The 50 Best Future Songs

This is he definitive look at Future's catalog, including all the mixtape cuts, non-album singles, and loosies.

Best Future Songs
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Best Future Songs

Over the past half-decade, Future has grown from the guest star on a regional hit to one of the most talked-about—and most influential—artists in hip-hop. His fingerprint can be lifted from a litany of the 2010s' biggest songs, and his DNA is a key component in many of the grassroots stars and industry darlings that have come after him. And yet despite becoming one of the genre's biggest artists (his self-titled album, out this week, has a chance to be his third #1 record in 19 months), Future's work has been uniquely reactive to the ups and downs of his personal life, and to the reception his music receives from the world at large. This list of 50 songs—an expansion on the list of 25 Complex published in the spring of 2014, when Honest hit stores—attempts to span his already impressive catalog.

50. "Married to the Game"

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Release: Project E.T. (2016)

Producer(s): Southside

Often, Future's mixtape cuts are works of art; something special comes out of Future Hendrix when he's working on a free tape for his fans, and it often takes his underground grittiness to another level. That's especially apparent on the smooth track "Married to the Game," where Future decides to talk all kinds of shit, and do it very, very well. Plus, this is the song that made the dancing Blue Power Ranger blow up, and for that, we're forever grateful. —Zach Frydenlund

49. "Dirty Sprite"

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Release: Dirty Sprite (2011)

Producer(s): MiKE WiLL Made It

As his sound has moved closer to the mainstream, Future has left the salutes to codeine behind. But it was unquestionably an influence on his sound, down to his groggily psychedelic vocals. Replete with shoutouts to Houston icons Pimp C, Big Hawk, and DJ Screw, the song rides an insistent tapped two-note piano to recreate the dissociation of the syrup high, where even a loved one's concern about negative effects becomes a part of the wallpaper. —David Drake

48. "Low Life"

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Release: EVOL (2016)

Producer(s): Metro Boomin, Ben Billions, Da Heala, The Weeknd

Things are looking up in Toronto. The Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews is fourth in the NHL scoring race as a 19-year-old rookie; the Raptors made a deal for Serge Ibaka that could help them claw their way toward the top of the Eastern conference as Kevin Love sits on the shelf. And the Weeknd, the one-time cult sleaze dealer, has become a bona fide pop star. His collaboration with Future, “Low Life,” was EVOL’s lone hit (well, not counting the retroactive slotting of “Wicked” onto the tracklist), but it was a monster. Still, it’s unusual among radio hits for having such a somber, drawn-out coda, courtesy of Metro Boomin.

47. "My"

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Release: Pluto 3D (2012)

Producer(s): Sonny Digital

The beat on "My," courtesy of Sonny Digital, is a restless piece of bombast, all digital arpeggios and distortion. Future matches the vibe, adopting a squealing flow designed to disquiet, lending his boasts an otherworldly air. It's the kind of song that only Future fans could love, and that only Future could pull off. —Brendan Klinkenberg

46. "Paradise"

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Release: Pluto (2012)

Producer(s): Jon Boi

Future was just hitting his stride with the release of Pluto in 2012. He perfected the compositional styles he'd been developing while expanding the breadth of songwriting approaches. A surplus of distinct, original music emerged from the Auto-Tuned morass. Unfortunately, Pluto's release, "deluxe" issue, and re-release (as Pluto 3D) made this a messy process. New songs were added, old songs were dropped, and originals were swapped out for remixes.

One such lost track was "Paradise," which appeared only as a bonus cut on the "Deluxe" version of the original Pluto. Singular within the Future discography, the song's mood of earned triumph locates a poignant optimism to reconcile its themes of success and struggle. Accompanied by swooping strings, guitar accents, and magisterial pipe organ steadily breathing with comforting regularity, the bruises of experience become one with success' rewards. The underlying pain, given purpose, becomes a badge of pride, the reassurance that our suffering is not for nothing. —David Drake

45. "Karate Chop (Remix)"

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Release: Honest (2014)

Producer(s): Metro Boomin

"Karate Chop" bears a striking resemblance to Lil Reese's 2012 single "Us," from the roiling synth organs to the stop-start flow that took over the industry in the wake of Reese's biggest song. Future's interpolation, though, exaggerated the choppy flow, turning it into a blunt, percussive instrument. It was unique enough to make it one of Future's most successful cuts, maintaining his momentum through the continual delays that dogged Future Hendrix in 2013. Eventually overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Lil Wayne's tasteless line on the remix about beating the pussy "like Emmett Till," the song was a novel flip of a popular style taken to its logical extreme. —David Drake

