I have to be honest: I’m over music that degrades women. That goes for casual violence and glorifying toxicity across the board.
Which is frustrating, because the visual for Future’s “Build A Bitch” is genuinely stunning.
The clip opens with Future welding metal in high-contrast monochrome. The art direction hits immediately. Huge credit goes to Director of Photography Ethan Wan and director Cole Bennett for putting together a visual treat. There is something about crisp black-and-white cinematography that commands your attention, and Cole Bennett strips away his signature hyper-saturated cartoon effects here for something moody, deliberate, and striking.
As the story unfolds, we realize what Future is welding: an animatronic version of his ideal woman.
The production team assembled the android using salvaged vintage parts from The Rock-afire Explosion, the cult-favorite animatronic band that terrified and delighted kids at ShowBiz Pizza back in the 1980s. Watching those nostalgic, retro mechanics brought back to life to construct a mechanical partner is a brilliant concept. Visually, it works on every level.
Yet the core premise behind “Build A Bitch” still irks me.
It easily could have been called “Build a Chick.” Sacrificing dignity for alliteration is a lazy trade. Future tries to sprinkle in a layer of compliment when he raps:
“Whole lot of self-esteem, whole lot of potential. If I had to build a bitch, here’s how I’d build that bitch.”
First off, if this hypothetical woman actually possessed a whole lot of self-esteem, would she stick around for someone who refers to her as a bee eye tea sea aitch? I think not, Mr. Future.
The contradiction hits close to home for me. Years ago, I lived for this kind of music. The more toxic the record, the better. Pre-pandemic, if an artist dropped an anthem fueled by emotional manipulation or pettiness, I was ready to inject it straight into my veins. Lil Wayne’s “Prostitute Flange,” every single cut across Dirty Sprite, and Drake’s entire Hall of Fame catalog of dirty-macking: I was fully on board.
These days, though? You can miss me with that energy. Growth makes certain tropes impossible to ignore.
That brings us to the broader context of where Future stands right now. According to the official press release for The Real Me:
“The Real Me marks a significant moment in Future’s catalog, standing as his 10th solo studio album and a deeply personal body of work that strips back the mythology to reveal the man behind it. This album finds Future turning inward, delivering some of his most candid and ambitious music to date.”
The project follows Mixtape Pluto, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and secured an RIAA Platinum certification.
If The Real Me is supposed to be the project where Future turns inward and sheds his toxic antihero persona, records like this show just how hard that skin is to shed. You cannot strip away the mythology while clinging to the exact tropes that built it.
Look, I know I’m probably in the minority on this. But our tribe of listeners who are admittedly late to growing out of toxic hip-hop tropes is expanding. Many of us want to hear music tackle different facets of life, love, and maturity.
Future may only be taking baby steps toward self-reflection, but when paired with elite visual artists like Cole Bennett, at least those baby steps look incredible on screen.
