Future
(Freebandz/Epic/A1)
Two stars
If any proof were needed that the loose new Dirty South hip-hop movement is big business right now, DS2, Future's third album proper, has just scored his first American number one.
To describe the Atlanta rapper's rhyming style as "relaxed" is an understatement – on at least half of the tracks on DS2 he sounds barely half-interested in the Auto-Tune-embellished words spilling from his mouth. That overused tech and the predominantly whacked-out beat tempos only serve to accentuate the mumbling extremes.
In a subgenre where albums often feel more like posse cuts than artistic endeavours, Future does at least pare down collaborations to a minimum – Drake is the only guest, on the largely forgettable single Where Ya At. There are occasional hints of Future's talent – despite him having previously garnered the epithet of "ringtone rap" – but for every surreal rhyme there are four more that are so lazily crude, they make Atlanta forerunners, such as TI, sound like William Shakespeare by comparison. By the closing track, Blood on the Money, you'll be screaming at Future to switch off Auto-Tune and actually live up to his moniker.
aworkman@thenational.ae