44. "Rich Sex"

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Release: DS2 (2015)

Producer(s): Metro Boomin, Frank Dukes, Southside 

One of my favorite things about Future is his appreciation for his own verbal gifts. For instance, on "The Percocet and Stripper Joint," he raps, "I put charisma in my lingo and she fell for me." She didn't fall for his game—Future didn't dupe her; she fell for him. And who he is is his language. There's a related thought on "Rich Sex," when he raps, "Come and kick game in your ear while I smash you." Imagine what his dirty talk is like. —Ross Scarano

43. "Jordan Diddy"

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Release: Astronaut Status (2012)

Producer(s): Sonny Digital

There are a lot of songs out there about balling like Michael Jordan or living like Diddy. Future's always had a gift for doing simple, obvious concepts better, so his song about being like both is now the gold standard. It's impossible to be in the club and hear the phrase "I'm in the club shooting jump shots!" and not want to reenact those shots. This song physically compels people to turn up. Gucci Mane turns in a great verse, too, explaining that not only is he a team player like MJ, he also has a Carolina blue car.

By early 2012, when Astronaut Status came out, Future basically had an assembly line going for cranking out incredible bangers like this one. Watching him come into his own and perfect the formula has almost felt like watching Michael Jordan or P. Diddy's successful runs. —Kyle Kramer

42. "First Class Flights"

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Release: Pluto (2012)

Producer(s): Sonny Digital

At least half the appeal of flying first class has to be the thrill of sitting in those super nice seats before anyone else boards and watching all the losers in coach file by. But that setting necessitates low-key stunting. (You don't want to unnerve the flight attendants.) Which is why this song is so essential, since it imagines the first class section as a place where bottles get popped and flight attendants give head. Future chats up the pilot, and this is normal. Also, Future's dropping some Martha Stewart-style wisdom for decorating your neck—"I put some ice in the chain it's highly recommended"—while finding time to kick shit like David Beckham.

This song is fuel for overcoming haters. Much of the thanks goes to Sonny Digital, whose triumphant beat is probably what comes on when you hit the 10 million miles mark and join that special frequent flier's club. —Kyle Kramer

41. "Benz Friendz"

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Release: Honest (2014)

Producer(s): Organized Noize, Mr. DJ

“Benz Friendz” sounds like Future and Andre 3000 had a (quasi-)religious epiphany at the same time, and just happened to be in the studio to capture it. Dre’s verse understandably mops up most of the attention here (pledges to “ride my fucking bike—or walk” included), but Mr. Hendrix renders the song’s best image: “Pull up at this girl’s crib bumpin’ Lil Boosie.” “Benz Friendz” also served, at the end of Future’s sophomore set, the younger rapper’s Dungeon Family credentials. —Paul Thompson

40. "Never Gon Lose"

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Release: 56 Nights (2015)

Producer(s): Southside

This is pure, unadulterated motivation. At this point Future was still in the early phases of his grand comeback and what we have here is an adamant refusal to take, or even acknowledge, any L's whatsoever. How can you not feel invincible while listening to Future detail why he's the fucking man so emotionlessly and matter-of-factly? The flow may be detached but the delivery is infectious—with Super flaunting his unique penchant for making repetition sound like the freshest shit ever. Count Future out? That's a no-no. —Frazier Tharpe

39. "Move That Dope"

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Release: Honest (2014)

Producer(s): MiKE WiLL Made It

One of MiKE WiLL Made It's most addictive beats, "Move That Dope" only appears so low on this list because the production overshadowed Future's underrated performance. On release, most of the attention gathered around Pharrell, who spit a deft enough verse to make headlines for a few days.

While the song belongs to Future on paper, in cultural memory, it belongs to everyone. That doesn't keep it from being a great record, with the lack of attention paid to Future's verse further evidence that he remains a perpetual underdog. —David Drake

38. "Inside the Mattress"

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Release: Purple Reign (2016)

Producer(s): Nard & B, XL

Future’s trapping past can be the source of his paranoia, or in the case of “Inside the Mattress,” a celebratory street anthem built around his service in the game. Nard & B bring the kind of immaculate bounce that Future can’t miss over, and he keeps it 100 on how he feels about being in the spotlight: “I never want to go to none of these award shows.” It’s a sentiment he later echoed on Drake’s “Grammys” (“They want me to go to the Met Gala/I want a Percocet and a gallon”). Instead, he’s down to “hit an island like Gilligan.” Imagery outstanding. —Edwin Ortiz

