Future reigns supreme over toxic moments. Toxicity is the signature aesthetic that makes him palatable and entertaining as an artist.
A far cry from the days of him singing loving duets with Kelly Rowland, Future has leaned into his darker side not only through music but visually also with the help of some key collaborators.
Here are six creatives responsible for Future’s visual descent into the toxic realms of man.
Meet Anthony Hillard: The personal photographer giving us glimpses into Future’s toxic life
Two years ago Hillard hit Noisey with an interview documenting his life as Future’s personal photographer in ATL. From spewing dollar bills at Blue Flames strip club to watching the “toxic rapper” count up $1 million racks, Hillard has seen it all.
He reminisced on a time he spent with the rapper in a strip club:
“Future is the event. He brings everybody out in Atlanta, it’s crazy, people absolutely love him and look up to him. Everything was a moment, everything was a memory there. It’s something to see, it really is.”
– Anthony Hillard For Noisey, Vice 2018
Meet Marrett Fay: The photographer taking us to Pluto
Marrett Fay is a Miami-based photographer and a sniper with the lens capturing a variety of artists from A$AP Ferg, Post Malone, and of course, Future. Fay recently captured images for Future and Lil Uzi Vert’s “Pluto x Baby Pluto” album.
Many of the shots, including the leading promotion teaser, show Future in a mentor role teaching Baby Pluto his toxic ways in the same way fathers and sons bond over a game.
Future has been in the game for years now and his toxicity increases with age. What better way to capture his masculine wisdom than through the optics of Fay’s lens?
Meet Rambino: The videographer capturing Future’s toxic fast-paced lifestyle
Rambino is a video director and founder of Krew Studios. His most recent collaboration with Future is the music video for “Hard to Choose One.”
With flashy, fast cutting visuals in exotic locations, offroad cars speeding in the desert, and beautiful women everywhere, Rambino makes Future look like he’s teaming up with Ludacris and Tyrese in the next Fast and Furious. It’s frenetic but 100% Future.
A fast-paced visual for his fast-paced lifestyle.
Meet Danny Clinch: The director documenting the toxic tycoon
Danny Clinch is an OG in the world of videography and photo, especially in the realm of hip-hop, working with artists like Jay-Z and Tupac Shakur.
He brings that experience with him to direct the music video for Future’s song “Tycoon.” The video works as a character piece focusing solely on Future.
Clinch places him in the desert to show the world the magnitude of his presence next to mountains and streams of water.
Set to a jumping jack tempo beat from trap producer Wheezy, the video contrasts Future’s lyrics of making it out the streets and being true to himself with the calm nature of the world around him.
A man who can exist in the world but finds himself often operating outside of it. Much like classic sci-fi movies where aliens crash land into the desert, Future is the unidentified object in the video. The rap Pluto for scientists to discover.
Meet Collin Tilley: The filmmaker turning Future into the toxic villain we’ve always wanted
Collin Tilley runs Boy In The Castle productions. His directing style brings the best out of artists, tapping directly into their brand aesthetic and visual imagination.
With video credits like Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” to Cardi B’s “WAP,” Tilley has made some of the biggest videos for the culture in recent years.
With Future, Tilley made the video for “Jumpin on a Jet.” The video is Mission Impossible-Esque with Future looking like prime Tom Cruise rapping on an open plane with cargo falling out.
It’s the perfect video for a man whose raps display him as an action hero.
Spike Jordan: The visionary behind Future’s toxic wonderland
Spike Jordan focuses his lens on some of the biggest artists of today from Lil Uzi Vert to Meek Mill and even legends like Nas. Jordan is the photographer/videographer responsible for Future’s winter wonderland video for “Crushed Up.”
With snowflakes falling from every corner in a large mansion setting, Jordan brings the audience into Future’s toxic snowglobe moment of women, ice, and everything nice.
The little boy in the video looking into the globe sees the Future as the king of the castle. Perhaps this is a young future looking up to himself and his accomplishments.
The spinning camera shots make this a modern hip-hop fairytale. An escape into the cold-hearted mind of a toxic artist comfortable in who he is.
