Bandwagon fans always make people mad, whether it's over music or sports. In sports, it's easy to feel some type of way when someone hops on when the team is successful because they weren't there for the dark days. This stance doesn't make sense when it comes to music, though, because music is more subjective, while sports are measured by wins and losses: The team either sucks or they don't. With music, this shit is all opinion.
Last night, after Future announced that he would be dropping the follow-up to Dirty Sprite—the tape that put him on the map—I noticed some folks getting up in arms about bandwagon Future fans, and people OD'ing on the whole #FutureHive thing. And I asked myself, why is it making you so mad?
I been a fan of future since his 1000 mixtape. Idk where all these fans come from! Niggaz be bandwagon as fuck...
Lol @ all the bandwagon future fans
I've definitely been there before. I seen the same shit happen to Cam. Hipsters (code word) started fucking with Cam'ron during the pink Range Rover days. They weren't familiar with Killa Cam from Children of the Corn, or S.D.E.-era Cam when the foundation to the Dipset movement was being laid. I would shake my head when I noticed them going crazy at parties to various Diplomatic Immunity records. I eventually got over it, though, because who gives a fuck, really?
Does the hype make you not want to fuck with an artist you supposedly love so much? I personally don't think it should. So why do bandwagons fans hurt you so? Don't you want your favorite artists to gain new fans that would hopefully correlate into more album sales and more exposure? Do you not want Future to become even more successful than he already is? As of today, his first two studio albums, Pluto and Honest, haven't even gone gold. Where were y'all at then?
AS OF TODAY, HIS FIRST TWO STUDIO ALBUMS PLUTO AND HONEST HAVE SOLD 477,000 UNITS COMBINED. WHERE WERE Y'ALL AT THEN?
You guys sound like the hipsters (code word) y'all complain about: "I was a Future fan since 1000, I have it on cassette tape blahblahblah." You ain't buy his fucking albums, though, that's for damn sure.
And to be honest, those albums and Future himself went over people's heads. That's why it took this recent run of tapes to make people into believers. Some of the same people that actively hated on him between 2011-2013, love him now. At the time, I didn't fuck with Pluto (still kinda don't), but I did like Honest and still do, so I get the recent epiphanies. Future's style is unique and takes some getting used to. I was one of those people. I was lukewarm when it came to him. I didn't get it. I'm also from the Tri-State area, and grew up during the '80s and '90s, so it was easy for me to be the old man on the porch mumbling under his breath about kids these days. That life is boring, though. People change their minds all the time.
I fucked with songs here and there, but it wasn't until Beast Mode and 56 Nights that I was converted. Why? Because those two tapes were consistent, and "March Madness" is a perfect song, goddamn.
The man known as Trap Jesus (amen) figured something out. He perfected his sound. He found his calling. The Lord spoke to him. He is a demon made of codeine and pills. This recent run reminds me of the run DMX had between 1998 and 1999. The Dark Man X released It's Dark and Hell Is Hot and Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood in 1998, and was the star of Ryde or Die Vol. 1 in 1999.
So how many units does Dirty Sprite 2 have to do to warrant the hype? Meek Mill numbers? 100K, first week? I would hope so. But then again, the people screaming and hollering about bandwagon #FutureHive fans didn't buy his first two albums anyway. So again I ask: What the fuck are y'all talking about?
Angel Diaz is a staff writer for Complex Media. Follow him @ADiaz456.