37. "Ain't No Way Around It"

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Release: True Story (2011)

Producer(s): MiKE WiLL Made It

There's a bit of chaos to Future's songwriting style. Sometimes, songs hew closely to an established formula. Others come from left field. Finding patterns in a catalog as haphazard as his can be daunting. "Ain't No Way Around It" is neither a percussive banger like "Karate Chop" or "Sh!t," nor is it an amorous ballad like "I Be U" or "No Matter What." It was about as far from the euphoric rush of Nard and B-produced cuts like "Straight Up" as a Future song could be.

Instead, "Ain't No Way Around It" moves with slow certitude and a undeniable chorus melody so slight as to be almost nonexistent. But it's just distinctive enough for the simple three-note pattern of its title to imprint on the brain. Each verse, narrated like a cautionary tale, is sparse and unresolved to contrast more starkly with the immersive, multi-tracked chorus. The music's effect accentuates the song's theme of inevitability, a fatalism that knows people act predictably—ain't no way around it. —David Drake

36. "Racks"

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Release: Dirty Sprite (2011)

Producer(s): Sonny Digital

"Racks" is pretty much exactly the type of song that people like to point to when they want to make some claim about how rap music is getting shallow, or about why Future is terrible. But those kinds of arguments miss the point of the song, which is that it's amazingly fun. Even though he was a featured artist, Future found his breakout moment on "Racks." This is the point at which the melodic style he'd been developing came into its own. And Future had the song's best line, the simple "bravo, bravo, bravo."

The success of "Racks" almost single-handedly made Auto-Tune make sense again as a stylistic choice after a short period of being out of fashion. The song also helped establish this type of sing-song party track as a template for a new set of Atlanta hit singles. In addition to launching Future's career to another level, it also was a key moment for producer Sonny Digital, who has gone on to make several more of Future's signature hits. —Kyle Kramer

35. "Stick Talk"

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Release: DS2 (2015)

Producer: Southside

"Took a shot of Henny, I been going brazy brazy." What a line to start a song. "Stick Talk" might just be the crowd favorite cut from DS2. It comes, immediately, with a gut-punching intensity and makes it enjoyable enough to work just about anywhere. And he talks about sticking a thumb in a butt. That's called versatility, folks. "You can't understand us because you're too soft." Wow, Future, just wow. Talk to 'em. —Zach Frydenlund

34. "U.O.E.N.O."

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Release: Gift of Gab (2013)

Producer(s): Childish Major

Future's part in the success of "U.O.E.N.O." splits about evenly with Childish Major, whose refined, tasteful beat was at odds with Rick Ross's brolic bombast. But while the beat made it go down easy on radio, the song's stickiness is largely the responsibility of Future, who executed his cleverest, catchiest hook to date. Concept songs are particularly big for Future's boss, FBG label head and recording artist Rocko. But it was this one that became another unlikely hit six years after his first. The song would end up remixed a number of times—several by Rocko himself. No matter how many ways they remade it, though, the hook survived, as key to the song's viral success as anything else about it. —David Drake

33. "The Percocet & Stripper Joint"

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Release: DS2 (2015)

Producer(s): Southside, Jake One, G Koop

When DS2 came out in July of 2015, it seemed like a victory lap: the tear Future had been on since the previous fall had finally culminated in a single, buy-two-copies-on-principle LP. So it was fitting that the album proper came complete with five bonus tracks, including one each from Monster, Beast Mode, and 56 Nights. But it was the two never-before-heard cuts that proved to be the emotional center of the album. The first one (more on the second later), “The Percocet & Stripper Joint,” is as unassuming as its title, a slinking mid-tempo song about, well, Percocet and strippers. Assembled partially from Jake One sample packs, it hints at the hollowness that animated so much of Future’s output in this period; to try to find redemption or meaning in the hedonism was, and is, a fool’s errand. —Paul Thompson

32. "Chosen One"

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Release: F.B.G. The Movie (2013)

Producer(s): TM88

When asked about his favorite song he had produced, 808 Mafia producer TM88 chose this one. "It got a lot of soul so it'll give people a different feeling," he said. "'Chosen One,' your grandma can listen to that shit and get a feeling. For real, I've seen an old lady on Vine going crazy."

