Treece's Rap Up: Future - High off Life

Published on 2020-05-26 00:00:00 by Treece

‘Lord forgive me, for I been on a rampage.’‘High Off Life’ is now ‘Atlanta Trap God Future’s 32nd official full length release. Not only does the album title read like a statement, the whole release plays like one: its clear youre listening to a maturing artist that has evolved and morphed throughout his career, expanding his sound and fan base whilst doing so. The side of Future that strikes me the most is when he’s summoning his demons and spilling his heart out to an instrumental. This Future is ever present on ‘High Off Life’. Amongst the women, the winning and the gluttony, the pain is hiding in plain sight. On ‘High Off Life’, you find a tale of excess through the whirlwind of fame and all that comes with it. In Future’s case the percocet, the lean, the Jimmy Choo sandals, the Ferrari and the Maybach outside, the Chanel fanny pack out in Egypt and the Audemars Piguet watches for the outta’ space bitches. Yet, the money doesn’t come without the paranoia, the highs don’t come without the withdrawals and the good doesn’t come without the bad that’s the duality of nature.The album starts with the track ‘Trapped In The Sun’, which is aptly named, considering Future is on fire throughout this release. ‘Life is Good’ is the lead single and was also meant to be the title track, until Future decided a name change was needed for obvious reasons ‘Life Is Good’ didn’t feel appropriate during the current Covid pandemic. ‘Life is Good’ features the major screw face moment of the album in possibly the best beat switch in rap music since ‘Sicko Mode’, therefore it’s only fitting that Toronto’s favourite Drake features. ‘Too Comfortable’ is an introspective moment of vulnerability and heartache, whilst discussing the difficulty of maintaining a relationship whilst in the spotlight (Future recently announced his relationship with Steve Harveys daughter Lori). One point clean Future doesnt shy away from is discussing his ongoing addiction to Codeine Promethazine; ‘I’ve been tryna fight my demons, I been tryna fill my cup’ ‘Over and over, gotta pour up, gotta roll up, gotta cover up my war wounds no time to be sober.’ Men of violence aren’t raised to run, but most will have a potion to dull the noise. It’s unusual for an album of such length to be home to such little filler, ‘One Of My’ although feeling like an unnecessary addition, is a homage to his friends; loyalty being a major theme throughout.‘I came from nothing, I walk from nothing, they‘re scheming on my blessings, it could’ve been the devil or it could’ve been karma, surrounded by the drama.’The features on the project are well picked and cleverly placed for the most part, the majority of appearances feel like a fusion of minds steering the overall direction of the track, rather than a sakeless co-sign for clout. Sadly, Young Thug disappoints. I was surprised by Youngboy NBA on ‘Trillionaire, the feel good energy of the track is laced with the limitless ambition both of these young men possess. Future delivers a sobering bar concerning his sisters battle with Sickle Cell Anemia reminding the listener that his family is his foundation stone. Again linking to this sentiment of not turning your back on where you came from that can be heard throughout the album, specifically on; ‘Up The River’. ‘One Of My’ and ‘100 Shooters.’ (Meek Mill deserves a shout out for his massive appearance on the latter of the three tracks).Listening to Future excel on ‘High Off Life’ can at times feel like youre listening to multiple rappers at once. There aren’t many rappers that can convincingly slur the line ‘driving in my car, smoke and oz in 60 minutes’ and then moments later effortlessly deliver layers of complex imagery by the likes of; ‘She’s an out of space bitch, I bought the prison plane and gave her a facelift.’ It’s this combination of intelligence, ignorance and introspection that sets Future apart from his peers. Esco deserves major credit for his role as executive producer on the project, at times the pair working as a two man band, for ‘High Off Life’ they’ve pulled together an all star lineup of Trap royality (Metro Boomin,Tay Keith, Southside etc). Southside’s appearance on ‘Touch the Sky’ is a personal highlight, the tracks feels like a revisited ‘Trap N***a’ and it really helps to set the pace of the album. The swagger Future exhibits on ‘High Off Life’ wouldn’t be anywhere near as assured if it wasnt for the calibre of production.‘High Off Life’ has further cemented Future’s legacy as one of the GOATs and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was seen to be the rap album of the year. An instant classic of the genre.“How long does it take to get to space? Timeless! It’s timeless. It’s music that is going to be around forever. That’s the kind of music I make—astronaut music. People don’t understand what I’m saying. It’s big. It’s bigger than life.It takes so long to get to Pluto. It’s not even a planet no more. So when you listen to this music, you got to think outside the box because it’s not going to be a time period. You are going to be listening to this album a year from now and you’ll just be catching up.” Future, 2012 (Complex)