I don’t know if you know this (I hope you do), but I have a column called Yellow Diamonds in which I break down the lyrics of love songs. It’s a practice that’s important to me, as romantic records tend to have more staying power, and I’d like for the music of my time to last as long as possible. Yet, while lyrics about love make for the most timeless music, toxicity is what’s currently feeding the streets and the souls of those who inhabit them. No one contributes to this better or more frequently than Future.
That consistency is what earned the 38-year-old the title of “best rapper alive” from Elliott Wilson in his recent GQ cover story. While Wilson’s praise sparked great debate, what’s inarguable is Future’s claim as the rapper most committed to his shtick—he’s a toxic king and the prince of pettiness, and he seems entirely self-aware about this.
On I NEVER LIKED YOU, his ninth studio album, Future is in his bag. The album isn’t as reflective of his villainous persona as its title suggests, but there are a few standouts. Throughout certain songs, the father of seven is cold, chaotic, and unapologetically childish in a way that questions the credibility of his statement to Wilson suggesting, “[These women] all were toxic to me. They Just don’t want to admit it.”
Even when he gaslights his muses, though, one thing Future isn’t is dispassionate. His sporadic bursts of affection are what separate his toxicity from run-of-the-mill misogyny (which he also has a habit of, to be clear). He went on to tell Wilson, “Putting this project together is just people understanding that I love hard… Probably love the hardest. I wanted to showcase my skills as far as melodies and topics and being vulnerable.”
That vulnerability may not have yielded his best work, but it certainly gave us some Tweetable bars. Peep the most toxic lyrics from Future’s I NEVER LIKED YOU below.
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"I'M DAT N****"
“BM wanna go to court cause I won’t f**k her no more/ You not a wifey, I can’t fall in love with no h**”
Despite Wilson’s excellent writing, the piece of Future content that went the most viral from GQ was a video in which actress Julia Fox phones in to ask the rapper if he’d like to have more children someday. Candidly and somewhat bizarrely, he answered by saying yes, but only if he could have multiple children with someone he’s married to. According to him, having two or three babies by one woman would be “more special” because, thus far, he’s had seven kids by seven different partners.
Predictably, people online were either stunned or amused at the aloofness a person would have to possess in order to power rank their progeny. That aloofness is also present in the above lyrics from “I’M DAT N****.”
These lines contain the core tenets of toxicity. There’s a lack of accountability, in that Future seems to purposefully misunderstand why the mothers of his children are taking him to court; a lack of maturity, reflected in his casual slut shaming; and a lack of consequence, as the bar kind of rings off anyway.
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"FOR A NUT" feat. Gunna & Young Thug
“Buy a Birkin for the b**ch before I buy her a flower”
Perhaps the most important part of Future‘s toxicity is his passion for tricking. This character he’s created doesn’t really work without it. On wax, treating love so transactionally is what allows him to leave women like leased cars and rented condos. He isn’t unique in this, as most rappers aspire to write with this sort of heartbreaking hubris. But something about him suggesting he’d rather buy a woman a 5-figure Birkin bag than a single flower is deeply funny and feels like the sort of flex only he can pull off. Gifts from Hermes are worth more than gifts from the heart when you claim to not have one.
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"WAIT FOR YOU" feat. Drake & Tems
“I can hear your tears when they drop over the phone/ Get mad at yourself cause you can’t leave me alone”
When I first read Drake and Tems’ names on the tracklist of I NEVER LIKED YOU, I thought I’d hear a song that’d sound a lot more club-friendly than this spiritual sequel to “Marvins Room.” While the track didn’t live up to my exact expectation, it does find Future and Drake (who’s on the Mt. Rushmore of toxicity himself) in their most romantically mischievous bags.
Both rappers offer a version of the refrain above, but they each stick to what they know. Whereas the certified lover boy croons over a woman who has at least physically moved on if not emotionally, Future taunts an ex-lover for still being sprung.
The most dangerous type of person to date is someone who knows they’re no good for you but also knows you’ll never leave them for it. Future employs this power on a record that isn’t as danceable as I’d hoped but is still one of the best songs on the album.
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"LOVE YOU BETTER"
“You telling me you falling out of love with me/ Hope you can find someone to love you better than I did”
In a vacuum, if another artist had said this lyric from “LOVE YOU BETTER,” it might feel less toxic. Seriously. If this came from any other human on earth with access to recording equipment, it’d sound like a sincere admission of a romantic shortcoming that ultimately ended a worthwhile relationship. But it didn’t. It came from Future, so it sounds like a threat.
Years of evidence suggest that if one of Future’s exes were to find a man to love her better, not only would he be unpleased, but his faithful legion of losers would mock that ex and her new man to no end. Pray for whoever he’s rapping about here.
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"BACK TO THE BASICS"
“After I f**k you, let me cry on your shoulder”
On the album’s aptly titled outro, “BACK TO THE BASICS,” Future reminds listeners (or at least this listener) why his music is such a guilty pleasure in the first place. There’s a faux depth and forced vulnerability to his toxicity that, if approached with the right amount of suspended disbelief, is just convincing enough to feel relatable.
The thought of crying on someone’s shoulder after having sex with them is comical. But this image of Future as a sensitive thug who’s somehow both a heartless womanizer and hopeless romantic makes as little sense as the construct of masculinity itself—which is why on the right night after having dealt with the wrong woman, a man could feel represented in these lyrics.
This isn’t something Future or his fans should feel proud of, but it’s impossible to not at least be entertained by it.