Why did Future change his name from Meathead in the 2000s?
The rap name “Future” isn’t necessarily to everyone’s taste, nor, for that matter, is the man who bears it. But one thing seems undisputable: it represents a marked improvement on Nayvadius DeMun Cash’s original rap name.
Before the young Nayvadius was Future, he was called Meathead.
It’s hardly the most eloquent of nicknames. A “meathead” is someone perceived to be stupid, typically thought of as big and muscly. A gym bro, basically, without much going on in the way of intellect.
For someone engaging in the decidedly cerebral art of rapping, it can hardly be considered a compliment to be called a meathead. But Nayvadius embraced it all the same, happily performing under the moniker when he joined the Georgia-based Dungeon Family collective.
The young rapper also joined another hip-hop group called Da Connect as Meathead, but it was within the context of this project that he began to move away from that persona. One of Da Connect’s other members, an artist called G-Rock, saw something else in Nayvadius.
This G-Rock person felt like “Meathead” represented the future of rap music, which, given the extent to which he later shaped trap music with his tendency towards autotune, proved to be quite prescient. Meathead thus became known instead as “The Future,” thanks to G-Rock.
As he settled into his career as a pioneering trap artist, Future went one further by publicly declaring himself to be “Future Hendrix,” evoking the revolutionary impact that Jimi Hendrix had upon popular culture and claiming a similar aura for himself. That may be a stretch, but, during a 2017 conversation with Billboard, the rapper stuck to his guns about it.
“The music I make, I’m different,” he said. “The melodies I come up with, they’re not normal. Every black person wasn’t playing the guitar — Hendrix did something special.”
Future embraced his rap name with relish, happy to frame himself as rap’s future. Lots of people will undoubtedly push back against his lofty claims about his role in pop and rap culture, but what’s indisputable is this: “Future” is a better rap name than “Meathead.”