Rap evolves every decade and it takes a certain artist to lead that evolution. The development of modern rap into what it is today can be seen as the responsibility of American rapper Future, born Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn. The rapper’s musical style spawned a new generation of rap artists and created a genre now called trap music. The American rapper, record producer, singer and songwriter has reached the pinnacle of modern music with his rap genre, topping the music charts with every release. A notoriously hard worker, he has six studio albums featuring various mixtapes.
Who is the future?
DeMun, who is known professionally as Future, was born on November 20, 1983. His introduction to professional music began as part of the Dungeon Family, a music collective based in Atlanta, Georgia. It was during his time in this collective that he earned his nickname “the future”. He later adopted it as a stage name and dropped the article “the”.
The future was determined to be successful Rico Wade, musician after his first cousin and one of the leaders of the Dungeon Family, advised him to pursue a career as a rapper. Because of this, his education was limited to the high school level he had at Columbia High School in Atlanta. He learned under Atlanta’s Rocko and was immediately signed to his A-1 Recordings label.
Since his determination to be a rapper, his work ethic has skyrocketed and within a year of 2010-2011 he released several mixtapes. His music and hard work landed him a major label record deal with Epic Records in 2011. After signing his deal, he promptly released another mixtape, which he titled Streetz Calling . His enthusiasm for his mixtapes earned him a spot on the 2012 Rap Freshmen XXL list of the year.
Here’s everything you need to know about the American rapper
Future released his debut studio album, Pluto on April 17, 2012, to mild positive reviews from critics. The album, which featured several collaborations with established artists such as Drake, Snoop Dogg and R. Kelly, debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200 and went gold five years after its release in 2017.
The musician released his second studio album, Ehrlich on April 22, 2014. The album achieved better critical success than its predecessor. It featured several artists including Drake, Kanye West, Rihanna and Ciara, rising to number two upon release and being named in the top 10 best rap albums of 2014. The rapper hasn’t released a single album to rest on his laurels, DS2 less than a year later and it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
That same 2015, Future went a step further and released a collaborative project with Drake called What a Time to Be Alive . The mixtape debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making Future the first rapper in eleven years to have two number-one albums in the space of a year.
The future didn’t stop there and in less than a year he released another studio album titled EVOL on the Billboard 200 at number one, making him the fastest artist to have three number one albums on the Billboard 200.
His musical style has been described as cleverly using automatic tuning to color his emotions. His style drew controversy from T-Pain, another popular Auto-Tune user for his unconventional use of the feature.
The unconventional album release cycle of the future continued in 2017 when he released his fifth and sixth studio albums within a week, with both albums debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The feat made the rapper the first artist to debut two albums at No. 1 simultaneously on the charts.
The rapper’s rapid rise to stardom and his tough release of several successful projects in a short period of time has earned him a net worth of $50 million. He has sold out shows and tours along with a few other artists due to his popularity, which has seen his financial status rise rapidly.
A man primarily focused on his music, Future’s controversies stem from his relationships. He was engaged to singer Ciara in a known relationship, but it was cut short due to Future’s infidelity. The two share a son. He also has three children by three different women named Prince Wilburn, Londyn Wilburn and Future Zahir Wilburn.