Future is in full album promotion mode. His new project The Wizrd is very much on its way, and to herald its imminent arrival, the Atlanta rapper has emerged from his recording layer with a bounty of new content for us to dissect. Future began the year by releasing a new single alongside an icy, new video. Then, over the weekend, he released his much-anticipated Apple Music documentary. The 35-year-old kept things rolling on Tuesday by sitting down for a rare interview with Genius’s Rob Markman.
The 22-minute conversation covered a lot of ground, ranging from the concept behind the new album, to fellow Atlanta-native André 3000, to his now-iconic line on “King’s Dead.” The rapper also got pretty vulnerable. He spoke about the unexpected death of his close friend and longtime engineer Seth Firkins in 2017 and how it’s a pain he continues to carry with him. “Looking over and not seeing him to the right of me, still the only thing that gets to me to this day,” he told Marksman.
Future also revealed something quite surprising. Most Future fans will identify the rapper’s relationship to prescription substances as a central theme in his work. Apparently, this fact has been the cause of some worry for the rapper. He explained to Markman, “I didn’t want to tell nobody I stopped drinking lean because I felt like then they was going to be like ‘oh, his music changed because he ain’t drinking lean no more.'” On its face, it’s a strange confession, but its one that makes sense when one considers how thoroughly drug use has been woven into the contemporary rap narrative. Perhaps this is something we’ll hear Future address more when the new album arrives next week. Until then, you can check out his latest video here.
