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"
49. "Dirty Sprite"
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"
47. "My"
46. "Paradise"
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)"
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"
43. "Jordan Diddy"
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"
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"
40. "Never Gon Lose"
39. "Move That Dope"
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"
37. "Ain't No Way Around It"
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"
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"
34. "U.O.E.N.O."
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"
32. "Chosen One"
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"
30. "Sh!t"
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"
28. "No Matter What"
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"
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"
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"
24. "Hardly"
23. "Tony Montana"
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"
21. "My Savages"
20. "Trending Topic"
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"
18. "I Be U"
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"
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"
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"
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"
13. "Deeper Than the Ocean"
12. "Real Sisters"
11. "Gone To the Moon"
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"
9. "Loveeeeeee Song"
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"
7. "Itchin"
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"
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"
4. "Perkys Calling"
3. "News or Somthn"
2. "Turn On the Lights"
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