Indeed, there's something about the juxtaposition of hard Atlanta 808s with the sweeping soundtrack strings that gives the song a cinematic quality one could imagine appealing to different generations, a mob movie montage as an aspiring Scarface makes it to the heights of success. —David Drake

31. "2Pac"

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Release: Monster (2014)

Producer(s): Nard & B

Monster was notable mostly for its prevailing darkness, which at the time marked a sharp break from the softer, sunnier Honest, which was met with tepid reviews and muted fan reaction. But “2 Pac,” one of the tape’s most addictive songs, isn’t so much a point of personal strife as a string of richly rendered images: “Wrap bandana ‘round my head like I’m 2 Pac/ My little brother, he ain’t scared, he got two Glocks.” It also has that one-note reach into falsetto (“Tu-pac”) that would come back into vogue for a second and be employed to great effect by Future himself on songs like “Jumpman” and by the up-and-comers in his wake. —Paul Thompson

30. "Sh!t"

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Release: Honest (2014)

Producer(s): MiKE WiLL Made It

As much emphasis is placed on Future's gift for melody, his music isn't all ballads; some of his most unusual and innovative work is as interested in rap as a percussive force. These songs treat the club as a space of exertion. "Sh!t" is bleak, blunt-force trauma raps that hammer and ring with the sound of MiKE WiLL Made It's most stark production work to date. The song has a strange story for any number of reasons; foremost was the idea of a single called "Shit," which obviously would never get much in the way of radio play. And when it did, it would be in a butchered form which completely undercuts the song's purpose as an unrestrained expression of kinetic energy. Another odd aspect to "Sh!t"'s run at the charts was that it was surpassed on Billboard's "bubbling under" chart by "OG Bobby Johnson"—a song that was suspiciously similar, but more radio friendly. —David Drake

29. "Groupies"

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Project: DS2 (2015)

Producer(s): Southside, Sonny Digital, & Metro Boomin

Want a snapshot of Future's life at this moment? We're far from "I Won" odes and "I Be U" ballads, my G. Nayvadius sounds monstrous as he declares the floodgates are back open for meaningless sex, doing and selling drugs with reckless abandon, and all types of sordid shit over one of the most thunderous beats Metro, Southside, and Sonny have ever turned in. The sunny, sweet shit is over, the clouds of self-destruction are rolling in. "She a ho and a slut and a metaphor." Future's pain is poetry. And, incidentally, a turn-up. —Frazier Tharpe

28. "No Matter What"

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Release: Astronaut Status (2012)

Producer(s): K.E. On The Track

When Billboard published an article—since removed from the Internet—in which Future was quoted denigrating Drake's songwriting capabilities relative to his own, most of the reaction focused on the perceived power dynamic between the two, particularly when Drake temporarily dropped him from his tour. But what Future said was undeniably true: there is a qualitative difference in songwriting styles between the two artists, and in some senses, Future's has a more "timeless" appeal. With Drake, there's an interplay between persona and music. We invest ourselves in the rapper's biography and personality, and it affects how we experience his songs. With Future, his personality remains abstract.

A song like "No Matter What," as a result, has a universal applicability; it could soundtrack a romantic film without the rapper's backstory looming over us. A modestly ambitious single, "No Matter What" is built on the sturdiest of foundations, an exercise in melody, lyrics, and style. While Future's lyrics are consistently maligned by hip-hop fans for not meeting some platonic ideal of wordplay, his focus on quiddities of romance are the perfect soundtrack for prom montages for generations to come: "We started clubbin, drankin, talkin, laughin' and grinnin'/You had your eyes on me the whole time, I could see it through my lenses." —David Drake

27. "Magic"

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Release: Pluto (2012)

Producer(s): K.E. On The Track

With its coronating nod of a T.I. verse, loose focus on the city's most famous strip club, and laid-back interpretation of trap music, "Magic" is a through-and-through Atlanta song. It gives a good sense of how exactly Future fits into his city's tradition while also breaking from it. He can work with this format, but he also slows it down, gives it a half-sung double-cup twist, and takes it to space (notably, it includes Future's best overall mission statement: "I was on Earth and now I'm sci-fi/voila!"). "Magic" propelled Future's buzz at a key moment heading into the release of his album, and it established him as a legitimate presence on a track alongside one of Atlanta's great lyricists. T.I.'s verse is great, but Future steals the show with just one line about forgetting to do his taxes. How does a new ATL star get born? Just like that. Voila, magic. —Kyle Kramer

26. "Neva End"

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Release: Pluto (2012)

Producer(s): P-Nasty, MiKE WiLL Made It

Love song Future is the best Future (at least, it's the Future that gets the most heartwarming YouTube comments), and "Neva End" is a deceptively great love song. One of Future's talents is making songs that feel totally at home surrounded by either super hard rap shit or pillowy R&B, and "Neva End" could slide into either playlist, as the effortlessly natural Kelly Rowland remix proved.

