It's without contest that we can easily classify Future as one of hip-hop's most meme-worthy stars in the last half of this decade. Without any effort, the Atlanta luminary has managed to become a cultural phenomenon even when there's no music involved, but he believes that such a talent should be compensated, and why not? This is the man who, after all, sparked everyday sayings such as "She belongs to the streets," "It's an evil world we live in, " and "I'm good luv, enjoy."
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It was in a new interview with UPROXX that Future primarily sat down to discuss his role as a mentor in his latest 1800 Seconds, Volume 2 compilation project in which he worked in close collaboration with a group of rising stars, producing the effort with the 1800 Tequila brand. While he dished out his fair share of gems for the new class, he made an interesting point when the topic of his memes was brought up, bringing into question the legitimacy of sharing on social media as a whole.
"I like the memes but I’d love it if I got paid off of them," he began. "I should be able to get some money off of it. That’s why I don’t know why people like Instagram so much, because you don’t get paid from it. You get $0 from it but you quick to put your life out there just for free. I’d rather get paid for it. That’s the only thing I don’t like about the memes of me. I don’t get paid for them. But it’s free promotion, so it’s a win-win at the end of the day, because you want people to still be talking about you no matter what."
Most recently, Future set off another wave (not of his own doing) when Twitter users sparked a trend of posting photos of the rapper alongside typical texts from a "toxic ex-boyfriend" around the holidays. While he can find a silver lining in the viral moments that boost his status, Future also acknowledges the difficulty of moving past moments like these when interacting with the public.
"People want you to go back to that moment and relive that shit every time they see you. 'Say it on camera…' You know, with my family right there — they aren’t even supposed to know about this shit," he added. "You keep reminding me I did this shit. It’s a bad moment: You going into a restaurant, trying to eat, you trying to be halfway regular, somebody telling you about, ‘Bruh she belongs to the street,’ and it’s like, ‘Ah man.’ You get reminded you’re Future."