I take a little bit from everybody and add that to my life to make me, me. I wanna be nobody else but Future. When you look at me, I want you to say, 'Future.' The way I talk, the way I dress, there's nobody in the world but me.
If I'm the biggest artist in the world, cool, but I want to just be me.
That's that Dungeon Family ethos: being able to reinvent yourself, stand out and stand alone. Having your own character and having your own image, no matter what they say about you. I want to show my versatility and how diverse I am, how I approach the track, my rhythm, my melodies. It's something different.
When you're riding with your mom, and you're a kid, you'd listen to 'Dear Mama' and the radio friendly records. I used to sneak and listen to Too $hort.
Jupiter, Pluto, pick a planet: we can go there. I just got a bit more work to do in the music industry, and we're going to space, baby.
I'm just really a free spirit. You gotta be like that. 'Cause life ain't that complicated. It's only that complicated when you make it that way. I just wanna wake up and move with the way it goes. If it's meant to happen, it will happen.
My kids gotta understand: they gotta make a sacrifice, having a superstar dad.
I'm putting everything on the line in being able to express myself in a different way than rappers normally do. They might say, 'It's rap' or 'It's R&B,' but I'm stepping outside the box and making music for me and making music for the fans to understand me. I'm going the extra distance to be able to come across different.
I try to look cool. I strategize. Sometimes it's like - that's part of the strategizing, to make it seem like I don't think about it.
I can't leave home without certain movies. 'The Godfather' is a big one for me. And I've gotta have my beats so I can write new music.
You got to make the most of your second life. I was born Nayvadius, but now I'm Future. Should I dwell on what Nayvadius was supposed to be? I get a chance to experience life as something else. I wasn't supposed to be like this.
I wouldn't say I'm underrated, but more reserved. Only time will tell, but I've been good so far in being consistent and making hit after hit writing for myself and other artists, from rap to R&B, and being able to make those different records.
My obsession with outer space is my way of being different. I make astronaut music. It takes an astronaut so long to get to space - that's how long it takes to catch up on my music.
You know that I can make hits. You know I can do all these rap records.
I want that longevity in the career, so if you don't know how to get it, you trying to chase that high, you trying to continue to chase your dreams and conquer things you never thought you could get. And you just want to get there too soon, so you taking the wrong moves to try and compensate what's not happening.
I feel a responsibility for telling the truth.
I feel like I'm doing something in Atlanta that nobody ever did as far as rap. If it happens to end up on the top 40 or the pop charts, it doesn't mean I meant to go pop. It's just where the music took me. It started at the bottom, and it rises.
The weirdest place I ever actually woke up in was a villa on the beach in Mexico. It was burning hot, and there were all these crabs walking around me. But I was feeling good, so I went with the vibe.
My three wishes are just be respected out the game. I want respect from everybody. And just make a successful clothing line and company. I'm not going to put a number on it. Just to have a great career.
I was probably 15 when I started going to the studio with the older cats in my neighborhood. They heard me rap outside one time; I was just freestyling. And they invited me to the studio. It's good when you're accepted, no matter what crowd. That's the first step of believing you can do whatever you feel like putting your mind to.