On that remix, Future goes toe-to-toe with one of contemporary R&B's signature talents and best practitioners of the wounded ballad, and he kills it. Part of the credit goes to Mike WiLL Made It, whose ability to craft hits out of songs like this—that is, songs that would have been throwaway, "for-the-ladies" album cuts on any other rapper's album—foreshadowed his ability to craft hits for practically everything in pop music in the years ahead. And on the idea of the "for-the-ladies" songs: Future doesn't need that shit because he goes around being heartfelt and real all the time. Love song Future is not an act, which is why there's no choice but to respect it and give into it. —Kyle Kramer

25. "Fuck Up Some Commas"

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Release: DS2 (2015)

Producer(s): DJ Spinz, Southside

“Fuck Up Some Commas” sounds like sitting in a strip club and realizing the walls are closing in around you. It’s performative partying, fatalistic consumption. All you need to know to understand Future’s post-Honest period is that he once referred to this as “a feel-good song.” —Paul Thompson

24. "Hardly"

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Release: Monster (2014)

Producer(s): Southside

Future’s ability to tap into his pain is second to none, and it's clear on “Hardly,” a trap ballad that finds him balancing success with his inner struggles. “Wash the molly down with champagne,” he spits nonchalantly over Southside’s somber backdrop. Whether these remedies ease the pain, it’s clear Future has one goal in mind: “Tryna find right and my wrong, hope my legacy live on.” —Edwin Ortiz

23. "Tony Montana"

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Release: True Story (2011)

Producer(s): Will-A-Fool

On a certain level, it seems incredibly dumb that "Tony Montana" ended up being Future's landmark single, since the movie Scarface is about the most clichéd source of inspiration a rapper can have, and Future's Al Pacino impression is far from the best out there. But Will-A-Fool's ominous beat set the perfect tone and Future hit a balance of Auto-Tuned weirdness and hard-driving rap that captured the full range of his appeal.

"Tony Montana" is the kind of song that becomes increasingly brilliant the more times you hear it. "Everything we do we put Versace on the sofa" becomes the perfect motto for both rearranging throw pillows and raking in drug money; "champagne spilling, crab cakes everywhere" is the kind of detailed line that sounds like it was written to describe a lavish slow-motion close-up shot on the Food Network. For the brief duration of "Tony Montana," Future's life really feels like a movie, and, as a result, it seems inevitable that the song would make him a star. —Kyle Kramer

22. "Just Like Bruddas"

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Release: Beat Mode (2015)

Producer(s): Zaytoven

By the summer of 2015, when Future’s second-wind hype reached a fever pitch, people were bending over backwards to project meaning onto songs that might not have been about anything in particular. But Beast Mode, from that January, genuinely felt like a bloodletting. Produced entirely by Zaytoven, it was a collage of piano and venom, with “Just Like Bruddas” the most exalted moment. The shots of Future and friends in the video for this song are among the few moments of uncomplicated happiness the second half of his career has yielded. —Paul Thompson

21. "My Savages"

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Release: Monster (2014)

Producer(s): Will-A-Fool

If no one else, Future loves his friends. "My Savages" is, predictably, a love song dedicated to his crew. But it's clear from the outset that this not an anthem for a night with those you came up with. Instead, it's a clear-eyed and near-uncomfortably direct address. Future takes the sprawling first verse of the chorus-less track to address the people closest to him, one by one and by name, giving a glimpse into his life by the cast of family and friends he clearly keeps on his mind at all times. —Brendan Klinkenberg

20. "Trending Topic"

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Release: Welcome 2 Mollywood (2012)

Producer(s): DJ Spinz

One of Future's greatest songs fell out on a barely-promoted Future-hosted mixtape (alongside another solid entry, "Double Cups and Molly") rather than receiving a serious push. The DJ Spinz-produced Twitter-themed "Trending Topic" effortlessly blended contemporary Future with his roots in organic Dungeon Fam country rap. With a muscular guitar line weaving its way around the beat's carousel rhythm, the song was a smash waiting to happen, the unification of Future and past in the present. —David Drake

19. "Straight Up"

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Release: Pluto (2012)

