Pitchfork
68
It’s tempting for buzzing rappers to keep producing new work, to continue striking while the iron is hot. The model for this is 2Pac, whose legend is due in part to the fact that he was always in the studio, recording enough to ensure his discography outlasted him. It's a lovely idea, but it’s a double-edged sword. Not only is the sheer process exhausting, but the expectation to live up to a past standard grows heavier with each release. The love given to any artist is fleeting—dependent every time on whether or not the newest project lives up to the last.
This sort of relentless clip was a major factor in Future’s comeback in 2015. He dominated the year with three mixtapes (the first, Monster, technically came out in late 2014) in addition to the album DS2, and a joint project with Drake. It seemed like whatever he released couldn't miss. The takeaway, in Future’s mind at least, was to keep doing the same thing. This a new mixtape, Project E.T.: Esco Terrestrial, could be considered his third project of the year, following both Purple Reign and EVOL; good projects in their own right, but neither bringing anything like an evolution to what came before.
While Esco Terrestrial is technically DJ Esco’s project, the weight of it is carried by Future, as he appears on all but two songs on the tape. Despite a few strong records, this is a much less inspired Future than the one we’ve seen over the past year. This is unfortunate: as the third record to come before we’ve even reached the halfway point of 2016, it’s starting to feel like Future is dropping music just to stay relevant rather than showing the hunger, originality and insight into his mental state that put him in this position in the first place.
After the laid back, chilly intro that uses audio samples of news reports on UFOs and aliens, the tape tries to charge up and hit hard with “Check On Me” but it falls flat. Future transparently tries to follow his own formula for making a turn-up song, and he comes off like one of his imitators. Future is on autopilot: giving us what he thinks people like about his music (loud songs about drugs and hedonism) and nothing else. Despite the number of noteworthy guest appearances, lack of effort weighs the project down. Regardless of how you feel about any of the individuals involved, a song with Future, Drake, and 2 Chainz should be an easy hit record. But maybe it’s so easy that they can give us the lazy “100it Racks” with the assumption it’ll be a hit no matter what. Except for 2 Chainz rapping: “Put codeine in a Snapple/Put codeine on a salad/Guess I'm on a codeine diet”; there’s really nothing particularly memorable about a song featuring three popular exciting rappers.
Even album highlight “Juice,” an OJ Simpson-inspired subtweet at any guy trying to sleep with the mothers of his kids, doesn’t pack a punch; it’s just a fun-yet-predictable turn-up song. It does kick off the one run of good-to-great songs: The Zaytoven-assisted “Too Much Sauce” has the gorgeousness of a piano ballad that worked better for Lil Uzi Vert than for Future; “Who” brings Future and Young Thug back together and they bounce off each other so well that you wish they would keep making songs together, and “Married to the Game” is reminiscent of “The Percocet and Stripper Joint” with its smooth, melodic production. It also feels honest in a way that's missing from the rest of this tape. When Future raps, “I’m seeing the animosity, the riots is on CNN/I got some homies that just got out, some ones that just went in/The deeper the ocean, the deeper the pain/ Blow out their brains, switch through lanes/Ain’t gotta call out no names/They know I’m married to the game” it’s a sobering splash of water to the face not necessarily because of its subject matter but because it’s not trying to be a crowd-pleaser record in way everything else is.
The songs without Future are even worse. The Casey Veggies and Nef the Pharaoh collaboration “Stupidly Crazy” is the kind of pandering to radio hit that should be beneath everyone involved. Certainly a dope young artist like Nef the Pharaoh deserves better than this, and the Stuey Rock-featured “Deal Wit It” is just boring. As a showcase for DJ Esco, this tape lacks much of anything to make you think of him as the all-star DJ who rose to prominence DJing at Magic City. The end result is something that feels like a last-minute favor Future did for his friend more than anything else, and given the feelings of overexposure creeping into the Future reception, ultimately this ends up as a tougher hit for him than anyone else.
Fri Jul 01 05:00:00 GMT 2016