How did Future get his rap name?
Future has been an integral part of hip-hop years, and, in the eyes of many fans of the genre, his contributions to rap music are more significant than swathes of the hip-hop field. The rapper’s rise to fame was far more natural and authentic than it appears from the outside, but while he has been at the forefront of the genre for years, at one point, he wasn’t even known as Future.
Tracks such as ‘Mask Off’ and ‘Tony Montana’ lead many to wrongly believe that the Atlanta lyricist rose up the ranks as an autotune emcee talking about drugs, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Moreover, the musical circles he has moved around in are far more diverse if you take the time to look into his journey properly.
It’s hard to deny the power of his stage name. However, Nayvadius DeMun Cash, the man we now know as Future didn’t start out his rapping career with his forward-looking moniker. He went by a different, stranger moniker. Growing up, his friends and affiliates referred to him as Meat—nothing else, simply Meat. This nickname remained before he even thought of becoming an artist, and his segue into music is particularly interesting.
Future has deep Atlanta roots, so deep that he is musically connected to Outkast via a group called the Dungeon Family. In the 1990s, when Future was not even a teenager, the Dungeon Family was a collective of Atlanta artists recording in the basement of Rico Wade’s house that grew into a Southern powerhouse. With acts such as Outkast, Goodie Mob, Organized Noize, and Killer Mike, the Dungeon Family really did cultivate some of Atlanta’s best hip-hop acts and would soon find Future.
The group’s frontman, Rico Wade, was a true A&R and kept his ears to the street. That said, in 2003, he came across a collective called Da Connect, which boasted a local rapper named Meathead. Unsurprisingly, this was Future’s first stage name, and he initially went onto the Atlanta scene with this moniker.
Rico Wade and Da Connect worked together, but Wade was drawn to Pluto specifically. But while they were working together his fellow member G-Rock called him “The Future.” It was after G-Rock said this that Da Connect fizzled out, and Meathead was reborn as Future.
From the various editions of stories that have been told, it appears that the G-Rock didn’t ask Future to rename himself, and the ‘Turn On The Lights’ rhymer didn’t feel pressured. It was seemingly natural as it coincided with when Da Connect dissipated. His new moniker was the signifier of a new era, and “The Future” sounded good to him.
As a solo artist, Future stayed in Atlanta just co-writing and ghostwriting behind the scenes, but it was in 2011, after Rocko gave him a record deal, that he began to drop viral anthems and eventually chart-topping albums. His rise was quick, but he was a proven hit writer behind the scenes for well over five years and brought success to many.
For the name Future, we really have G-Rock to thank, as without being told that “he was the future”, the Pluto creator may not have changed his name at all.