Producer(s): Nard & B

“Straight Up” is the sort of totally unhinged, delightfully freewheeling celebration that Future has cut off since his heel turn on Monster. Heard in 2017, there are some sinister undertones (“Don’t fuck around with them Xans”), but this Pluto highlight is mostly joy distilled. Records like DS2, Purple Reign, and Evol make it easy to forget just how often early Future flirted with the lines between hip-hop and R&B, and hip-hop and no-holds-barred pop. —Paul Thompson

18. "I Be U"

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Release: Honest (2014)

Producer(s): Detail

A song that so carefully renders intimacy will necessarily make attempts at describing it hopelessly imprecise, like trying to sketch a person's face from memory. In comparison even to earlier ballads ("Turn On the Lights," "Neva End") there's something exquisitely delicate about "I Be U"'s gentle vulnerability. It stands apart in Future's catalog, a moment of devotion and intensity that feels so much more earnest than the chest-beating superficiality of "I Won." There is no other audience than the one to whom he offers his devotion: "I'll be there." And then, that audience vanishes too, as they merge, as "I see you baby" becomes "I Be U." —David Drake

17. "Long Time Coming"

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Release: True Story (2011)

Producer(s): Nard and B

Future's run of songs with Nard and B has been one of the most creatively fruitful of his career, but it reached its apotheosis early on; subsequent serotonin-rush singles like "Straight Up" and "Running Through a Check" are undeniable, but their respective themes of triumph and dropping large amounts of cash, while inspiring, aren't as universally relateable as the reminiscing-with-your-lost-love theatrics of "Long Time Coming." The layered arpeggios and clarion synths make calling your ex a grand drama on par with the epic romance of Dr. Zhivago on molly. —David Drake

16. "Honest"

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Release: Honest (2014)

Producer(s): DJ Spinz, Metro Boomin

Is there any sound in the world more beautiful than Future's Auto-Tuned voice hitting the high notes in the background of this song? Is there any way his honesty can be doubted?

"Honest" is already a great concept for a song because of the way it reinvents the format of the Just Facts brag rap. It's the kind of thing that's difficult to make, since its strength is in how much it says using such a simple formula. But there are a few artists who might be able to pull off a similarly smart pattern for a verse. Not so for making a song like this, which effortlessly weaves in Future's singing to make it feel more confessional and then has those high notes to make it feel more like Future's honesty is a direct gift from the angels. Is that praise a little over the top? Sorry, I'm just being honest. —Kyle Kramer

15. "Bugatti"

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Release: Trials & Tribulations (2013)

Producer(s): MiKE WiLL Made It

What's the line between a run-of-the-mill Ace Hood song and a smash hit? It turns out that it's pretty much one specific line: "I come looking for you with Haiiiiitians." And more specifically, it's that line sung by Future, who makes it sound exactly as ominous as it needs to. The explosiveness of yelling "I woke up in a new Bugatti!" is also essential. These are the only parts of this song we know, and it's a huge, classic hit. Future didn't even need a verse to leave that big of an imprint. We're all inspired to wake up in a new Bugatti.

I know I said that love song Future is the best Future, but turn up Future is also the best Future. This song reaches such high levels of turn up that it can transform any Honda Civic or Ford Focus into a Bugatti or any Ace Hood into a star as long as it's playing. —Kyle Kramer

14. "Kno the Meaning"

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Release: DS2 (2015)

Producer(s): Southside

Now back to the bonus songs from DS2. “Kno the Meaning” traces that album back to—past—its origins, to the overseas tour he embarked on in support of Monster and Honest. It was DJ Esco who got in his ear about the Honest feedback, encouraging Future to get meaner, get vicious. When Esco was locked in a Dubai jail for 56 nights (the “Meaning” behind the mixtape title that this song refers to), Future was separated from the hard drive containing all his music. So he recorded Beast Mode. “Kno the Meaning” is half process story, half confessional: when Future raps “The best thing I ever did was fall out of love,” it sounds like a pyrrhic victory. —Paul Thompson

13. "Deeper Than the Ocean"

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Release: Astronaut Status (2011)

Producer(s): Will-A-Fool

If Future were just petty, he'd be an insufferable misanthrope. But on songs like "Deeper Than the Ocean," he emotes and lets you understand how much emotional anguish he deals with. "My pain runnin deeper than the ocean," he raps over a melancholy looped guitar riff from producer Will-A-Fool. It's like Neil McCauley in Heat, looking out at the L.A. skyline at night, explaining how he wants to escape and visit Fiji. But he knows, on some level, that he'll never make it. —Ross Scarano

