I don't know, I went into The Real Me wondering if we would get much of anything beyond that, some kind of new side of Future, as it were. But honestly, I feel like this album is just further confirmation that Future, despite the fact that he is one of the most mercilessly copied artists of today, is pretty much just a one-trick pony. I mean, the whole first leg is maybe the most underwhelming and predictable we have heard Future be at the start of an album ever.

For sure, "Fukk A Interview" is a little darker than normal, with some violent content in the lyrics, and even an A$AP Rocky name drop I'm sure is going to stir the pot at least a little bit. But then following this, we have an immediate drop-off in quality.

The track "One Two" is a complete skip that pads out a forgettable verse with a bunch of half-hearted nursery rhyme bars. And then "No Misery" kicks things off with a sort of pitched version of this viral André 3000 interview where he is talking about his love of Future. Most notably the pain, the emotional pain that he hears in Future's work. Like, yeah, hoisting that up and saying "Hey, see? Look at this!" is something that any artist would do.

The problem is Future uses this audio and this quote to set up what essentially sounds like a trap remix of an overly sentimental Coldplay song. Or, in other words, garbage. "California Girls" features what I think are some pretty unbearable vocals. While it is true that Future loves to lean into autotune and his flow is more melodic than most out there, that is not the same thing as being legitimately able to sing, which I think he has gotten mixed up here.

Honestly, to my ears, the first truly likable song on this album is "Konnichiwa," which is nothing revolutionary for sure, but it has a sinister beat with some proggy lead melodies, a very catchy flow, and some pretty insane ad-libs coloring the background of the song really well.

After this, "Trench Coat" is a banger. "Snow in Skyami" is another attempt at creating a bop. But then we hit another cooldown moment with "Build a Bitch," which — there are elements of this track I like. The mysterious beat, Future's genuinely sensual flows. But the writing says little about the track's core dilemma, that Future has romance troubles and is having a tough time finding that perfect and right partner. So instead he needs to create this person, but there's so little in the way of details you kind of have to wonder, what does this man even want?

After this we hit "Radio" that I mentioned earlier, and then "2018," which is a track that has been a turning a lot of heads, getting a lot of people scratching their heads. How the track kicks off, we see the return of Future's kind of squeaky falsetto flows that made for a pretty hype moment on "King's Dead." You know, that whole "la-di-da-di-da" moment. And he is leaning into that register for the whole first leg of this track, and then eventually stabilizes and normalizes in the second half.

Again, it's an entertaining and surprising change of pace in the tracklist itself, and Future is definitely coming at this track with a lot of weird energy. I just wish it was all focused and condensed into a memorable song. For the most part, he seems to pretty much be operating off the cuff on this one, and not doing or saying much of anything that is all that memorable, outside of just operating in this register. And effectively, he turns something that was once a very hype moment into a novelty that's overstaying its welcome.

Then, in the second half of this record, we have a few personal moments, and then some desperate attempts at doing something new that just do not work. We have tracks like "If I Could" as well as "Big Moment," both of which I think do a better job of reflecting the pain that André 3000 quote was getting at by bringing some of the most introspective bars we've heard from Future in a long time. Telling his sons to be a better person than him, missing friends who are currently locked up or gone, dealing with abandonment issues. There are a lot of bottled up emotions on these tracks for sure. But then after this, all hell breaks loose on this record, with some of the worst material on this album, but also on any Future album.

The song "Cast a Spell" brings more goofy falsetto lead vocals, sung over basic trap beats and dreamy guitars. It's awkward as hell. The song "Kick" has maybe one of the worst mixes on the entire record. It's like a lo-fi trap cut that honestly sounds like a cutting room floor type type song. Like, the fidelity on this one is just trash. The song "Hollywood" is just a non-starter out of the gate. This sounds like an '80s night karaoke.

And then "Feeling I Give" continues to prove how limited Future is in his range, because the moment he grabs an instrumental that is even a little bit outside of his comfort zone, he doesn't know what to do. It's like he wants to do his own Weeknd-type song with this beat, but he doesn't have the vocals, or the lyrics, or the songwriting chops, or the anything to actually make it happen.

Then "Alice" is an attempt at a club jammer whose lyrics are sort of themed around the Alice in Wonderland story, but instead of falling down the fantastical Wonderland rabbit hole, you're kind of falling down the rabbit hole of drugs and just the general debauchery of what goes on at the club. And while the record does have a somewhat okay, palatable closer, certainly more listenable than the previous five or six tracks, it doesn't make up for how awful the ending is just because you kind of like, you know, pulled the plane up the very last second. Like, we still almost had a total crash landing.

Still, with that being said, overall, looking at every track in this tracklist, this project is a massive disappointment. Super mediocre. Terrible, even. Just the weirdest mix of Future phoning it in and absolutely not trying at all, and then also doing a bunch of weird, awkward stuff just for attention where he is clearly overestimating his abilities.

Records like I NEVER LIKED YOU were by no means perfect, but I prefer that album and any number of Future albums to this because at least on that record he had a sense of who he is, what he does best, and he's just kind of leaning into that. Meanwhile, with The Real Me, he seemingly has no clue whatsoever as to what the hell he's doing or what even makes him appealing as an artist.

On top of that, I didn't really get a sense of what the real Future is. And I don't know if this is the real Future. I would rather hear the fake one. Get the fake one on the phone. I'm feeling a light to decent 3 on this.

Anthony Fantano. Future. Forever.