The Cathartic Symphony of Future’s <em>Beast Mode 2</em>

At the tail end of 2014, the Atlanta rapper born Nayvadius Wilburn, best known as Future, began to free himself. That October, the rapper released his first mixtape since the lukewarm pop-rap record Honest, his second studio album—and since the contentious demise of his engagement to the R&B singer Ciara. Monster was dark and brooding. It pulsed with the pain of its self-loathing trap impresario. Over gritty, haunting production from Atlanta legends like Metro Boomin, TM88, and Nard & B, the post-pop, post-relationship Future metamorphosed into an unrepentant monster, a “young Freddy Krueger.” He disturbed; he dominated.

Less than three months later, Future released another mixtape and cemented his takeover of 2015’s rap charts. This time, though, he teamed up with an Atlanta superproducer whose signature style lends itself to a far more intricate emotional ecosystem. Zaytoven, born Xavier Lamar Dotson, began his music career as a . That liturgical influence pervades his beats, which allow artists like Future, Gucci Mane, and Nicki Minaj to seamlessly synthesize the sacred and the profane.