12. "Real Sisters"

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Release: Beast Mode (2015)/DS2 (2015)

Producer(s): Zaytoven

When the calendar turned over to 2015, no one viewed Monster as the beginning of something monumental. (In fact, “Fuck Up Some Commas,” which would go on to become a massive hit over the summer, was almost entirely slept on through the winter months.) But “Real Sisters” was a warning shot. The first single from Beast Mode is a tour de force, matching Zaytoven’s immutable bounce with hazy Magic City celebrations and stoic shooters who’ll sit in jail for him. —Paul Thompson

11. "Gone To the Moon"

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Release: Streetz Calling (2011)

Producer(s): Will-A-Fool

Streetz Calling ranks up with Pluto as one of Young Future Supreme's most consistent front-to-back projects. He was reaching his apex as a songwriter at this point, each song a refinement of a developing archetype. "Gone to the Moon" relies on repetition, both in hook and verses, and a very slight, four-note chorus that's more a melodic tic than melody (much like "Ain't No Way Around It"). Each verse relies on a new flow. The club becomes an avenue for escape, the moon a final destination on a mission to turn the fuck up. —David Drake

10. "Throw Away"

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Release: Monster (2014)

Producer(s): Nard and B

The oft-cited catalyst for Future’s post-Honest run is his breakup with fiancée Ciara, the mother of one of his children. “Throw Away” is a two-part song where Future projects wildly different meanings onto his cheating and her cheating—whether that her is literally Ciara or a stand-in. It’s not particularly easy to listen to, but it’s one of the clearer windows into his psyche during a traumatic period; it’s simply that what turns up isn’t always pretty. (Oh yeah, there’s also that passage where it sounds for all the world like Future’s borrowing Kevin Gates’ cadence from “John Gotti.”) —Paul Thompson

9. "Loveeeeeee Song"

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Release: Unapologetic (2012)

Producer(s): Luney Tunez, Mex Manny, Future

Part of the reason Future is such an exciting artist is that he's—sometimes—able to transition so smoothly into the pop world. Despite the two-year break between albums, Future never felt absent from music, thanks to the role he played in making other peoples' songs great. The love song he wrote for Rihanna's album is one of the biggest pop crossover moments of his career so far, and it's also one of his most vulnerable.

That's the cool thing about Future: He doesn't sound out of place singing something as touchy-feely as "I hope I'm not sounding too desperate/I need love and affection" in a duet with Rihanna, but he can still turn around and hop on another rapper's song to make it a street hit. The secret is that he's unabashedly himself. You don't just sing about needing love and affection because it sounds nice. Nope, that's as real as it gets, and the result is a killer love ballad that's the sleeper hit on the album of the world's most successful pop star. —Kyle Kramer

8. "March Madness"

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Release: 56 Nights (2015)

Producer(s): Tarentino

If you had to pinpoint the moment when public opinion swung fully back in Future’s favor, “March Madness” would be it. The 56 Nights single—the only song on that tape to be produced by Tarentino rather than his 808 Mafia compatriot Southside—was a phenomenon, just different enough from any of his recent singles to feel like a bigger left turn than it really was. For the video, Future decided to expound upon a line in the hook about police brutality (“All these cops shooting niggas, tragic”), sprinkling in news footage and images of the state murdering its citizens. —Paul Thompson

7. "Itchin"

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Release: Astronaut Status (2012)

Producer(s): MiKE WiLL Made It

MiKE WiLL Made's emergence as hip-hop's go-to producer came not with a bang, but melodic droplets, low-pass filters, and sticky textures. (The bang followed a few seconds later, with an 808 kick.) No collaborator better understood what to do the subtly intricate, carefully rendered atmosphere of a MiKE WiLL beat than Future, whose elusive performance here carefully elides the bangers-and-ballads dichotomy some would reduce him to. The song creeps along at an impossibly slow tempo, but with an inevitability of rising flood waters. Future's performance captures a little of everything that made him one of rap's most unlikely stars, and its foremost songwriter: his voice, like a sculpture, forms shapes as it's draped across the beat's spare framework. His shredded timbre reaches for melodies as if leaning into them, before sliding into a hoarse whisper for the chorus, which worms its way under your skin. —David Drake

6. "Same Damn Time"

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Release: Streetz Calling (2011)

