Future Gets Back to His Roots and Five Other Takeaways From ‘Mixtape Pluto’

Future released his much-anticipated mixtape, aptly titled Mixtape Pluto. The project marks a return to form for the Atlanta rapper, fresh off of a year with back-to-back hit records with Metro Boomin, We Don’t Trust You, and We Still Don’t Trust You. Both records found Future asserting his role as one of the leaders of his generation in rap. Now, with his new mixtape, he successfully reminds listeners of the type of innovation and dedication that he’s built a career on. Mixtape Pluto offers an impressive display of precisely what its title suggests: a distillation of the elements of Future’s early work, which he released at a once relentless pace in the form of mixtapes.

With no features and a pallet of production as expansive as Future’s bag of flows, the project gives listeners a lot to dig into. Whether it is the classic tropes of Future mixtapes, sure to be made into meme fodder online, or Future’s uncanny ability to have a sly sense of humor while describing the saddest thing ever, Mixtape Pluto likely lives up to many fans’ expectations. We put together the six major takeaways from Future’s latest project.

A Return to Form
No offense, but Future doesn’t live his raps in one particular way: he posits himself as a brooding, detached artist who’s worried more about his next pour up than anything anyone else would ever have to say — but his creative choices show he’s tapped into his fans’ whims as if he’s terminally online. He knows he’s one of the most meme-able artists ever. He’s aware how much his album drops are a festive occasion for his male fans to let out their inner scumbag. That’s why he leaned into the Toxic King persona on I Never Liked You, even portraying himself as such in his “Wait For U” video. And he also knows a certain sect of his fans place his mixtape run in high regard. If rap was 2K, Mixtape Pluto would be a 99 overall archetype among fans. He decided to embrace that notion with the title of his latest project. As soon as his fans saw the title, they knew exactly what they were getting. That’s power only a few rappers have earned. —A.G.

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All Future, No Features
When Future informed the world he was dropping Mixtape Pluto, some fans wondered which artists would appear on the mixtape and take the figurative trip back to 2015. The answer was zero. Future has a vast network of industry friends; it feels like he’s always down to kill someone on a guest verse. And his We Don’t Trust You, and We Still Don’t Trust You albums had a slew of cameos from the likes of The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, Rick Ross, and yes, a certain rapper from Compton. Perhaps his recent spate of collaboration is the exact reason Future decided to switch it up and fly solo on his latest effort. When Future is in his decompensated, nihilistic, 808-bluesman bag, few artists can keep up with him. Maybe his decision to lurk in those murky realms alone just intensifies the experience. —A.G.

Future Calls On Modern Trap Architects That Aren’t Metro Boomin
Perhaps two albums together in a year is enough: Future’s longtime collaborator Metro Boomin is nowhere to be found in the Mixtape Pluto production credits. Instead, Wheezy and Southside, two beatsmiths who’ve left an unmistakable mark on Atlanta trap and hip-hop, more broadly, served as executive producers. London on da Track, Honorable C.N.O.T.E., ATL Jacob, and Taurus (who’s worked with Gunna a ton and was his DJ) are among the other producers on the album, but there are far more collaborators with less prominent names. Metro and Pluto have already taken on most of 2024 together. The pair released We Don’t Trust You earlier this year – seriously disturbing the peace – and a follow-up, We Still Don’t Trust You, a few weeks later. They also wrapped a nearly 30-date North American tour together on September 9th. They do say absence makes the heart grow fonder. —M.C.

Future Delivers Prime Sadboy 
“Ocean” opens with the line:  “I got enough tears to fill the ocean for all these losses took in this shit,” which, delivered in Future’s syrup-drenched baritone, hits with the potency of his legendary mixtape run. The tape deftly balances the emotional highs and lows that make Future’s music so compelling. The forlorn, detached romantic Future shows up on “Too Fast,” mourning the loss of a romantic partner with the cynicism of an accountant explaining away a company’s losses on an earnings report. It’s Future’s go-to expressions of love: Hermes, Patek Phillipe, Gucci. Gifts showered on the object of his affection “too fast.” There’s plenty to unpack, and like future’s best work, he’s willing to dig into the less charitable corners of his psyche.—J.I.

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Laughing to Keep From Crying?
Mixtape Pluto can be slightly jarring in how quickly it can go from perilous narcotic backstories to womanizing hedonism to pure mourning. Another — potentially unintentional — approach of Future’s that keeps the album exciting are glimpses of dark humor, like when Future says, “I knew how to count through money before I learned to read,” completely deadpan on “Lil Demon.” Or when he admits to a perverse sense of comfort on “Ready to Cook Up,” rapping, “They got switches on these glees [which some use as gun slang], I feel safe here.” Even though “Too Fast” is a forthright confessional about Future wasting money on women he can’t love, it’s also kinda hilarious. “Her third day with me, I’m already tryna go to Greece/Treat her to Hermés, think she ain’t fuckin’ nobody/A quarter million in by the time I heard ’bout it”? “We go backdoor at Cha-ne-ne, treatin’ her like I love her/All this unnecessary spendin’, hidin’ it from my mother”? C’mon dog, tighten up. —M.C.

Future Remains Rap’s Foremost Ad-Lib Innovator 
One of Future’s biggest contributions to modern rap is his ability to invent language on the spot, infusing a guttural, emotional resonance into the corners of certain syllables that manage to give them take on an entirely different shape. At the end of “Plutoski,” Future lets the word “again” sublimate into pure id, wringing a bouncy elasticity out of his delivery and landing somewhere like a haunted violin. There are examples throughout Mixtape Pluto: Moments where the rapper’s now signature delivery finds new pockets of expression, stretching the bounds of his sound into new and still exciting terrain.—J.I.