Dirty Sprite 2
Future
Distributed by A1
Atlanta rapper Future’s latest release Dirty Sprite 2 (DS2) might be the most surprisingly great rap release of the year.
The bar has been set high in 2015 with genuinely terrific releases from Drake (If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late) and Kendrick Lamar (To Pimp a Butterfly), among others. Yet Future vaulted himself into consideration with DS2.
The pleasure of DS2 comes as such a big surprise because of how disappointing Future’s discography had been since the release of Pluto, the rapper’s 2012 debut album. Following the release of his rookie project, Future became a fixture in pop-crossover radio and landed guest spots on Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, and Justin Bieber’s projects throughout 2013.
The results were uninspiring—the Atlanta rapper who had ties to the creative juggernauts of the Outkast-affiliated Dungeon Family was now turning out hits with the likes of Ace Hood (you might remember that awful “I woke up in a new Bugatti” track from a few summers ago).
Things only got worse when Future returned with his sophomore release last year, Honest. Honest isn’t a bad album. It’s just totally scatterbrained.
On Honest, Future tried to continue to hone his trademark sound, aggressive raps that leap out from hazy, syrupy production, while also trying to release the ear-worm choruses that would satisfy his fans from his work in radio pop. This results in an album with totally hard hitting songs like “My Momma” but also a few lemons, like the Kanye West-featuring “I Won”, a track that has both rappers lamely comparing their partners to trophies.
Despite all of this previous disappointment, Future rises up, like a genie out of an empty Styrofoam cup, and releases DS2. Early on the record Future raps, “Tryna turn me to a pop star and they made a monster,” in direct confrontation with the fans who wanted more of the rapper’s saccharine side on this project. On DS2, Future relies on his aggression and delivers a collection of tracks that celebrate what critic bell hooks calls the “pugilistic eroticism” of gangsta rap.
There will be abundant discussion of “Freak Hoes” and putting those freak hoes in “Rotation” to have “Rich $sex,” and it will be one of the most energizing records of the summer.