Producer(s): Sonny Digital

Twee, sincere Future is easy to celebrate. After all, his careful songwriting and the novelty of the way he deals with heartfelt topics help him evade sentimentality that would sink lesser talents. As a result, he fills a major void in hip-hop, an earnest, lovelorn hero. But on multitasking anthem "Same Damn Time," as the beat whirs and grinds, it becomes increasingly clear that to limit Future's talents to "bae time" would not tell the whole story. Future's art isn't the beating heart of "emotional" rap, nor is it futurist fantasies of "progress." What he captures is moments of energy, isolating the tremors of our experience and encapsulating them in expressions of pure release. —David Drake

5. "You Deserve It"

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Release: Pluto (2012)

Producer(s): Nard & B, DJ Spinz

The music industry, and specifically hip-hop—and even more specifically Future’s career—are predicated on a constant sense of forward motion. But the most underrated decision of Future’s career was to use Pluto 3D, the reissued version of his solo debut, to not only roll out a handful of new songs, but to tweak the sequencing on the original version. The redux is far superior, and the most radical change was moving “You Deserve It” from the end of the album to the opening slot. That exuberance (“It brings water to my eyes just to hear me on the radio”) is the necessary antidote to the disaffected cool that he slides into so often. —Paul Thompson

4. "Perkys Calling"

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Release: Purple Reign (2016)

Producer(s): Southside, DZL

“Perkys Calling” is a funeral dirge. At its core, it’s about the all-consuming, inescapable nature of addiction, the kind that corrodes your soul and saps any will to change. Aside from being one of Future’s most deeply-felt songs, it’s an impressive break in style for Southside, who wrings the songs for all its emotional weight. —Paul Thompson

3. "News or Somthn"

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Release: N/A (2015) 

Producer(s): Nard and B

We’ve landed on the moon, cloned sheep, built the pyramids, and mapped the human genome, but no one can explain why “News or Somthn” didn’t make an official Future project. The Nard and B-produced loosie is sort of formless: two 16-bar verses mirrored by a 16-bar hook, a cardiogram of posturing and desperation. Lots of the music that followed DS2 (especially the bulk of EVOL) seems to fall into a familiar, hi-hat-encircled pocket, which has a hypnotic effect at best or, at its worst, makes Future’s work seem redundant. “News or Somthn” is the distinct opposite, a song that moves at an impressive clip which seems to be driven by his vocal above all else. —Paul Thompson

2. "Turn On the Lights"

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Release: Pluto (2012)

Producer(s): MiKE WiLL Made It, Marz

Future had some history making moving, heartfelt Auto-Tuned ballads, but the first few singles from Pluto were all monster street anthems, offering little indication that the album's breakout hit would be "Turn on the Lights." Here, Future's going in over a twinkling Mike WiLL Made It beat, turning on the charm and tapping into the lonely feeling everyone's had at some point, wondering if they'll find the right person for them. But the song is never sad. Instead, it's hopeful and romantic. Who could resist Future's lovingly crooned promise, "I want to tell the world about you just so they can get jealous"?

"Turn on the Lights" also feels like the moment when Future recognized how much of his appeal was in frank emotionalism and in being willing to discard rap entirely to make a ballad that still feels hip-hop. Bolstered by Auto-Tune, Future stumbled into being one of the great singers of the current era simply by having something real and pure to say. It's no wonder he ended up heading more in the direction established by "Turn on the Lights": Future may still have been looking for his dream girl, but he had already found his voice. —Kyle Kramer

1. "Codeine Crazy"

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Release: Monster (2014)

Producer(s): TM88

Future’s been cast, with varying degrees of success, as a romantic, a villain, a pop star, a monster. His best song, “Codeine Crazy,” finds him correcting those notions: “I’m an addict and I can’t even hide it.” He traces the circular nature of addiction (“Reminded myself when I used to get loaded/ Reminded myself that I’m still getting loaded”), he pours up while he’s driving, he links Actavis to suicide.

“Codeine Crazy” is so potent that it leaks into the rest of his work from this period, rendering ridiculous the notion that his partying and over-indulgence from other songs was meaningful or helpful or a metaphor for healing or whatever. Life can be overwhelmingly, oppressively dark, and here Future puts that in plain terms. Beyond that, the song brings up the uncomfortable discussion about what it means to peer in and draw pleasure from someone else’s pain, the process that leads people to say dumb shit on Twitter about hoping an artist gets back on drugs, or that he or she breaks off a romantic engagement. It feels voyeuristic to listen. —Paul Thompson

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